The Driveway Monsters Have Been Defeated!!

We did it! M and I went back out to the North side of the house this morning and pushed ourselves to finish cutting back the gargantuan bushes, clean up the driveway, mow the front yard and sweep the pavement.  The first thing that we noticed when we went out, looking like members of the Green Thumb mafia with our gardening gloves and tools, was that our neighbor apparently reads this blog.

I haven't said anything to him since the day I went out and pulled several heaps of trash out of the bushes I had been able to cut back, but when we stepped onto the battlefield today we noticed that the back sides of the remaining bushes had all been cleaned out, trash thrown away and overgrown weeds pulled.  So to the neighbor I would like to say: Thank you, and I'm sorry that I have been too anti-social and full of chicken poo to be able to confront you about the mess these last few months.  Your yard looks SO much better and we really appreciate not having to look out on the trash from our dining room.

The second thing that we noticed was that the bushes I hadn't gotten to pruning yet had all had another wild growth spurt and that they had somehow learned to growl like rabid dogs.  We barked back and pounced them with the prowess of botanical ninjas, and two grueling hours later had beat them back into the neat and trimmed little row of plants they were always meant to be.  

M was surprised at how hard the whole endeavor ended up being, especially when she had her own personal battle with a rabid push broom.  In the end we got to take a minute to step back and enjoy the drastic improvement that was made with our efforts, and although it was exhausting the yard is much more enjoyable now than it has been since we purchased the house.  As M said, projects like this are always more enjoyable when you have someone else to do them with.