What do we DO with the Barberry Bushes?!
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- Renie_Burghardt
- LadyB
- happyguy
- LadyB
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» Renie_Burghardt - Neat article,
Barbara. I have a great big Barberry bush and both the birds and I love it. I didn't know you could use the berries like that, so I learned something from your article. Very interesting and enjoyable. I love weeds and wild things. How do you feel about Wildlife Ponds? That's the subject of my current article. Hope you stop by and check it out. Now that I have found Weeds and Wild Things, you can be sure that I will return.-- posted by Renie_Burghardt
» LadyB - Some of my best friends...
...have been ponds, Renie! Although most ponds I have known have either been where I came to long before I got there, or have been wonderful places I have 'come upon', it must have been fascinating to watch your new one 'evolve'.This spring I was treated to the funniest little 'scene' beneath the barberry that lives at the edge of my back yard. A dear little BobWhite spent the LONGEST time just hopping up and down snagging the flowers for its breakfast. Must have been EXHAUSTED by the time it was finished! Fortunately it couldn't reach very far up, so I still have plenty of berries.
-- posted by LadyB
» happyguy - i am afraid...
i am very prejudiced against barberry..when i was 12 or 13, my summer job (i think my mother paid me $50 in 1959) was to remove a barberry hedge about 30' long...i sawed off the tops and dug out the bottoms...whatever she paid me, it was not enough...several years later i got to plant an arbor vitae hedge (50 shrubs as i recall)...it still exists today, but unfortunately was never pruned and is rather tall and unsightly....by the way, barbara, i love cold spring, having visited often in the 80's when friends had a house in hopewell junction...now i have friends building a house in pleasant valley so have introduced them to cold spring...we also visited innisfree gardens in millbrook in september...quite wonderful...
robert
-- posted by happyguy
» LadyB - Now ROBERT.....
Y'SEEEE, if you'd KNOWN about Barberry back then, you could have made many times what Mom paid you to do them in by selling off the root bark! Barberry root bark goes for $20 a pound these days! But yes, I can imagine removing a 30' hedge put you in contact with a LARGE number of incredibly mean thorns.Have fun working on the arborvitae hedge. They're not easy to 'reclaim' once they get tall and scraggly. They don't take well to severe pruning like other hedges (psst,like barberry) do.
I've been to Boston just once, MANY years ago, visiting my brother who was in the Music College there. I'm not much of a 'city person', usually wind up clicking my heels together and chanting 'there's no place like home', but I really loved Boston (as cities go). Spent a silly amount of time at the Aquarium watching the otters, and got to go hear George Benson way before anyone much knew who he was. Neat weekend.
Fun home page ya got there. LOVE the hats!
-- posted by LadyB
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