Taming the Backyard Jungle

Spent three and a half hours whacking back the very overgrown lilac and forsythia bushes in my backyard.  Got three bags of yard refuse to show for it.  Alas, that is only the beginning.  I've got grass going to seed in the middle of the thyme that grew over the stones I put down after covering the entire space with landscape cloth.  Thought that was 'sposed to stop the weeds?  Ha!  The weeds just sneer at it.

  

The forsythia was completely covering the chair when I started this morning.  The akebia on the fence is growing up a squirrel-planted tree (growing between my fence and the neighbor's fence  - how the hell am I 'sposed to get at that?) at least there's less of the forsythia for it to grab onto now.  There's still passionflower vines in the top of the forsythia and in the neighboring spirea that I haven't started in on yet, but they're kind of pretty blooming out of the green.

And the lilac had reached over and crowded the potted maple.  Now it has a little room to breathe.  Leaving the volunteer violets under the maple be.

Haven't gotten to the stuff on the left behind the table and chairs.  Somewhere in the middle of those dandelions are lavenders and against the fence line are three quince.  You can't see around the corner, but there's blackberries and nightshade and another squirrel-planted tree of some sort that all need to come out.

Yet more viney things tangled in bushes.  Got star jasmine all tangled in the camelia and growing on the side of the garage over the hydrangea.

 
The bags of trimmings in the garage.  Note the fire engine red doors (to the kitchen and my bedroom closet) that were on the list to be stripped and repainted white and off white respectively.   Somehow I don't think I'm going to get to them this week.