We were positively gleeful, back in 2024, when the power company informed us they would take down 4 large trees in front of our house that were interfering with their power lines. We had been thinking about hiring someone to do that since the trees were old, overgrown, misshapen, not healthy looking, hanging over the roof on our 2nd-floor bedroom and rubbing against the siding in our kitchen. They also created a dark, damp corner in our house.
Maybe once they’re gone we could do some landscaping and turn the now open space into a garden bed…
We were told it would take about 2 years for these pine tree stumps to dry out enough to be able to easily (relative term) and affordably dig them out with a small-ish excavator that would fit in our yard. Ok, it’s 2026 – let’s have at it!
There was no snow on the ground in late February this winter, and still no snow in March, so I thought I’d be proactive and get started early. I called my friend Paté who’s a landscaper and she confirmed that most excavation/garden work starts in May. We could get ahead of the busy season.
Paté quickly lined up an excavator operator. I called Dig Safe and the power company, they did their thing, and we were good to go. Until the excavator became unavailable. Ok, it’s still early, let’s start over. Paté found another excavator operator available in May. Yay! The excavator had to coordinate with the power company as the utility pole had an anchor that had become embedded in one of the stumps. The earliest they could schedule the work was… June 1, just 9 days before we had to leave. Argh!!! We can do this!
Bye, bye, stump (featuring cameos by Doug and Paté…)
Who else gets mesmerized by an excavator and an operator who controls it like an extension of their limbs? It was fascinating to watch Nick move all the visible rocks away, dig a moat around the largest stump, yank it out and lift it into a truck to be hauled away, and come back for the 3 smaller stumps. Kinda like a ballet with heavy machinery.
Nick refilled the crater left by the stumps and neatly restacked the rocks. Jed spread a truckload of new topsoil on the new garden bed and ta-dah! A blank canvas, ready for plantings. WHAT!?! I need to pick out plants?!? Now!?! Fortunately, our specs clearly limited the plants we could use – deer must find them distasteful, they should stay green in winter, and they need to thrive in partial sun. Boxwoods!
Paté picked out 3 different types of Boxwoods. She suggested planting some ferns to help the transitions into the woods that were already filled with native ferns that look great. Add a bit of ground cover and bark mulch and we’ve got the beginnings of a new garden. Let’s see how this garden grows, and we’ll fill in a bit more next spring.
I’m not a gardener. My main prior experience was planting hostas and ripping them out again (or, more precisely, ripping out the roots that were left behind) after they were 95% eaten by deer, and subsequently encouraging ferns to grow in their place. I’m pleased to say that we love those results, and we’re excited to see how the refresh looks when we return.
As I mentioned in our ‘departure post‘ these events took place right before we left and I’m only now finding time to write it up from the road.
For anyone who’s interested, here are some more garden pix…