Weeds and green growies

Basic green shrubs like Japanese hollies that are frequently used as foundation shrubs are sometimes referred to as green growies.  They don't add a lot of excitement; they just provide a constant green.  When I was a youngster, somehow I got the idea that we would have it made it we only had a birdbath in the middle of the front yard and some foundation shrubs.  My tastes have matured a little, but I do have foundation shrubs.  They came with the house.  I guess I have "arrived."  So for 20 years my son and I have pruned them.  We moved the ones in front of the porch to the end of the house, and we lost a few--to black root rot, I think.  I pruned them myself this year.  Darling son is too busy with other things.

Besides pruning, I've been doing some weeding.  Believe it or not, I'm still finding bits of siding, shingles, tar paper, and roofing tacks in the flower beds next to the house.

 

I weeded around this daylily.  It's so pretty!  (I still have a little more grass to pull up there.)



 

I've spent quite a bit of time the last few days trying to weed the area near the camellia and the coneflowers.  I have removed enough Japanese stilt grass and Asiatic dayflowers to make two big piles of weeds.   

 



 I have also removed a tremendous amount of poison ivy and Virginia creeper.

 

Look at this huge root! No, it's not from the camellia, not from the nearby willow oak.  It's Virginia creeper.  Who would have guessed it could develop such a humongous root?  I guess I will try to dig some of it out.

 

(I managed to get a little poison ivy on my arm.  Thankfully, I have some store brand anti-itch cream.)  There is always plenty of weeding to do.  I can never stay on top of it.  This morning as I weeded some, I listened to a little airplane flying around overhead.  I wondered if the pilot had made quick work of his weeding chores with a shot of weed killer or a zap with the weed trimmer early in the morning so he could be done with it and get up in the air.