Out damned bushes, out I say!

About seven years ago, we started coming to our house for summer visits, which lasted for two summers, before we moved in permanently. I hated the bushes for two reasons. First, I thought that if someone were hiding in the bushes to rob the house, no one could see them. Second, they were so overgrown that they blocked sunlight and made the inside of the house very dark. So we started chopping. And chopping. And chopping.

Till we got this. I like it so much better! The house is a Federal style house which was originally built in the 1860's. It has been remodeled since then, with rooms added and such, so we don't really know what's original and what's not, except for the log beams with their bark still on that hold up the house!

You can see that the clapboard goes right to the ground. Modern homes are usually up a few feet, so foundation plantings are installed to hide the foundations. We have no foundation to hide. I've tried to find some information about authentic Federal style landscaping, but I've not had much luck.

I would like to hide the electric meter and the oil intakes, but other than that, I'm thinking that all it needs is a good kitchen garden outside the back door.

When we first moved in, I had romantic notions of the first occupants. It was right after the Civil War. What did they think about? What were their dreams? How did they survive economically? What did they sit in the yard and do? I used to bring this up with Mark all the time, but he didn't share my romantic wanderings.

One day he was in the basement trying to repoint the stone foundation. He came up the stairs covered in cement and said, "I know what your first owner was thinking. 'Why does the house have to be so damn big?'"