Taking over gardendaze — a short introduction to this piece.
Taking over gardendaze: Quick Notes
My neighbor across the street passed away in 2024. Her husband–who was the gardener in the family–died in 2018. So this property has been maintained–but only mowed, basically–since 2018.
The above photo shows 2 different types of vines. What it doesn’t show is that they have completely overwhelmed the pieris andromeda underneath.
Here’s a closer look at the oriental bittersweet. You can see how prolific its berries are. (You can also see it’s trying to swallow a large-leafed rhododendron next.) Unfortunately, birds love these berries–although they seem to have stripped the Virginia Creeper first. Maybe these need to ripen a bit more.
In the first photo, as here, you can see some sumac that’s seeded itself around.
I am always talking about “my friends the birds,” when I lecture. Here’s an example of some of the not so friendly bird practices. Because while yes, they will happily plant all sorts of things for you, this is what it looks like when it is untended for a few years.
Finally, this large tree was also bird planted. It’s a wild, or black cherry. It’s a great tree for wildlife–I have one on my property. But it does sow around. This may be one of my seedlings.
There’s also at least one Tree of Heaven that I noticed, but it is already bare for winter. It has lovely bark–& if it’s large enough for me to notice the bark, it’s going to be a problem.
The house is empty. Ideally it will be lived in soon and this can get attended to, particularly these shrub strangling vines. They are covering mature shrubs meant to insulate the house from road noise. They aren’t replaceable, at least not at that size.
But who knows? People do funny things. I have another neighbor who decorated the base of her basketball hoop with mums!
Taking over gardendaze appears here to highlight key ideas for readers.
