Our driveway was flanked by a juniper something type of bush. It was ugly, full of spiders, and overgrown. We didn’t like it much but weren’t really sure what to do with it. This thing was so ugly, I had to dig back to photos of when we first moved in to find one. Did I mention the spiders? The dark is full of terrors and spiders.

Bridge finally got tired of it last fall and took matters in a drastic direction. She fired up Leroy (the Tractor) and ripped it out. I’m not an impulsive person – I like planning so this was a bit of a stunner for me. However, it needed to happen and we had a nice cheery fire with the remains when we burned the slash from the grove tree removal.

There was also a small oak tree. It was deformed to most of its top being broken off and a bit awkward to move trailers and things around, but it was pretty in the fall. This spring Leroy and Bridge knocked it over (yes intentionally). We did plan that one out so I wasn’t as shocked. Although it was extremely easy to uproot and remove with the tractor which is a bit frightening really.

Now what to do with this reclaimed area? We had a ton of options, let it grass over, gravel it to extend the driveway to the side, raised planters, or let it go to weed. We elected to make it a flower bed and put in three garden arches to plant squash or other climbers on.

We are experimenting with Loofa sponges and have quite a few acorn squashes mixed in the coleus, spirea, clematis, smoke bush, Mexican orange blossom, and quite a few volunteer ferns. We added some hibiscus and a few other annuals as well to fill in between the other plants.

Later we added decomposed granite and walk on bark for mulch. there isn’t a border; it’s organic and freeform as long as we can keep the grass at bay. It’s a nice spider free change to the front of the house and looks much improved.

• 

• 

•