How J. Bunyan began.

The spirea hedge has been a blight and eyesore in our side yard since we moved in. For 2 weeks they Cinderella-bloom in beautiful, delicate white then quickly revert back to their ugly brown, stepsister ways. Since this is the part of the yard we see and use most often, I have desired to rip them out, thus expanding the flowerbed along the west side of our property. Where the bulk of my gardens are now, I am forced to walk our stiffly smiling visitors to the back of the property where all the floral beauty is tucked, and thus force them to give the obligatory compliments. Which I love, but gardening is too hard of work for a few compliments a year-if you don't love the dirt, the process, the birdsong and the cooperating with the Creator that IS gardening, don't bother. So the enjoyment of these back gardens is really only mine. The children play in the west side yard. We BBQ in the west side yard. All the windows of the house face what? yup. the west side yard. And the west side yard contains mainly? This blasted, eyesore of a "hedge" of unruly spirea bushes! Finally, after 4 bitter years of longing for their obliteration, I found myself standing in the side yard with a murderous grin on my face as cousin Tommy chopped them to their roots. Then he and the boys hauled them to the burn barrel! Muwhawhawhaw!
However, proving that they ARE weeds at heart, these bushes won't die...
The broken, chopped, stubby survivors are already sending up hardy green shoots of rebellion. We can't dig them up for the clay is too hard. We even bought a $45 Maddox tool after breaking yet another shovel. So John was chopping at them, again (how he loves me) and Caleb runs to get the little kindling ax from the woodpile. "What are you doing?" (he knows he's not allowed to touch the axes.) but this chore looks fun! It's got danger written all over it and he wants a piece of that action. So he grins up at us in that classic, sweet Caleb mischievous way and says with a smile "Ummm? Daddy's little helper?!"