As easy as 1, 2, 3

The landscapers showed up on time Monday morning. Yay! They started working on trimming the hedges. When the boss arrived about a half an hour later, he and I did a tour of the yard to review what was being done. We added a couple of things that will help me out with other projects (among them, ripping out the little garden path).

The boss (in green) cut the branches with a small chainsaw. First he cut a slice, like a piece of pie.

Then he got the other guys off the hedge and they attacked the monster juniper bush on the north side. It didn't take long before the bush was reduced to its rather impressive stumps. The most junior of the workers was tasked with feeding all the cut branches into the grinder. It all became mulch.

Next, they cut more slices around until...

After that, they cut down the dead hazelnut trees and ground them up as well. The next step is getting the backhoe in to dig out the stumps. That was supposed to happen yesterday, but for some reason the backhoe was not delivered as expected (they rent the heavy machinery from a local company). Maybe they'll get it today.

...nothing remained but the stumps. We've been talking about taking this out for years, and now it's almost gone.

Meanwhile, the two employees spent the rest of the day working on the hedge. They're very nearly done and should be finished up today. There are still four trees to take down, including the birches in these photos, and the renovation of the big garden path to do. I'm so happy they showed up and got started. What was all that stress about?