06.13.06 - 11:31 a.m.

Last night, I spent three hours tearing down invasive English Ivy from my fence and gate. It was almost frighteningly satisfying. This was a chore I put off all last year - I even planned to put it off this summer, too - and just plant in front of the ivy covered fence, leaving a small space between my shrubs and the fence itself so that I could get the weedeater in there - but then I got down on my hands and knees, hands (be-garden-gloved) in the dirt, and found it full of ivy suckers, sprawling everywhere. I took a handful and riiipped, and to my surprise, they came off with relative ease. Suddenly, the task no longer seemed impossible, and instead of plating my chartreuse spirea (oh, I'm afraid it won't get enough sun there, but I love the idea of looking down the long side yard and seeing that gorgeous, gorgeous shrub, with those ridiculously lovely leaves), I spent the rest of the evening, until well after dusk, tearing and cutting and sawing away at the ivy. First I tore away everything I could tear away. Then I got my regular garden clippers, and spent an hour clipping what could not be torn, always remembering L's dire warnings of some sister's cousin's friend who cut off a finger while deadheading roses.

(I assured L that I could do no such thing, given the structure of my clippers, but I think I'm wrong, and in any event, I spent the whole evening with the little hand clippers visualizing some weird slippage by which I might amputate a digit. I am given to apocalyptic imaginings - lost limbs, strange diseases, cataclysms, and once I have the thought or image in my head, it is terribly difficult to avoid thinking about it - and thinking about it all the time.)

At the center of the mass, were the biggest limbs of the ivy, which were as big as my wrist and had grown in and around the links of the fence, sometimes swallowing links entirely. I got out my huge clippers for those, and found it easy - if tedious - going to cut out small sections until I finally came to a huge, knuckle-like root wedged deeply into the corner of the fence frame, mostly on the neighbor's property, hard against the little retaining wall that lines her back yard. I sawed at that with my mini-saw, and pulled up as many of the long suckers as I could - then repeated the same process on the other side of the fence and gate. What a difference it made! I'm actively thrilled with the change, and now I know that I can tackle the whole rest of the fence on the other side of the yard - the one that is such a problem when it comes to garden planning. I think I'll work on it gradually, though - I'm not planning on planting anything more there this summer, but if I get rid of most of the ivy this year, then I can do something with it next year. The ivy isn't the only problem with that side of the yard, though - there is also a 2-3 foot drop over 2-3 linear feet, which is pretty steep, and all of it is on my side of the fence. There's not a retaining wall so far as I can tell, and it's hard to see what I could do there. The best bet might be to build a small retaining wall - with those bricks at the garden center made for such things - a few feet out from the fence, then backfill it and create, essentially, a raised bed along the fence line - but that might be more than I can handle. Those bricks, though - I think they are designed to be dry-set and to do... just what I'd like them to do.

Ah, well. Liberating the garden gate from the invasive ivy was satisfying, and now - although I'd previously planned to stop with just the hydrangea and spirea awaiting placement - I've been dreaming about more. I though I might get some variegated hostas to put back there, as a buffer against that ugly stretch, and some ferns and - oh, some sort of annual, non-invasive climber, but I realize that I'm overshooting. I don't know how the spirea will do there, and if it does well, it'll get 4 feet wide - so there might not be room for the hostas. So, I'm going to stick with planting the hydrangea and the spirea. I am going to the greenhouse tonight, but I've made myself a list so that I'm not tempted to buy beyond it.

The list includes: 2 more wave petunias (since I have two empty hanging baskets yet, and they are so inexpensive - white or silver - or purple, if I'm putting one out in front of the house?); 2 chartreuse sweet potato vines (since they are bloody gorgeous. I adore the flat leaves, the bright, limey color. I think I'm going to pot one and put it on the porch - or possibly tuck it into the pot I've prepared for the mint I'm rooting - and see if I can get the other to climb on a stretch of bright fence.); 1 jasmine - (oh, or a mandevilla, although I already gave the one I bought at the roadside place to my mom. I love mandevilla - it's so lovely.); some ferns, to put under the tree next to Buddha; and some more impatiens, to plant around the spirea and the gate. And, the white iron angel that reminds me, vaguely, of the cover photograph on Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil that I've been wanting since the beginning of the season.