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Monday, April 30, 2012

Vinca chore finished

A couple of weeks ago I talked about removing the variegated Vinca major that had been taking over the stream. There was a second part to that project that I actually tackled a week ago but just never got around to posting about.


Here's the rest of that project. If you remember, I don't want to eradicate the vinca -- just cut it way back and reduce it's spread a little. Looking at this photo, this seems to be a big undertaking, as almost all you can see is those vines.


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Yes, it's quite a project:


There is a raised bed in there somewhere, as well as a few other plants. Nothing to do but jump in and start cutting, pulling, and digging. I want to ensure that I get all of the newly-rooted vines out of the planting bed (and lawn!) leaving only the plants at the base of the box.


That's a good start. A lot of the vines have rooted around the rose though, which is not easy to work near:


Yeah, gotta take it a little slower over here.

Soon though, I'm halfway finished:


You can see that not only have I removed all of the plants from the bed, but I've really hacked down the plants at the base of the box. Although it looks like a chop job right now, soon those will leaf back out and need another trim. It's the only way to keep them from taking over.

So here's the job finished. You can see that I also cleaned up the perennials in the raised bed if you're paying attention:




But wait...


Right around the corner on the other side of that rose there's more!


Ah, that's better.

Not an exciting project to work on, to write about, and probably to read about -- but not everything to do with gardening can be glamorous and exciting, right?

Shoot, I just remembered there's another patch of vinca between the driveway and the house. I'll tackle that another day, as there's only so much of that vine I can handle in a day.

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4 comments:

  1. That's a tough job.
    We had a whole bed of it ripped out this last winter. It never looked good, once the heat set in.
    I'm sure we'll be pulling it up forever, though. But, at least it's not too hard to pull.
    And, you're right. Not all garden jobs are glamorous... :)

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  2. I often get hacking ... and it looks a bit blak after but in no time its all looking hundred percent better. I'm glad to see that pros do these massive cut backs too and the way it looks afterwards is not dissimilar to my efforts.Strangely, I find it very relaxing to do ... a bity like weeding. :)

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  3. Vinca major has got to be one of nature's great colonizers! I wonder if Vinca minor is as vigorous?

    I agree with you, sometimes you have to accept short-term ugliness in favor of long-term beauty.

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  4. Christine: surely you're not referring to me when you say "pro", right? I'm just another plant-loving fool like you (no insult intended). Thanks for the thought though! :-)

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