Every once in awhile you just have to come to terms with a big overgrown area of your garden.  I read about this somewhere and the reference was regarding Vita Sackville-West  – she made the garden at Sissinghurt in England.  She said, “Gardening is largely a question of mixing one sort of plant with another and of seeing how they marry happily together; and if you see that they don’t marry happily, then you must hoick one of them out and be quite ruthless about it.”  There was a gorgeous pink hued fragrant lilac in my garden when we moved in 17 years ago.

I tried keeping it under control but it kept sending out shoots, and it was taking over other areas of the garden.  You can see it out on the right near the end of the fence.  It was invading the daylilies.

Finally, I decided it had to go.  I dug many of the shoots and planted some near the new porch.  Many more were given to friends.  That was the easy part.

Next I had to get the stump(s) out of the ground.  Hubby helped and we dug and lifted and pried. We even got out the saws-all and cut massive roots. Finally,  we “hoicked it out” and we were “ruthless”.

Here’s what the space looks like now.

I wish I had done this years ago.  Now what should I plant there?   Hmmmmmm….. dahlias come to mind.  Stay tuned.