Well! Remember that wisteria that I forgave in the spring? I hate it again. And you can see why. I should have attacked it sooner, I guess, but life intervenes, and the cause became desperate. This vine had gotten so large and thick that an eight-foot sumac and a six foot oak were able to grow up in its midst undetected.
My first job was to whack at the exterior enough for me to get close! I cut anything sticking out, and chopped down the sumac. Then I attacked the vines wrapped around the gutter heading up to the roof, severing them from their source of life. But that was about all I could do. The leftover vines from last year are still wrapped around the gutter, because I couldn’t reach them and had expected them to deteriorate and fall off. But they didn’t, so I guess my husband will have to get up on a tall ladder to get down the accumulation of growth from the last two years. Sigh. (Or maybe we could get our big grown weightlifting son to do it! Now there’s an idea! Put ‘im to work for all the food I feed him.)
My first job was to whack at the exterior enough for me to get close! I cut anything sticking out, and chopped down the sumac. Then I attacked the vines wrapped around the gutter heading up to the roof, severing them from their source of life. But that was about all I could do. The leftover vines from last year are still wrapped around the gutter, because I couldn’t reach them and had expected them to deteriorate and fall off. But they didn’t, so I guess my husband will have to get up on a tall ladder to get down the accumulation of growth from the last two years. Sigh. (Or maybe we could get our big grown weightlifting son to do it! Now there’s an idea! Put ‘im to work for all the food I feed him.)
Then I went around to the porch and attacked from the rear, getting the vine off from around the post and hacking down the foliage billowing onto the porch and extending out under it.
And lo and behold! I found my favorite fork and shovel that had been missing since spring!
Now, here is Angela having fun! She discovered one of the very long, multi-stemmed branches that had stretched out under the porch and re-appeared going across the steps and into the next flower bed. It made a perfect whip! She couldn’t resist. She began humming the Indiana Jones tune – "taa ta ta taaa, taa ta taaa…" flipped the whip, and – "OUCH!" you guessed it! The whip got her in the face, just like it got him in the movie! Fortunately, it won’t leave a scar, and she got the hang of it, as you can see.
It was dinner time and I left the debris, so after dinner the mess became a playground, as Angela and Christina covered Teresa with the trash, then she rose up like an Ent Wife and attacked!
After that they decided to decorate themselves. This resulted in peels of laughter. Even pruning a wild wisteria can be an occasion for wonder!
A post will come in the near future with the crafts we will make out of the wisteria cuttings, yet another opportunity for fun from gardening.
After that they decided to decorate themselves. This resulted in peels of laughter. Even pruning a wild wisteria can be an occasion for wonder!
A post will come in the near future with the crafts we will make out of the wisteria cuttings, yet another opportunity for fun from gardening.
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