Landscape Maintenance

Grow flowers and plants that we can eat and generally keep the land cultivated.

Andrea Starr, Finlandia 2005:
It entails pruning the bushes, which is done by gently clipping back the tips of the new growth once in the spring and once in the fall to keep the shrubs from getting all leggy looking, and to keep the big one from overhanging the sidewalk too much. You always clip back to a place on the branch where there is a "node", a place where the lateral growth begins, becasue when you clip the end off the branch, it is this lateral growth that will fill in and make our shrubs look full and healthy.; making the sidewalks and driveways tidy with rakes and shovels and implements of destruction; weeding with discretion the sorry patches of gravelly yuck, or attempting to otherwise improve on the outdoor spaces around the house. MAKE SURE THE DAMN SUMAC DOESN"T GROW BACK!!! its nice to have them as shrubs, they have pretty leaves, sort of tropical looking, but keep them under five feet tall. It only takes them a few years to get as tall as the house, and when they get big, they are messy and their roots are bad for the foundation, and its expensive to have them removed.
The part of the yard in front of common room good has a little bit of good soil in it, and some tulips. the rest of the yard is nasty-ass gravel. if every year, we remove some of the gravel and put in some composted soil and humus (not hummus!), we could potentially have some good plantings that the neighbors will like.