Shrubbery Treatment · · PAGE 42.

May 5, 2017:  There is much to see on this page, and more work for me to do as a result of being able to SEE the property better.  When Noe Borjas and his business partner arrived, I had a number of photos printed from Google Earth showing how the property looked in June 2011.  Here is one of those images.

Here is my photo taken yesterday after they had cleared away all the trimmings.  As you can see, there is a well-water "rust" stain that had been hiding behind the mess that was here before the work was done.  I have some cleaning to do on that wall.  The other spots area dirt dauber nests made from mud.

I took this photo of their trailer after the first few loads of debris were loaded.

This is the main view from Google Earth in June 2011.

Here is my photo from yesterday.  The YELLOW zone has this big round shrubbery tree/bush?  You had to walk to one side of the walkway from the driveway to the front entrance as it was growing over the walkway.  The limbs have been cut back to clear the walkway by more than a foot.  The leaves will grow back soon as I have noted when I did some trimming here.  At its worst, this thing was a big GREEN BALL that was taller than the gutter before I topped it out last year.  All the bushes in front of the living room and entry are looking much better.

The Hibiscus tree/bush is now under control and the ferns are all gone.  The Tree Philodendrons are cut back nicely.

Here is another Google Earth 2011 view for comparison.  The palm tree at the downspout was very short as you can see.  The Philodendrons were bigger, but under control.  Take notice of all the shrubs down the west side of the house for comparison in the new photos below.  The big oak tree west of the house is shown intact before the lightning strike in this Google Earth image.

The palm tree at the corner of the house has been cleaned up along the length of the trunk.  The dead Philodendron remains are now gone.  Nothing is up close to the wall of the house.

Here is the view to compare with the Google Earth image just above.  The sprinkler near the house has clear coverage now that the bush at the far left has been shaped up.  This photo shows more of the palm tree.

The Gardenia bush at the northwest corner of the house has been shaped nicely and the "forest" has been thinned by about half as many, but not shortened at this time.  I have been keeping these things clear of the paver stones between them and the concrete slab that is part of the Florida Room.  The Spanish Moss is hanging down from the big tree that is just out of the image to the left.  I had walked around the house with Noe before they began work to point out details like the forest blocking the full sweep of the sprinkler head.

The north side of the house looks much better.  Noe even trimmed our potted plants we brought from the previous house as you can see one of them in this photo.  The "skinny" Hibiscus with one RED bloom and the two other tall skinny shrubs here can be shortened after they get over the trim job from today, probably by the time cold weather returns in the late fall of 2017.

These two "air plants" as my stepson calls them, are shown here as a comparison to the next image after this one.  There are more of these I will remove from the big oak tree at the southeast corner of the property.

These two big oak trees northeast of the house have leaves that are piled about two-feet high.  How did that happen you ask?  When the yard is mowed by Chris Rose, he rides in a circle around these trees blowing the leaves out the right side of the mower into this area.  After three years of that circular pattern, here is the result.

The big leaf pile was full of the "air plants" which were pulled out by Noe yesterday.  He discovered the leaves were full of large "BULL" ants, and fire ants.  I walked around this pile sprinkling a lot of fire ant killer on the pile and came back with my heavy rake to work that poison into the pile where I could SEE ants moving about.  When the ant activity is less visible when I rake this area again in a few days,  I will begin filling my yard waste cans to get rid of this stuff each week.  Speaking of my yard waste trash cans, they are the two on the right side of this photo.  The shrubs here were the last ones to be trimmed before Noe and his partner left the site.

Finally, the trailer is loaded and Noe is ready to secure the tarp with bungee cords before heading to the dump.  His partner is getting out the gas-powered leaf blower back pack to clear the debris from the walkway at the front of the house.

This is the other line of shrubs near the northeast corner of the house.

The last image taken today shows the southeast corner of the garage and the area along the south wall of the garage.  The two shrubbery sprayers are outlined here.

I got the sprinklers running on automatic for a test run this morning with no problems  I had to go to Home Depot to get a 98-cent bag of "trippers" that are used in the Intermatic timer.  The only tripper that was not present when I was working on the sprinkler system is the "DAY TRIPPER" which is different from the others that turn the pump motor on and off.  The day tripper moves the 14-day wheel one notch at a time to make this a 14-day clock.  Four of those day pins are pulled UP for the days when watering is to happen only on Saturday and Wednesday each week.  (Have you thought about the BEATLES yet?)

As I was finishing up this page, I realized I had never made a photo of the trees near the northeast corner of the property.  I took a good look at them as I made these next photos.  There are really three trees here where their trunks were close together at ground level.  There is also a palm tree hiding here.

All three trees are surrounded by the large ant-infested pile of leaves as evident from this photo taken from across the street.  I have more yard work to do here.  The palm tree seen is the same species as the one at the southeast corner of the house, and the one near the philodendrons at the northwest corner of the property.  There is a very tall and smooth trunk Royal Palm tree in that same group of philodendrons.  The Royal Palm reaches to the top of the oak tree canopy above the philodendrons..

I went out to check the mail and realized how much better the front entrance area looks now.

Here is the view looking west from the portico at the front door.