Let the sunshine in: Planet Baby's Great Garden Chop

Oh, sweet Planetarians, all 358 of you (and a huge hello to the newbies!). I am completely knackered. Stuffed. Ready for bed. You get the picture! So this post will be a quickie. Well, you saw the ‘before’ shots of our back garden in my last post. Now let’s see the aftermath of The Great Garden Chop once our trusty hired help had spent 6 hours hard at work yesterday.

Saturday’s work

First stop was the two pittosporums outside the boys’ room. The pixies were captivated by the noise and activity below as they peered out the window, watching the men at work. There was a lot of this action. It took ages.

And here’s the moment when the sunlight burst through into the boys’ room. For the very first time!

Here are the pixies, bathing in it, joyously.

Here’s the finished result.

What a contrast to this, in my last post.

Then the action moved around to a side fence, covered with thick ivy. Emanating from our side. And trying its hardest to pull down the boundary fence. Hmm. Not to mention poking 2 metre long branches into our neighbours’ property.

That was given a good haircut, the emergency work before radical surgery will be required – the removal of the fence at some later date!

Then our game plan changed. Mr PB and I were so thrilled at what a difference removing those two trees had made, we then wandered around the garden with our gardeners, inspecting the trees one by one.

It soon became clear that most were on the boundary fences and about to shed limbs, dead or dying, in danger of splitting in half and just downright ugly and out-of-control. So we decided to cut the lot down! Save for a magnolia tree we discovered next the cubby – fancy that! We hadn’t noticed it before given all the dense foliage around it.

And here’s the end result.

We can’t *believe* the transformation. How it’s opened the whole area up! Don’t forget it looked like this on Friday.

Here are our trusty partners-in-crime, at the end of a hard day’s work. 

And then they left. Leaving behind a *little* mess.

Hmmm. Make that a *lot of mess*!

To save costs, we had agreed to remove all the waste to the local tip. Mr PB hired a trailer and a friend helped take a couple of loads to the tip before it closed.

Today’s work

This morning Mr PB hired a mulcher and set to work. It started to rain. The mulcher wouldn’t work. I heard a lot of muttering but my offers of help were rejected. So I donned my fancy new gumboots, grabbed some long-handled secateurs, gloves and my waterproof jacket and set to work.

On this monstrosity with its dense root system and thick branches. 

I did a lot of this.

And this.

There was lots of straining on my tippy-toes to reach the top branches (I’m a shortie, remember?!). I remembered I had muscles in my arms and back. Which now hurt a lot ☺.

But this end result was worth it.

As the rain bucketed down, I retreated inside. Mr PB, meanwhile, had returned the mulcher and received a refund. Which all means that we will be looking at this…

until next weekend! Hmm, as long as Mr PB clears me a path to the clothesline, I’ll manage. And the bonus? Now my washing will dry much quicker! It looks like it might be a long week for the pixies, though, cooped up inside.

And now to bed. Sunday splendour will return next week. Let’s see how stiff I am in the morning!