Clearing the back 40...

I was always under the impression that retirement was the time for pursuing leisurely activities like golf, sketching, visiting with friends...lots of easy, fun stuff. Well, it's 2 years into retirement and those leisurely activities are not on our calendar yet. 

We're still busy with our renovations...now I'm working outside, clearing a 25-year overgrowth of cotoneaster, dandelions, a few holly bushes and some nondescript shrubs. In the proper spot with some TLC, cotoneaster is a great, colourful ground cover. I used to think it was very attractive but these cotoneaster bushes, left unattended for many years, have grown into a huge intertwined mass. 

Ours happen to spread 10 feet up the bank and run 60 feet along the street next to our unit. It's one of those plants that can reach out and trip you as you walk by...we both hate it and it had to go. Ripping it out was much harder than it looked. Every time a branch touched down, it rooted. Cutting it with pruning shears was hopeless...an axe and a pike pole worked the first day as I cleared a small 6ft x 6ft plot in 4 hours. The next day a neighbour came by with a 5 pound maddock - flat ax/hoe on on end, pike on the other. It works really well to expose the root systems...then it's a tug-of-war pulling the sections out of the mud and dirt. 

Needless to say, I don't look anything like Martha Stewart when she is clipping plants in her garden...PigPen comes to mind...sweaty, bruised and covered in mud. It's taken me way longer than I had imagined to clear the bank but looks so much better than before. 

Meg has made many trips with the plant debris to the conveniently located dump.The plan, now, is to remove enough of the dirt to have a wide gravel path along the side, butting up to the 'next to be constructed' rock?, Allan block?, concrete? retaining wall....perhaps have a few plantings of something. We are open to suggestions...low to no maintenance is key...rock seems perfect.