I’ve never much cared for yard work. It’s often tedious and boring and invariably coupled with traditional steamy Illinois heat and humidity. I’ve had a hesitancy to prune the bushes and the trees for fear of messing up the look of them.
A few years ago we were fortunate to find a little cottage on a lake in the Sandhills of North Carolina. It sits on just about an acre of property. If you sit on the back screened-in porch you can view a couple dozen pine trees, some azalea bushes and the lake. If you’re perched on a rocker on the front porch you gaze upon, dogwoods, rhododendrons, hydrangeas, crepe myrtles, and an assortment of pines and ornamental plants.
When we moved in, you couldn’t see either the lake in the back or the cul-de-sac in the front, because of the density of the bushes and trees. If you wanted privacy, this was the place for you. I like my privacy and my solitude, but I learned these trees and bushes need room to grow. When a red tip grows into a pine or a crepe myrtle invades the space of an azalea bush, both suffer.
So, for the last several years, I’ve learned how to prune, how to use a lopper and a chainsaw and how to tell when a branch is really dead. My landscape friend Jeff often reminds me, you can’t hurt anything. He proved it by cutting the hydrangeas down to the ground and the crepe myrtles down to knuckles. Before the year had passed they were not only blooming but thriving with a renewed spirit and freshness.
This isn’t news for those of you who are into horticulture, but to a guy like me who didn’t know a lopper from a trowel, it’s inspiring. It also makes me think about our own lives and existence. Do we go through life with the same mundane attitude? Not really growing, but rather stagnating and letting circumstances smother, overwhelm or stifle our own growth and results. Or do we decide it’s up to us to change, adapt, refresh, and reshape. Is your life’s strategy working, or is it time to prune in order to grow? If you feel like you’re being smothered, overwhelmed or overshadowed, maybe it’s time to take on a new strategy to prune back the old to allow the new to flourish.
Jeff is right; You really can’t hurt anything by trying…..good luck!