roots.

After fixing that mistake of a blue door, the next tic on the to list was the old, spotty landscaping.  I slotted a few projects specifically for MNPS’s spring break and this was one of them.  There were a hodpodge of oddly spaced, ugly plants, bushes, trees, and coverings spread out through both of the front flower beds.  The beds are about 2.5′ deep and run from end to end of the house.

If you’ve ever tried to remove big ol pieces of landscaping with a shovel or a chainsaw or, honestly, anything but a big truck and some chain, you’re going to be sore for a minute.  I called up my old boss who was the first person I ever saw use this trick and he showed up early on the first morning of my break to get rid of everything.

Mr. Bequette just takes a heavy duty towing or logging chain, attaches it to the truck and then wraps it around the base of the bush or tree.  This is one of those slow and steady jobs, where you don’t want to pull away too quickly.  A nice steady pull will have your unsightly landscaping out in a jiff.  The entire front was cleared of the big stuff in under an hour.

I will say, removing the grasses and cover plants was an entirely different story and took almost two full days of shoveling to clear out.  My hands and back were not thrilled but silver lining: digging holes for the NEW plants really didn’t seem so bad after two days of that bullshit monotony.

Budget: $0