It's A Mess But Ya Gotta Start Somewhere

I took a bunch of pictures to chronicle our deck demolition as we go.

Here's the deck from the south side.  We've had flower beds on the front and both east and west ends.

I fondly remembered Bridal Wreath hedges from my childhood and was told the Nine-Bark bushes would be much the same.  Not so much.  We planted a row of Nine-Bark along all three edges of the deck.  Grow thick they did higher than the deck railing, but needed nearly constant pruning to keep them looking nice.  I didn't like the pruning I had to do three times each growing season.  Last fall, I cut them all down to practically the nubbity-nubs knowing we were going to move them this spring.  (I cut them down once before and they grew back stronger than ever.)

This is the west end of the deck with a Sugar Maple growing next to it.

I love the maple tree, but over the years the blasted birds have practically killed it by pecking at the bark.  Hubby thinks they go after the sweet sap.  We've tried painting the bark with organic coatings as deterrents, but the birds pay no attention and have not been deterred.  So, (sob) the tree is scheduled to come out.

One of the reasons the maple tree has to go is that we have grown to despise dislike the steps coming off the deck on this corner angle.  So we are moving my clothesline poles (which enable me to hang clothes out on the deck) over to the middle of that side of the deck and in the new design the stairs will come off right between the uprights.  Hence, maple tree must go.

Another sad tree story.  This was a Nanny Berry tree off the southeast corner of the deck.  The main part of the tree died (possibly committed suicide one winter), but shoots came up from the roots.  We now have  a Nanny Berry bush.  Since then, the tree bush has never gotten any of the attractive berries.

A third (is there no end?) sad tree story.  In the flower bed at the east end of the deck is an ornamental flowering crab apple tree that has never, ever flowered.  Either it was mislabeled when we purchased it, or it needs another of its kind for cross-pollenation.  Again, this tree has to go because we are putting another set of stairs off the deck (moving the other set of clothesline poles) and this tree is smack-dab in the way of that set of stairs.

The pots of plants you see helter-skelter on the deck are plants I wanted to save from the flower beds.

All the flower beds were delineated by 6" x 6" timbers which are pretty well on their way to compost after being up close and personal with the soil for nearly 20 years.  The beds on both the east and west ends of the deck are being eliminated, and a larger (in an effort to eat up lawn that has to be mowed) bed will be constructed on the south in front of the deck.

Got all that?  It's a start and something we can work on until this crazy, cold weather of ours (we had a heavy frost this morning) decides to turn appropriate for planting in the garden.