Clearing a Sight Line to the Pool

One of the perks of buying a really old home is that the landscaping is mature.

But with every rule there’s always an exception, right?

In the case of our colonial farmhouse, our landscaping had ventured into a realm past mature.

I’m not sure how to say this delicately…so I won’t.

Every single tree, bush, shrub, weed, flower, vine and blade of grass on the property was overgrown when we moved in.

Not just overgrown, but out-of-control.

Not just out-of-control, but rapidly taking over anything and everything in its path.

It crossed my mind that if I stood still for more than a minute, the Virginia Creeper vine would probably wrap itself around me and I’d be a goner. How awkward would that be on my tombstone?

You know those trees that were never supposed to be trees? They are really just bushes that no one ever trimmed. We have at least six of those on the property.

One of them (Or was it more? It’s hard to tell.) was growing between the house and the pool. It was so tall and leafy that I could not see the pool from our deck. The pool was also not visible from any window inside the house. We had no sight line to the pool. The neighbors could have invited themselves over for a pool party and I wouldn’t have known.

For the record, if they cleaned up after themselves, I would have been fine with it.

However, I’m NOT fine with not being able to see my kids in the pool. It’s not safe.

My kids are independent swimmers now, so I don’t need to hover over them like when they were toddlers. However, I didn’t feel like I could even run into the house to use the bathroom or make a snack because that darn tree/shrub/monstrosity was in the way.

We desperately needed a sight line to the pool, so the tree and all its friends had to go.

See that glimmer of blue? There is a pool hiding behind there.

When Handy Husband cleared the tree and the underbrush we discovered that a rock wall had been hiding under all that overgrowth. SCORE!

We still need to fix the rock wall and deal with the weeds and the tree starts that are popping up all over the place, but it is progress.

At some point in the future we think this will be the perfect spot for a fire pit. We’ll use the rock wall as the back of the fire pit and build out from it. Can you imagine it?

Trust me. It will be amazing.

Another bit of progress is that while clearing out another section of the property (I’ll tell you about that another day.) we found a whole bunch of rock slabs. We used those to make a path from the house to the pool and from the pool to the pump house.

Don’t get twitchy if you see a rock askew. The slabs are mainly just dropped in place because the big ones are stinking heavy we are still uncovering more rocks and we might need to do some rearranging. Eventually, when we have the final layout, we will dig under the slabs to permanently place them.

Do I have a bunch of half done landscaping projects? Yep, but I also have a sight line to the pool and that is progress. Progress makes me happy!

I need to celebrate these small victories because 99% of our property is still overgrown.  Honestly, it is overwhelming. We are nowhere near having our heads above water when it comes to maintaining the landscaping yet.

Just keep swimming weeding, just keep trimming…

(Did you read that last sentence in your best Dory from Finding Nemo voice?)

P.S. Handy Husband is a big fan of Green Works battery-powered tools. We have the leaf blower, 18-Inch chainsaw, hedge trimmer, and weed whacker or string trimmer. Ours are all the 80-volt versions and the batteries are interchangeable between the tools.

He says the 18-Inch chainsaw is great for these small projects and he doesn’t have to worry about gas and oil. I’ll take his word for it because I have no desire to use a chainsaw.

I don’t mind using the other tools. They give me a nice arm workout. Leaf blowing is my favorite though because of the instant gratification!

Thanks for hanging out with me today! I’m sure it is WAY more fun to read about landscaping work than to actually be here doing the landscaping work. But if you want to come help, I won’t turn you down! In the meantime, here are some other posts that are fun too!

Bird Nest in a Shoe

Good Luck Horseshoe Knock Off Inspired from Better Homes and Gardens Magazine

Leather Map DIY

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