After finally going to the huge transfer station 2 towns away earlier this month, I made it to our local transfer station today. It’s much smaller, but equally as awesome. It’s at the end of a very long road through beautiful salt marsh:
Last year our neighbor chopped her lilac tree down to almost nothing, and this year it was covered in so many gorgeous, bright purple flowers [which you can see in the background of these recent photos]:
Ours, which I don’t think has ever been trimmed, had about 4 very washed-out flowers. I read up on trimming, and it said the best time to do it is right after they’re done blooming. So this morning I grabbed my hand saw and chopped ours back to almost nothing.
Our house looks very naked! I was left with a huge stack of really big branches next to my car:
It took 3 trips to haul them all to the transfer station. Afterwards, my car was a complete mess:
It took 3 cycles with the vac at the local car wash to suck all the leaves & bark up. When I got home, Darwin was sleeping in a box on the dining room table:
Later on, both boys were outside enjoying their catio:
It was such a beautiful, hot, summer day today 🙂
Oh, I need to trim the lilacs. Ours were beautiful this year but now they’re kind of bushy. We just throw branches and such behind the compost pile which backs up to the woods. Jo @ Let’s Face the Music
When I was growing up, we had a big yard which backed up to conservation land – it was perfect for tossing yard clipping and branches. I wish we had something like that here, it would be easier than filling my car with a tree!
I am doing the exact same thing to our rhodies today, after the best blooming season we’ve ever had. They always look so pitiful when they’re pruned … but they are impossible to kill. Your lilac will be fine. Tough love!
I hope so! I hope we have lots of blossoms next year. I am not very knowledgeable in taking care of outdoor plants and trees.
That tree looks so sad! I hope it pays off next year. There is little better than the smell of lilacs.
I know it! It looks quite pitiful. But our neighbor’s lilac looked just like that last year and this year it looks like a healthy shrub again, covered in leaves and flowers. I wish I’d taken a picture of hers while it was blooming!
Such ambition on a really hot, humid day. Good for you – a year from now you’ll be so glad you did this.
I hope so! Today is like 30+ degrees cooler – I should have waited until today! But the transfer station is only open Wednesday and Saturdays.
Wow.. bold move! But I think you’ll see a quick payoff (like next year)
I hope so!