It has been a long job, we had a cold winter about two or so years ago and then a heat dome, so we are not quite sure what damaged our three leafy palms, but they went mushy and deadish, so I chopped them down to the ground and then over the next year, they grew the leaves back, then started to die off again. It happened to most of the same type of palms in the area, and we decided that we needed to take the stumps out, which proved to be a mammoth job.
Well, I reckon it was almost two hours for each one, so six hours of digging, bashing, using the maul, using up energy, but even though it was a challenge the feeling of triumph after each one was removed was huge, and as we say, any excuse for a beer.
The bed was dug over and yesterday we travelled up to Russell Nursery near Sidney and bought three variagated Pieris shrubs for the bed, and a couple of others for somewhere else, a bed to be made later as we say. A big shout out to Karen's mum and brother, Pat and her Stephen, for providing a generous gift card at Christmas, we spent it all.
It will be fun to watch these three grow over the years, they grow slow, but this variant can grow big, so at some point they will need to be managed. It was a happy hour planting and mulching them, thay are three happy little shrubs in their own bed, a project two years in the making.
Any excuse for a beer.
