Yep. It was that kind of weekend here. I had several big jobs to tackle in the garden this weekend, and thankfully the weather cooperated. It means I don’t have any sewing to show you this week, but I do have….

A big hole. Or at least it was until I filled it in. This little patch is between the side porch and the driveway. And long before we moved in, some brilliant person planted a pink honeysuckle shrub. It’s not the cool, climbing honeysuckle like I have on the catio, but a shrub type that’s frequent used in hedging. And that means if it’s not kept clipped, it just becomes a wild mess that easily scratches cars. Basically – it’s a stupid place for a shrub. I’ve been keeping it cut right back, but it was long past time to finally just take it out. It actually came out much easier than I expected – though it still took some good swings with that hatchet.

At some point this summer, the whole spot will be dug out and concreted as it makes zero sense to have any greenery there.

The second big dig was the Euonymus in the driveway garden. Whoever planted it (likely the same person who planted the Honeysuckle) chose exactly the wrong Euonymus to put there. They chose a creeping Euonymus.

It’s a layering plant. Meaning that everywhere a branch touched the ground, it put down roots. The whole thing was a crazy giant tangled mess. But with my pruners, and my hatchet, and a little extra help from Dave and his sawsall….

It’s now history. At least I hope it is. We couldn’t get the main root out. It was just too darn big. But I’m hoping we did enough damage to it that it’s not going to grow back.

My plan was to get a more suitable shrub for the spot… but since the root is still in there, I have to shift gears. I have a plan, but you’ll have to wait for more on that.

In addition to hacking up poor defensless shrubs, I also decimiated the Snow on the Mountain bed.

This area is around the right side of the front porch. When we moved in, it was covered in Snow on the Mountain. I left it because it was growing well and I had more than enough to deal with elsewhere. But after a few years here, I’ve realized a couple things… 1) it spreads… and it was working it’s way down to where I had the coral bells along the side walkway. 2) It’s prone to some sort of rust…. and by mid-summer was often looking pretty sad.

So… now it’s all dug out (at least I hope… I’m sure there’s a root or two left in there.) and I have a whole new bed to plant up. It’s in shade for about half the day, so I’m thinking it will probably get some daylilies. I have several that need to be split up and they look nice almost all summer long whether they are blooming or not. They should fill the space quite nicely.

And because none of those pictures are very exciting… Check out this new bloom.

Dave and I were doing our usual shopping Friday night and Rona+ had these GORGROUS hellebores.

They were HUGE and just $15!!! If you know anything about Hellebores, it’s that they are usually quite spendy. I rarely see them under $30. I’m very tempted to go back and get a few more.

It looks soooo nice by the Hollly.