When life hands you lemons...

This Winter was a hard one for the shrubs and evergreens in our neighbourhood.  All around, you can spot very brown and dead cedars, evergreen ground covers, etc... and flowering shrubs that are only sprouting from the ground with dead branches.  
  We lost our lovely Wegelia, a few other bushes and, most noticeably, the thick evergreen right at the intersection. 

This beast accepted the harsh spot it was in for years, with the sidewalk salt, exposure, dog pee, etc... but the Winter of 2017/18 killed it.  Yes, it was as crunchy and prickly as it looks.  

So we chopped it down to expose the trunk and our great handyman Tim cut it off at the base (thank you so much, Tim!).

So now we had this big, empty spot, which gets lots of afternoon sun. So we thought... rocks!  We wanted to have a big one, 3 feet or so, but Grand River Natural Stone would not deliver it to this spot for fear of damaging the sidewalk.  So we had to go with what we could move on our own, and three pretty, white marble pieces were hauled, shlept, pushed, maneuvered and dragged into place!  

That was a job!  But once the rocks were in place, we could plant the 4 hostas we got from the Centre Wellington Dog Park plant sale (thank you, Karen!), and the White Bigroot Geranium and the Tom Thumb Creeping Cotoneaster we purchased from Little Tree Garden Market.  There's also a nice cluster of Golden-rod that was trying to survive under the evergreen, so its happier now.

Ta-da!

Now we need rain.  As you can see, the Maple is already dropping leaves and we fear it's going to be another dry Summer.  

Please wish our garden plants a long, healthy life!

Before the frost

We had to get some aluminum sulfate to try and neutralize the pH level so grass will grow in our yard and Little Tree Garden Market had plants still for sale at 60% off!  Whoa!  We indulged!

Since moving in, we both disliked the hydrangea plants on either side of our front door.  These plants have huge, showy flower heads too heavy for their stems which fold or break from the weight.  A very pretentious, impractical creation, in my mind a ridiculous twist of Mother Nature's glory.  We wanted them gone.

And so we started digging...

And digging... There were huge roots, but they gave in to my ratty determination and mom's axe!  In the end...

this is (part of) what came out of the hole and what went in.  The right side was messier.

Now we wait for Spring and hope that our new babies will survive the wintery weather okay.  A bag of mulch should help cover their roots and tuck them in for a good sleep.

Looks a little naked, but then so does the rest of the property:  we had the hedge that hid the house along the sidewalk cut down to about chest high, and the magnolia cleaned up.  Thank you to Jake Neely at Companion Gardening for lots of helpful information and guidance and a fantastic job of tidying up our whole yard, helping to make our Flying Leap look a bit more loved on the outside.