The Compost Bin

Sometimes you have to destroy your yard to make it look better. When we bought our home 5 years ago, the 1/2 acre suburban property was made up of giant overgrown hedges, shrubs, trees and lots of other wild looking things. No one had lived in the house for the previous 6 months but I don't think that anyone ventured into the yard even when people were living there. The nicest part of our property at the time were these giant rhododendrons.

Unfortunately, this is one of the few remaining rhododendrons that we kept. The pool/patio work caused us to lose a giant section of rhodo shrubs that grew into a hedge shape and were about 10-12 feet tall. It's really a shame that we had to get rid of them but the hedge was made up of about 5 shrubs that grew together and against a fence. If we separated them, we would have been left with 10 foot sticks with some leaves on top. The whole side growing against the fence was bare too.

We did move one large one that was separate from the hedge and it's doing great in it's new home across the yard. The pool contractor used a Bobcat to scoop up a root ball that must have weighed about 600 pounds. It never even showed any transplant shock.

This rhodo in the picture is the sole survivor around the pool and it has a huge bare spot (that I hope will fill out in a few years with some careful pruning).