Operation: Shrub Eradication 2011 (part 1)

In the summer of 2008, I took a job with John Deere and relocated from Peoria to the Quad Cities. I looked at many different houses; my goal was to find a place large enough, and with enough of my wants/needs that I might never have to move again. My current house in rural Geneseo fit the bill for most of my requirements, but the two things I wanted to change immediately was to remove that ugly hand-painted wrought iron grate that was stuck in the wall in the dining room, and to get rid of the ugly shrubbery on three sides of the house.

Well, now that we're in the spring of 2011, that hideous grate is still in the wall, but the shrubs are slowly coming under control. Last year, Cole and I removed all shrubs (and an overgrown cedar tree) from the west side of the house, and most of the ugly shrubs from the front of the house. This left only a "vector" of shrubs in the front, and a matching "vector" in the rear. The rear shrubs were most problematic, as they blocked all sunlight from the flower bed on the south side of the garage. Yesterday, we got out the chainsaw and made short work of them. I know there's a lot of work ahead of us. We still need to remove the front vector, dig up all the stumps (ugh!), and redo the bed, both in terms of physical structure, and what is planted in it. But it already looks SOOOO much better.

Also, now that it's sunny back there, I went ahead and planted some radishes. French breakfast radishes, white icicle radishes, and watermelon radishes. Yum! First outdoor planting of the season! :-)