Landscaping...And A Little Move

At this time of the year, nice days are few and far between.  It can be in the 70's one day, and snowing the next.  So, whenever the sun comes out, Craig and I jump at the chance to tackle some landscaping. Everything we're working on inside the house goes on the back burner.  Well, last weekend, we had a little sun.  And after taking in our daughter's hockey game, we decided to finally remove two old bushes in our yard.

We have been slowly transforming the yard over the nearly seven years we've lived here.  We've pulled out several old, half dead bushes and planted a few new ones.  But we've done it slowly - still trying to decide if certain bushes can be saved.  And as I've spent some time cleaning out the beds this spring, I decided we needed to yank a couple of bushes in front of our garage.

These three tall bushes are not my favorite.  They are a little out of scale, and not in great condition. But I can live with them - well most of them.  A few years ago, we pulled out a very dead huge bush in between them and planted those two small round boxwoods.  That was phase one.  I have always wanted to remove the middle tall bush so there would be some symmetry.  Then we could plant a few prettier more-in-scale bushes in between the taller evergreens.  Last weekend, we got started.

Craig went to work on the evergreen.

It was going well...until we spotted this - 

We found a bird's nest.  So, Craig lifted me up (yes, my old cheerleading moves come in handy...), and discovered eggs.  We decided to move the nest to the bush that we weren't cutting down.  And crossed our fingers that the mom would find it.

By the way, can you believe how beautiful those eggs are?  When I first peeked in, I didn't even think they were real.  I had no idea that that color blue could be found in nature.  Amazing.  Anyway, Craig carefully placed the nest into the middle of the other bush (he made sure it was in a very stable branch).

Then, we went back to the matter at hand.

With a little digging (well, a lot actually), Craig removed the stump.

Now it was on to the next bush.  Notice the picture above - there was a smaller bush planted right in between those two huge evergreens.  It had to go.  So, Craig dug it out.

Meanwhile, I was in charge of cutting up all of the branches so we could dispose of them.

All in all, the project went smoothly.  And now we have the space (and symmetry) to plant a few new bushes.  Here's what it looked like before - 

And here's the after - 

Hopefully, next weekend, we can get some new plants in there.  And mulch...

Oh, and in case you were wondering, we have seen the mommy bird in her nest.  So, it seems like the move was successful!