As the weather turns to consistently warmer temperatures, the outside project list starts to kick off.
This year we had two big projects to tackle.
Blue Spruce Removal and Replacement
First, and only first because of the cooler temps in April, was to remove the Blue Spruce that you see here, in a real estate listing for our home in 2021.
The tree was truly beautiful; giving a great contrast to the red shingle upper level of the home, and home to several birds.
Unfortunately, it dominated the front view of the house and really limited our front porch view out to the street. It was planted many years ago by a previous owner, and with good intentions, no doubt, but its time was up and it had served its purpose.
We then began to look for a replacement, as we did want something there; just not such a monolithic blob.
We remembered a Heritage River Birch that we saw on our Buffalo Garden Walk in 2022, at the home of the president emeritus of the Garden Walk. We loved it, and began the search for one.
We were fortunate to find a beautiful specimen at Sipkens Nurseries. It was a great price for the size of the tree, and the delivery was great.
So, we had some work to do.
It started with gusto, but quickly screeched to a halt when we discovered a Mourning Dove nest in the upper branches. After a quick Google search, we discovered that the doves had a shockingly quick progression from babies to fledglings, able to leave the nest (only about 15 days!); that info was spot on, as we tracked the progression from the small little feather balls, up to a crowded nest with several sets of dove eyes staring back at us each time we checked on them. Then one day, they were gone.
We quickly got out the Sawzall and began denuding the spruce down to the trunk. Next, we needed to figure out how to get the root ball out of the ground. Since we left the entire trunk, I was able to use leverage to begin working the root ball loose, by pulling and pushing it in all directions. After a few days of working it loose, it finally broke free.
A couple of days of waiting out the rain ensued, and finally, we were able to get our new tree in the ground. We filled the hole with compost/soil mix, to replenish the nutrients that the large spruce would have used up, and watered it in with root booster, to give it a good start in its new home.
While we had the saw out, we also decided that the yews behind the tree need some attention. Again, these were planted many years ago and, as yews do, became another solid block that was a little amorphous.
We decided we would limb them up a bit, by pruning away the lower limbs. If we weren't happy with that look, we were committed to removing them in favor of something else. Fortunately, we were really happy with the results, so they remain as they were; just with a nice spring haircut :)
Fence Repair
One of the things we loved about our house, when we first saw it was the picket fence around the front yard. We knew that it was going to need some work when we purchased in the fall of '21, and this year we decided to tackle it.
We need to repair the rotting sections and then replace with new pickets and paint the entire fence - quite an undertaking. Yesterday's weather aligned with our schedules and we began our work.
First we removed the broken pickets, cut off the old rotted post caps (FYI - never put flat wooden caps on a fence - water just sits there and rots).
We dodged a few raindrops, but in the end we were quite successful, and made a ton of progress in 4 hours.
This week, I will be replacing the missing pickets and we can begin painting, with our new sprayer.
Stay tuned!
Listening to: "Bust a Move" by Young MC
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