The weather is teasing us with thoughts of spring and getting to work in the yard. Not that I am in a huge rush for spring, we are still enjoying some of our winter sports, but at the same time, with the weather being mild, the snow leaving our yard and the birds chirping away, we find ourselves tinkering away at little jobs in the yard, knowing that at any minute another dump of snow could be coming.

The first pleasant surprise that came with the warming weather trends was from our new backyard neighbour. In November the neighbour that shares a back fence with us moved out. Being an avid hockey fan, he always had a back-yard rink setup. The only problem for us was that our shop and our house were hit a few times with slap-shot pucks that made it up our hillside. So, a few years ago, we had a chat about the damage to our buildings and also the concern for our dogs safety in the yard, so he put up a large backing and netting….which did not come down over the next 4 years…resulting in a very ugly backdrop to our yard during the summer.

It got to the point that we had planned to build a 50′ long garden bed with a 12′ high lattice to grow honeysuckle and ivy on just so that we didn’t have to look at it anymore. BUT, the new neighbour also thought it was an ugly monstrosity, so just a few weeks ago during a nice day, K sent me the following picture while I was at work:

The wall of plywood and forestry fencing is all but GONE! Wahoo! Yes, it leaves our yard a little more visible to our neighbour, but I will take that over the plywood wall any-day. We may still put up some privacy lattice, but it will be minimal and only around our gazebo that we will eventually build. The new neighbour seems really nice, so I don’t think we will need our large privacy trellis. The unfortunate part is prior to putting up that large plywood wall, the previous neighbour had also broken a bunch of boards on the fence, so we will have to live with the remaining plywood until the spring when we can replace the broken boards. The structure of the fence itself is still strong and sturdy.

The other task we decided to take care of was trimming some of our side neighbours tree branches. We had already asked them permission (which good neighbours should do) before going ahead with the trimming. We love the trees because they provide privacy between our two yards, and keeps lots of birds in the area as they eat the fruit and bugs that come from them. The only problem is one of the trees is growing through one of our cedars, causing it to open up on one side, and the other is dropping crabapples all over behind our shed.

We usually don’t think about these issues until summer when we can’t get a good visual on the branches we need to trim. So we took advantage of some of the good weather and did a little trimming.

We didn’t need to take a lot off, just enough to help our cedar and to keep a little less apples from falling into the yard. When we build our new shed this spring, we want to make sure we have a clear path to put in the roof, and not have to struggle with branches.

We are lucky to now have neighbours that we really like and get along with on all sides. Up-keeping all the boundaries of the yard will keep us all happy and provide each of us with the privacy of our backyards.