We Knew Yew When

Yup, they’re gone! The yews that surrounded our entrance are history. Hasta la vista. Toast.

Neither G-man nor I liked them very much. The sparrows did, but the yews didn’t really float our boat. They’d been here since we bought the house, and they did give it some green and were pretty enough on the outside, but they were cut like hedges. Problem being, when you cut yews with hedge trimmers, once you cut back the top couple of inches, there’s really nothing but branch.  So each year, even though we were trimming, they were getting taller, causing wetness in the box that houses the phone lines, creating mildew on house, and looking sort of –bleckh. Gar took the hedge trimmers to them one last time while my pal Tina was here visiting from Ireland last week. Well, you should have seen the sight of them. We had to have a morning viewing and a damn good laugh. Just kept shaking my head saying, ‘Honestly, do you think he's finished? Does he think this looks good? It looks like Edward Scissorhands was a little angry when he trimmed these bushes.” 

Lo and behold the master plan that I was not privy to at the time. Hack ‘em down. Be rid of the beasts. That’s exactly what he did. Of course, there were roots left and neighbor Tom and his tractor took care of what he could, the others will have to be cut further and any remains, buried. We have electrical and plumbing to consider.
Now the fun part, well first clean up and then the fun part.  As you can see, the overnight rain added to the mess, splashing the fresh dug dirt right up the front of the house, but I digress. 




Copyright Roger Roley for Southern Accent magazine

Beautiful, just a little too froo froo for us.  I do like it as 'inspiration'.


Garden room dreams……..Along the front of the house (the side without the door, it faces the driveway) poor rose bush currently has nothing to climb on. The yews were at least for providing a lovely strong backdrop for our beautiful creeping rose (who knew when I planted it?).  I’m thinking some type of rustic pergola is the ticket.  It can’t be real deep or it may get in Tom’s way when he plows us with his tractor in winter.  Below the pergola and rose, a vintage or rustic bistro table of sorts, so the neighbor ladies and I have a place to sit and enjoy a cocktail while the neighbor hoodlums have a beer in the drive while discussing their latest duct tape project. 




Ston Easton Park in the book English Hideaways

Love this! But ours would just have the ends of pergola and not the sides.

 The other side by the door couldn’t be anything other than a Sunset Meadows viewing area, complete with a couple of Adirondacks, preferably wood because I won’t be lugging these ones around the yard. Due to the cost of wood Adis (ad-ees as we affectionately call them in my family), I may have to make-do with plastic ones until I can find some yard sale steals like my neighbor Lauren did.

Copyright Laura Halett Taylor

So nice! But we don't have as much room, just enough for
chairs and little table in between. At least I hope.

We’ll be lucky if we simply get it cleaned up for the big 4th of July lobster bake, but of course, that would be an improvement from what it looks like this morning.

That’s the plan Stan.  What do you think?