Walpole trim job

Today, I went with Guillerme and Wagner to the entrance to a housing development in Holliston and trimmed what was there and weeded. Just neatened it up a bit. There are a lot of dead "Blue Rug Spruce" there that have been damaged due to the winter chemicals put down. That is another job at another time, when finances are available.

Next, we went over to a property in Walpole to trim and weed. The owner was having a party on the weekend for his son who had just graduated from college. this property needed a lot of weeding before we could even get to the bushes. So we spent the rest of the day just weeding and took out about 4 yards of weeds from 2 1/2 beds. Needles to say, we will be returning to complete the job.

The pictures are of some more Lillies, I just can't get over their color this year.

We had rain on Friday morning and did not get over to finish this job until around lunch time. I had Guillerme and Fabio with me. We worked very hard to complete the front yard and side yards by 5:00 PM. We ended up taking an additional 4 yards of weeds and trimmings from the property, but the owner was very pleased and that is what it is all about.

Continue trim job and plant Stella Dora's

Tuesday it rained so I went to the shop and worked on the Permagreen power spreader, because the plan is to go to Olin college on Friday and spray the crabgrass there and also to fertilize the soccer fields. The Permagreen Spreader is the key piece of equipment for that job. It needed to be tuned up, cleaned and have the transmission and oil changed.

Today, Wednesday, I went back to the property that is used by the President of Babson College, to continue with the weeding and trimming of the property. It was decided yesterday that we would plant Stella Dora day Lillie's in the back yard. There are 3 mulch beds surrounding very large "landscape rocks" where there are tulip's in the spring and then nothing for the rest of the year. Rob, showed up with the entire back of his pickup loaded with Stella Dora's. Guillerme and Wagner spent the next 2 1/2 hours digging holes and planting them. Hopefully there will still be time for some of them to bloom this year.

As I mentioned in the last post for some reason this year the Lillie's are vibrant in their color and it seems that all of them are close to 4 feet high. I took the pictures of these 2, that are in the perennial bed in the back of the property.

We still have not finished the entire property by the end of the day, but that is alright, because Rob, wants to send another crew there to mulch the Stella Dora beds and do a severe trim job on a large Crab Apple tree across the street.

Trim Job with Bee's

I went with Guillerme and Wagner to trim the property that is used by the President of Babson College today. This is a big trim job and we will be there for 2 days plus. The property always has to look, well "presidential", no weeds in the beds, everything trimmed nicely, nice looking lawn with no weeds in it.

I have been noticing this year, that the Astillbe's in every one's yard have very strong colors and most of them are about 4 feet in height. I have never seen them this way before, maybe it is the rain and cool weather. The pictures are of the Astillbe that is in the perennial garden on this property. In the picture on the right, you can see how they are towering over the Yew Hedge.

Out by the carriage house the guys found a large bee hive the size of a small basketball and boys being boys, got out the bee spray. They each took turns going in as close as possible, spraying and then running as fast as they could. I just watched and enjoyed their activities.

Needham trim job

Today Wagner decided he would come and join us at work today and we all went to a property in Needham. The picture in the upper left is of the home. The other 2 pictures are of some blue hydrangea's, that the owner takes good care off with a application of Holly Tone every week. This year the flowers are just brilliant and very large compared to the others we see as we drive around.

This trim project takes all day even though it is a small property, which surprised Guillerme, who thought we would be done early. There is a lot of hand clipping that has to be done. The owner just loves his yard and plants ornamental bushes were ever he can, he is really "into"his landscape. He is also a very nice guy and always wants to give us water and best of all, he is always walking by complimenting the guys on the great job they are doing. He really appreciates our work.

3 Trim jobs, no Wagner

The picture on the right is the last home we worked on, This is a property were we had done the complete installation many, many years ago. Now the bushes have grown so much it is time to think about moving some around to give the others some air and room to expand. The picture on the right is of a yellow, Coreopsis Flower.

Wagner was a no show this morning, as had, had a nose bleed yesterday and when he was playing soccer last night it started to bleed again. So he decided to give it a rest for a day with some ice on it. That left Guillerme and I to work on 3 trim projects today. They are all smaller properties and they are all close to each other in Wellesley.

Guillerme and I worked until 6 PM and did manage to get them all done. I did have a CRAVE energy drink which gave me more than enough energy to finish the day. I am really enjoying having those to make it through the day, I just need that energy boost. CRAVE allows me to get a good night's sleep. I used to drink an afternoon coffee, but then I would pay for it by not being able to sleep at night.

Sherborn Trim job- and the Police visit us

We went to a home in Sherborn, Massachusetts today to do a trim and weed job. We had worked at installing all of the bushes, trees, sod and blue stone patio quite a few years ago and that is when these pictures were taken. Most all of the plantings are at least twice a high and a lot fuller.

Wagner came up to me when Guillerme and I were in the back of the property and asked me to come and help one of the ladies who was cleaning the home. As I walked around to the front of the home the police arrived. They asked me what was going on and I explained that I did not know, but then Wagner told us that the cleaning lady had used some kind of chemical to clean the rugs and it had set off the alarm. A few minutes later the fire engine cam down the road but was waved off by the police.

We went back to work, after all of the excitement and the man who owns the property, showed up, about an hour latter, after he had been called at work. He at least knows, now, that his alarm system, does in fact work the way it is supposed too.

Condo Trim Job

Today, I am with Guillerme and Wagner doing a big 3 day trim job at a condo complex in Millis, Massachusetts. The picture above on the left, is just part of the complex, after it was trimmed and the other picture, is of a cone flower, with a Bee getting some nectar.

This is a good project for Guillerme to work on as it has many different varieties of shrubs for him to practice his shearing skills on. We tackle this project one building at a time. We weed all of the beds first, rake them out and then do all of the hand clipping and the shearing of the shrubs. Doing it this way makes it easier to clean up and is a lot easier on Wagner who is doing the majority of the clean up work.

This will take us a total of 3 days to complete, but it is well worth it, as we get a lot of compliments from the ladies who live there. That is what is so great about landscaping, making customers happy with your work.

Finish one condo and off to the next one.

We went back to the condo complex in Medfield and started to work on our trim job there. The lady who is in charge wanted all of the bushes to be hand trimmed instead of using the power shears as we had done last year. She did not like that "lolli pop" look. So I ended up having to hand clipp all of the ornamentals. This is a good way to trim, but in a few years, the bushes will have out grown the area they are now in. The custome is always right, in these cases.

Guillerme, Wagner and I finished up the condo complex in Medfield around 2:30 PM and headed over to our next Condo Complex in Millis. This complex will take the 3 of us 2 1/2 to 3 days to finish weeding and trimming. The picture was taken this spring and is showing one, of the seven units that we will be trimming.

Finish the job in Dover and off to a Condo to trim

The flower picture on the left, is a "Lace wing Hydrangea", which I like, more than the "pom-pom type", which most people associate with hydrangeas. To me this it is, a more eloquent, variety.

We finished up the trimming in Dover around 2 PM and headed over to a small Condominium in Medfield, that was close by. We only had time to do some weeding and up branching of the trees on the perimeter of the parking area before we had another very strong thunder storm, which ended our day around 4 PM.

We were lucky we only had thunder, lightening and heavy rains, the other crew was experiencing hail the size of dimes. At on point they had to pull over it, because the hail was coming down so hard. On my way home I drove through that area and it had hailed so much it looked like it had just snowed.

We are now officially, in Trimming Season

The trimming season has now started for us. We try to wait, until the ornamental's have pushed out, the "new growth" for the season and for the flowering to have stopped, before we start trimming. As I mentioned in an earlier post sometimes people want this done early.

I went with Guillerme and Wagner to a property in Dover, Massachusetts, to start the trimming. First, we go through all of the beds and do the weeding and rake that all out. I have found this to be a much easier way to do the job, instead of doing the trimming first.

Guillerme will be doing any of the shearing and I will be doing the hand clipping and "up branching" of the trees on the perimeter of the property and any that are on the inside as well. Wagner for the most part will be doing the "picking up" of all of the weed and trim debris. At this property we have a compost area, in the woods that we can use, instead of putting it in the truck and hauling it away for a fee.

We experienced another day of, off and on rain showers and then around 4 PM, a thunder storm came and ended our day.