Storm Window Reuse: Cold Frame

Check out this beautiful cold frame built by my brother Simeon using an old wooden storm window from my 1912 Arts and Crafts/Prairie style house. The design is simple, and pretty self explanatory.  Recently I've also used a large storm window over our strawberry box to help the new plants through the cold snap at the beginning of the month (April 2016).

No Mess Shrub Cutting or Removal

Have you ever launched into a massively overgrown bush with shears only to discover that after twenty minutes of ecstasy you've created an hour or more of back-breaking clean up? Is your city or township persnickety about bush pickup requiring bundles using twine only, with branches of no more than X diameter and Y length? OOO! Me! Me! Pick Me!

Oddly, this isn't my first post on overgrown shrubs. Clearly we bought a house whose landscaping was far beyond its expiration date, hastened by negligence and\or neglect. I've had plenty of opportunity to devise new techniques for making life with large shrubs more enjoyable. In this post I will share a method I've discovered for effectively cutting back or completely removing a bush in about half the time it would otherwise take.

STEP 1- Start with a bush that needs a haircut in a bad way...

BEFORE

This bush, while screening our porch from the street nicely, will be unnecessary once the fence is finished, and boy is it ugly!

STEP 2- Tie a small loop to the end of twine.


 

Twine, cheap and plentiful

STEP 3- Divide the bush into "chunks," bundling each tightly before cutting anything on the bush. Go on to the next picture to see how to do this.

After wrapping the twine around a portion of the bush, thread the end of the twine through the loop you created. The lasso you now have will help you tighten down the portion of the bush you've looped. CAUTION: Especially if you have twine like that shown, don't rely on the strength of the twine to condense the branches of the bush into a tight bundle. Use your hands and arms and bear hug the branches while tightening the twine. 

STEP 4- You've already done the hard work. Now comes the fun!

Cut or trim the bush at the desired height. If your city requires brush to be a certain length, keep that in mind. In this case, my city asks for 4' bundles maximum, and that was about the height of the bush WHICH I WANTED GONE. I didn't bother with shears and went straight for the chainsaw.

STEP 5- Move your bundles to the curb!

Inevitably a few stray branches have to be tucked into a bundle or a bundle needs to be tightened or needs additional wraps of twine. But for the most part, your work is done.

AFTER

No Pain, No Gain: How to Revive Old and Overgrown Bushes

The mantra of anyone attempting to resurrect overgrown bushes should be, "no pain, no gain." Unfortunately, that applies both to the bush and the bush owner. Just like trees, its amazing how much stuff ends up on the ground for cleaning up when you begin the process of trimming (in this case, more like extreme pruning).

After 40 years as citizens of York City, the former owners of 665 Madison weren't exactly on top of their landscaping . Beautiful flowering bushes had been neglected beyond a cursory "shape-up" far too long. In the picture to the left, the base of these bushes is on average five feet from the front of the bush, but a mere 2 feet from the back of the bush

Less visible in the pictures below, are "three" yew bushes covering well over 300 sq. feet of both our front yard and the neighbor's. After some consideration and debate, the verdict was passed. Our with the Yew bushes and radical intervention for the flowering bushes along the side of the house. 

Now that we removed them, the front is a lot more open.

The bushes are not attractive but are showing new growth, even in the midst of a hot summer.