Not too shrubby (anymore)

We like our new house in New Hampshire a lot. But it doesn't have much curb appeal. Sort of a gray vinyl box with some overgrown shrubbery out front. A landscaper used to live here, and I think they had a bit of the "shoemaker's children go barefoot" syndrome. I'm sure the last thing they wanted to do at home was landscape, although there is a nice brick walkway and circle by the doorway. Anyway, several weekends ago we decided to wipe the slate clean and start over.... which meant removing about eight 15-year old, very tenacious shrubs from the front and around the side of our house. Here is what it looked like when we started...

A few (like, 2) of the eight shrubs came out pretty easily, lulling us into a false sense of satisfaction with our progress... THEN we hit the yew bushes. Yikes. We dug all around and almost completely under those suckers and when it looked like there was nothing left attached, the stump still wouldn't budge one inch! It was amazing, really. Each one took about two hours to dig out.

.

Aiden says, I got this one under control mom, you can relax.


We decided to leave the one somewhat charming looking piece of vegetation, a hydrangea tree in full bloom near the front door. But that's it. It looks really bare right now, but we're planning to plant a large perennial garden out front. In a few years it should be beee-autiful :)