One of the projects we’ve had on our list since moving into the house is to rid ourselves of the English Ivy that the previous owners put in the front garden area. The area is right up against the house and the Ivy grows up on the brick, across the sidewalk, and against the windows. Suffice to say I want it GONE.
I sprayed it with Ivy Killer back in the fall, and it did begin to die, but then cold temps hit and I never went back to the project. Then spring hit and I just never had the initiative to go back out there and tackle it. Oh sure, a tug here and there, pulling up little bits when it was annoying, but not specifically put on gloves and pulling that stuff out.
Then summer hit – sweltering, humid, record temps summer. And Denis decides yesterday to get out the shears and go to town. After about an hour’s work, 1/3 of the ivy is completely gone. I’ve given him permission to cut down ALL the shrubs that are directly in front of the house (not just the ivy side, but the other side as well). By cutting down those shrubs we can finally get at the ivy that is up against the house. As it was, yesterday we pulled out a dead mini-Japanese maple and a mini-Spruce that was on it’s last legs as well.
Now that the project is started, I’m very excited about what we can do in the garden areas in front of the house to make it a bit fresher. Also, Denis bought a bag of rubber mulch to lay down as a test – we haven’t laid it down yet, but even in the bag it looks AWESOME. It’s a dark red color and looks just like shredded bark. Expensive, yes, but it lasts 12 years. So in the end MUCH cheaper than regular mulch, which only lasts one year before requiring a refresh.
I told Denis yesterday that with any luck we’ll have that whole area redone by the time of the White Elephant party in December. Tonight when I get home I will take out the shears and clean up the large shrubs that are on the far side of the house – they are overgrown and in need of pruning. I’ll do that and then take the kids to the pool for an hour to cool off.
Rubber Mulch…. Eeeewwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!
I am not sure, but that doesn’t sound very “green”.
Ace – quite the contrary, rubber mulch IS green since it is made using recycled materials and lasts for 12 years, as opposed to bark mulch which is harvested from tree timber and only “lasts” (read: looks good) for one year at best.
And I’ll verify this, but I think the rubber mulch, once the 12 years is over, can be recycled AGAIN – but I could be wrong on that, but will definitely check.
Rubber mulch:
“Rubber mulch is a product made from recycled tires and other recyclable rubber products for use in playgrounds and landscapes.It can be 97% wire free for landscape use and 99.9% wire free for playgrounds. Rubber mulch is also becoming a product of choice used in horse arenas for footing material when mixed with sand. It can be found in nugget or shredded style. Tests have shown rubber mulch is superior in breaking falls to traditional bark mulches.
rubber mulch – Environmentally safe & secure; made from 100% recycled rubber”
**Ace shuts up**
Oooh. South Pacific! 🙂
Hubby and I have seen the rubber mulch at Parades of Homes. It looks fantastically like tree mulch, but I was kind of annoyed to find a radial wire poking from a sample we were given. Perhaps it was a weird fluke. 🙂
Hey, cool that the playground kind contains less wire! Yay!
PJ – I agree that it’s cool that they provided better screen mulch for playgrounds. We have the rubber mulch laid down at two of the playgrounds we take the kids too and it’s FANTASTIC.