Perhaps this screenshot of our old header will give you a hint about what we tackled in this latest outdoor update (most likely number 7 of 582, since we break outdoor projects into bite-sized stages so we don’t get sore, overwhelmed, or blow the budget)…
Yes — that’s the camellia tree we first mentioned back in March (you helped identify it). It’s a lovely plant, but it was growing inches (maybe even just one inch) from our foundation, which made us nervous about potential long-term damage.
After showing it to a few plant-savvy friends, everyone recommended removing it as soon as possible so the roots wouldn’t cause trouble. It also felt like an overgrown sideburn on our home’s face — the tree equivalent of a mutton chop or a rogue eyebrow hair. In short, it wasn’t working for the house.
Unless you like the whole tree-tickling-the-gutters look.
Long story short, we finally decided to serve Miss Camellia an eviction notice.
Our first instinct was to transplant her. We liked how she looked and figured it was worth trying to save her, so I grabbed a shovel and dug for about 30 minutes. This is how far I got:
It may look like progress, but it didn’t feel like it. The roots were so tight it was hard to maneuver, and I was constantly worried about knocking bricks out of the foundation as I dug into our dense soil. After another hour of digging — during which we discovered just how close the roots were to the foundation — we reluctantly admitted this wasn’t going to work. We apologized, told her we’d tried, and decided it was the wrong place and the wrong time to move her. I got the saw. It was sad, but necessary. We promised to plant another camellia in the backyard to remember our gutter-tickling friend.
For the removal, I cut the big limbs off first, then spent most of the time sawing through the trunk at ground level. About 30 minutes later I was left with a small stump that I could bury under level dirt so it wouldn’t be visible. I thought about digging the stump out completely, but didn’t want to disturb the ground near the foundation further, so I covered it up and left it low and level.
I don’t like cutting down healthy trees, so this weighed on us more than we’d like to admit. We consoled ourselves by remembering the six new trees we’d already planted since moving in and by recognizing that removing this poorly placed camellia makes room for better-fitting plantings that won’t threaten the foundation or press against the house.
Replacement plants will be smaller and lower-profile. Our general approach is that short, stout houses benefit from lower, airy landscaping to help them appear taller. At our last house we removed a heavy row of azaleas that made the facade look squat, and we don’t want to repeat that here. Removing the tall camellia helped restore some visual height by eliminating the tiny tree that was towering over the house.
When I stepped back, though, I realized one overgrown bush was undoing a lot of the progress. You know you’re in trouble when a bush is taller than your house.
So I gave it a haircut with the clippers.
Not perfect, but better. That whole cluster of bushes is something we’d love to transplant to open up the front yard gradually. The house still feels a bit closed off; the carport is the only area not blocked by greenery. While I’ve warmed to the carport, it’s not the feature I want front and center — we’re still hoping to convert it into a proper garage someday.
Now that the weather has cooled a bit, we’re hoping to build momentum outside. Late last week was so nice that Sherry did some weeding in the driveway while Clara and Burger “helped” by playing with sticks and leaves. Yes, we weed our double-wide paver driveway — the cracks make it a magnet for sprouts. We avoid chemical weed killers because we have a child and a dog who play outside, and we prefer to minimize environmental impact, so we researched more natural options.
The natural methods we considered included:
- Pouring boiling water on the weeds
- Using coarse driveway salt
- Applying a vinegar-based mixture
After contacting the paver manufacturer we learned that salt and vinegar can permanently damage pavers (causing erosion or cracking), so we only tried boiling water. We repeatedly dumped scalding water over sections, but it didn’t crack the root systems — the weeds stubbornly remained. Frustrating.
So we gave up on the boiling-water experiment and went back to hand-pulling the weeds every so often. It’s not a daily chore, so our driveway still gets weedy from time to time. If you come visit, forgive the front of our driveway if it looks a bit overrun — we do try to keep it partially weeded. Someday we might use polymeric sand to reduce weed growth between the pavers.
Okay — tell me I did the right thing taking out the camellia. Have you ever moved or removed a tree that wasn’t working for your space? If you’ve successfully transplanted a tree with dense roots close to a foundation, what tips helped you? I couldn’t keep digging without worrying about damaging the house. And if you have any paver-friendly, all-natural driveway weed solutions, we’d love to hear them.