Spring cleanup

The north-east side of our house is a solid wall, uninterrupted by doors or windows. It is also the side least public (away from the driveway or the back deck area). When we moved to the house, 4 good-sized boxwood shrubs were planted along that wall and at the time we appreciated how they broke up the tall expanse of cream and visually grounded the house a little. I moved one of the 4 shrubs early on, to make a little more room to plant along the fence. The remaining 3 shrubs grew and prospered, I pruned them back but tried to leave them their natural shape (no hedge clippers here). A shade bed was installed in front of the boxwood and for about 2 seasons all was well.

Those shrubs are big. The grow deep into the shade bed. They need a severe pruning. DH suggested the possibility of taking them out entirely, I wasn't sure (after all, mature shrubs are a good thing, right?). This winter delivered several heavy snowfalls, the result of which were severely damaged Lorapetalums. A decision was made to move some and eliminate some others and to replace them with something else (more on that as it develops).

We had two arbovitae flanking the front steps. Bag worms took one and were working on the second one. The first one was removed last fall, the other one will be out of there within days. All of this re-landscaping is going to make it much easier to place the ladder for the desperately needed repainting of the window frames and the replacement of the shutters. A house washing seemed in order (and is long overdue to be perfectly honest).

All in all, it seemed like the perfect opportunity to get rid of the boxwoods after all, have full access to that side of the house for washing (and possible maintenance) and reconfigure the foundation plantings. The shade bed is now roughly 5-6' deeper than before and my mind is already plotting how to rearrange things. I was worried that we might end up regretting our decision, but it already looks so much nicer (though very bare and still with stumps, they will be removed before long) that I can't believe we didn't think of it sooner. Of course I didn't take pictures yet (too tired yesterday, after all of the fun), but I will try to get some over the course of the week and post them.