Whatcha Doing Today?

[JScott]

Originally Posted by early

You are my kind of person. I would probably attempt to do it myself, even if I am 78/ but fortunately I took care of all the unruly plants last summer. Lots of chain sawing and using trimmers on 40 yr old blooming kind of shrubs. I got everything except the GOAT HEADs
I have stepped on a fire ant hill, and believe me, compared to goat heads, that my dogs track in most days, I would rather have fire ants. I am barefoot all the time and also love my feet and hands in the soil and grass, if I could grow it here in NM>

This house I bought was build in 2002, and I think when they landscaped, the contractor just picked the cheapest, toughest things he could find, and the owners did absolutely nothing to improve it. There's some hollies that are out of control, and another thing I often see in cheap landscaping, but I'm not sure what it's called. There's a holly on either side of the entry way, I think I'm gonna take those out and replace them with Japanese maples. And there's a large area in a corner between the entry way and the garage that just has crappy shrubs planted in it, but it's a huge area. If I pull those shrubs out, I'll have so much space to put in some really cool things and make it look really nice, as part of it is shade, and part of it is sun, so I could have a great assortment of plants there. And yes, fire ants are unpleasant, but they just burn for a few minutes, and then the next day they form an itchy pustule, but by the third day, they're healed. There are much worse things that could happen. But I think I'm really leaning toward taking those shrubs out with a chain and my Ford F150. I don't know how much the yard guy would charge, but I'm sure it's more than free, and if I do it myself, it's free and I have more money to spend on new plants!

I had to google "goatheads" to see what you meant, because we don't call them that here, but once I knew what you were talking about oh yes, I'd much rather have the fire ants. Those goatheads are the worst, They burn for ever, and it hurts so bad to pull them out.

[early]

Originally Posted by JScott

There's some hollies that are out of control, and another thing I often see in cheap landscaping, but I'm not sure what it's called. money to spend on new plants!

I had to google "goatheads" to see what you meant, because we don't call them that here, but once I knew what you were talking about oh yes, I'd much rather have the fire ants. Those goatheads are the worst, They burn for ever, and it hurts so bad to pull them out.

I had those hollies outside one of my windows, the cats window with cat door, and my next door neighbor pulled them out, they were almost 40 yrs there, put in by the couple that built the house. My neighbor used his tractor. I had taken my pruners to them for a couple of weeks before, little at a time, so he could get to the bases to pull them out. You be careful with that Ford truck. Stay safe to raise more Orchids.