Other window ledges, at ground level, are hidden by vegetation, but they still need to be scraped, sanded, and painted. So you have to get rid of the vegetation. In this case, it was a rosemary bush that we planted a few years back and that grew to be a monster. Rosemary loves this hot sunny location against the south-facing wall of the house.
As they say in France: « Rien n'est simple. » The rosemary bush had to go. Well, I didn't actually want to pull it out. But it badly needed a radical pruning. I attacked it yesterday morning with pruning shears, limb-loppers, and hedge clippers.
I wish I had taken a picture of it before I started, but I didn't think about it in time. In the top picture in this post, you can see how much of it I cut away. It's the two piles of branches on the ground. In the picture below, you can see the other rosemary bush that is growing up against the house.
The untrimmed rosemary bush is actually smaller than the other bush was before I started hacking away at it. At least now the window ledge is accessible, and soon I can start working on it. We're supposed to have nice dry weather next week, so progress will be made. The other bush will have to be pruned back too.
What a superb bush! Our rosemary doesn't grow anywhere near as well as yours.
ReplyDeleteIsn't it always the case that a job like painting the sills leads to a few others which need to be done first!
One could have a vendor spot at the farmers' market selling Herbes de Provence with that much Rosemary.
ReplyDeleteTCH, I know, we're just going to burn all that rosemary in a garden fire in November. But there's so much of it that it's not worth drying and keeping any.
ReplyDeleteGaynor, once you start you just can't stop. It's enough to discourage anybody from even starting...
I had no idea rosemary grew so large! But then, I'm not really much of a farmer.
ReplyDeleteKen, have you ever tried using rosemary twigs as kebab skewers... it is a fantastic flavour addition to a lamb, pork or veg kebab. Just sharpen one end and push the meat/veg down towards the twig tip.
ReplyDeleteAlso, don't forget you can sling handfuls of twigs on the barbie for extra flavour to meat.
The "skewers" freeze well too!
You'll have plenty.... you've got that other bush to cut back now to balance the two!!
Have fun....