littledog, thanks first for the compliment on my, well, big dog. *G* He's my boy, always out helping me. In fact, we *just* got in from the front hedge, barely in time to escape the sudden rainfall that just started. Good thing I pulled my head out from the middle of the hedge to look up. 'Cause, you know, Wolfhounds melt in the rain. Just ask them. ;-) The holly I'm undecided about, but it's on a back corner and we're the only ones who ever see it, so it can wait for a later decision. And yes, that's a redbud next to it. I have many dozens of them of varying sizes and states of decay all around the yard. We've cut down the oldest/weakest of them, we're tending to the ones still remaining, and for the most part I'm pulling up any new ones that spring up from the ground. The yard is a little over an acre, but I don't need or want 400 redbuds. But they have interesting shapes, break up some visual space here and there, and I think if I can get a few of the young ones coming up in places I find acceptable that it might be fun to shape them a bit. I like the giant bonsai look they can have. The boxwood is harmless, and mostly withstanding vast amounts of Wolfhound urine, so they'll stay. They just need a different shape and some care. I believe I should start by getting into the middle of the shrubs and cutting out anything dead, as well as a few of the oldest/thickest branches, down near the base if possible, right? From what I've read it seems like I need to open them up a bit so light and air can get in? Since they've suffered years of hedge trimmers, should I also thin out the "top" areas, where there are clusters of offshooting branches near the tips? Or should I leave that area and just thin out from further into the bushes? Yes, we have a ton of shade, and that's AFTER having a half dozen very large trees removed and the rest thinned out and cleaned up. Another half dozen or so old growth trees are going to have to come out probably in the next 2-5 years. They're mostly not very good trees...a few hackberry, a few mulberry. I have to figure out if and where we'll do any replacement trees. I think the pics were taken on an overcast day (since that's mostly what we had the last few months...haha...I seem to recall ducking out a few weeks ago between storms to take those pics). Some areas do get a fair bit of light in the middle of the day, some do not. The front fence line, for example, is in sun most of the day in the summer, other than getting some patchy shade from the magnolias that are in the middle of that fence line hedge. That fence line really must have something there blocking the view of the street, providing some privacy, and keeping the dogs from seeing every little thing that goes on outside the yard. The house, on the other hand, I don't necessarily need to hide. But the way the walkways are set up around the house, it would seem odd to me to have grass in those areas. I like the cottage-garden feel that the yard currently has, I just want it to be under control, as opposed to just being entire mayhem, which is what we have now. And I want to be able to see out my windows, which in most rooms I can not right now. All I can see out the windows is damned photinia branches. The photinias on the front fence I started tackling today. Right now I'm just cutting out about half of the growth on them. I'm cutting them back to just a bit lower than I'd prefer them to be, cutting out dead wood, clearing dead leaves from the magnolias out of them, cutting branches out of the fence, and anything that seems to be really overly long with only one leaf on the end. I WISH I could just cut them down to the ground right now, but I don't really want to remove all the privacy. I HATE the photinia. I think it's ugly, grows too fast, and is just unsightly. I have some hibiscus in the corner by the gate that I'm trying to free from the photinia as well as from some honeysuckle. And I have what I believe to be some more hibiscus popping up further down the fence line under the photinias. Can hibiscus fill in enough to provide some privacy? Or would it be too sensitive to being rummaged through by the dogs? I've got some other beds in the yard that I'm in the process of removing. One is the bed in front of the house, in front of the walkway, that encloses a tree (I think that one's a hackberry, can't remember). That will open up the front of the house some. I cut out all but one of the shrubby things growing there this morning, and still have to pull out whatever vine ground cover is there, and remove the wood rails. There's another large "bed" that encloses a bunch of trees on the west side of the house, that just makes that whole side crowded. The tree guys removed a lot of the smaller shrubs and trees there when they were working (I told them to feel free to get rid of anything in their way on that side of the house...haha), but I'll cut out a bunch more probably in the next week, and again remove the wood rails making up the edge of the bed. That will make it easier to get through that side of the yard, and we can just let the grass move in over there. And at some point I really need to deal with the giant bed, with its thousands of bulbs (seriously...thousands) of unknown type. But I'm still putting off that particular challenge. *G*

I find that Bayer Advanced Tree and Shrub works great and you can consider it to be pretty safe for both you and the cats. The main ingredient is Imidacloprid which is also the main ingredient in Advantage flea control. It is a synthetic tobacco derivative. The one thing to remember with systemics, is it can be a few weeks before you notice results.

Deer just LOVE Hibiscus (cold hardy or Tropical, makes no difference). Remember, PEOPLE drink Hibiscus tea, the deer will eat the flowers, leaves and bark! Been there, done that.

I'm wondering about the same questions also. Here is a link that might be useful: revenge spell