Tackling the shrubs

It was an intense battle Sunday afternoon (and on into evening). While the yard is nice and green, it hasn't been maintained, so the shrubs and plants are a bit sprawling (to say the least). In particular, the shrubs in front of the living room window had been driving me nuts because they were nearly reaching the roof (and blocking the majority of the front of the house, so people probably thought we lived like squirrels among the bushes). After we get our roller shades installed on the living room window, we plan on taking out ALL of the bushes under the window (in favor of a flower bed... or really anything that's not so overpowering), but until then we're leaving the bottom the window covered since our temporary blinds don't quite cover the window.

Anyhow, we set out to make the front window a bit more viewable. We started just trimming the really long branches, but that quickly turned into cutting back the back row of bushes (there are a total of three different types of bushes in that one area-- I'm not sure what look the previous owners were going for).


We did find an enormous (but harmless) spider residing on part of our bushes. And as much as I like that the spider eats bugs and whatnot, I didn't like the fact that he was so enormous and so close to the front door.


It really opened up the entire front of the house: