West Seattle: Garden Ho

THE BIG GREEN MONSTER

Not much to report today other than starting some projects the first of which was removing a large clematis from the north side of the house. I like clematis, but it was taking up a lot of real estate and, like wisteria and jasmine, will slowly take over it's surroundings if you don't constantly maintain it. Neither Ivan nor myself were emotionally attached to the sucker and I am more interested in utilizing that space for either a container vegetable garden along the wall and/or a laundry line that we can use during the spring and summer months.


AWWW, IT LOOKS SO SMALL

First off, I went to visit Craig who sharpened our two shovels, a pair of clippers and a pair of shears for me. He gave me a visual tutorial on the finer aspects of tool sharpening including a visual effects laden demonstration entitled: "Do as I say not as I do or you, too, will slice your finger open." I have to say the blood was very realistic.


FIRST BLOOD, 10TH TO THE LAST CIGARETTE

When I returned home, I cut the bush back and down to the main stalk which revealed two overburdened metal stakes that I had to pull out.



With those removed, I cut down to the root and then started digging down which revealed that it was embedded underneath the stone wall. Domenico came over to help and he told me that the clematis had been there anywhere from 7 to 10 years - much longer than I had thought. I continued digging and he trimmed back the roots as they became revealed, but it was clear that a root system is firmly entrenched under there that I can't hope to get it all out without disturbing the wall.


YUP. THAT'S NOT GOING ANYWHERE

I didn't find much on-line about removing clematis, but I am hoping that it will prove similar to wisteria and that if I continue to cut back any new growth on the roots for the next couple of months, I will exhaust the root system and it will cease to grow. At that point I can then fill the hole back up and we will have a larger yard space to play around with.


THE REMAINS

Maybe we will build a goat pen.