Backyard Oasis

Okay, so maybe it's not an oasis yet. But we've at least finally started working on it!! This wasn't on my January to do list, but we had a weekend off together (rare given my crazy nurse work schedule) so we decided to go for it. 

Our yard is FULL of azaleas. I'm not kidding, there must be at least 50 azalea bushes between the backyard, the side of our house, and the front yard. They're very large and overgrown. The neighborhood is full of them, so I'm guessing they were all planted when the neighborhood was first built. So we're assuming our azaleas were born in the 70s. Pretty impressive.
These azaleas might be old, but they need some serious help. Don't get me wrong, I love azaleas. They're beautiful, especially in spring. But do we really need 50+ azaleas?? In the backyard, we could gain an additional 15-20 feet of yard space if we removed some. But the thought of getting rid of them altogether makes us feel a little guilty. So the plan is: trim them down to waist height (some of them are 5-6 feet tall), transplant them (by moving them back 15-20 feet to the actual fence line), give to our friends/family any that don't fit along the back fence. Sounds reasonable, right?
So yesterday we decided to start trimming. Garden enthusiasts would tell me that January isn't really the best time to do this, and we did have every intention of doing it in the fall when it's recommended to trim/transplant them, but time just got away from us. I feel like these bushes are so old that nothing could kill them, but we'll see. Besides, I've got 50 of them; if a few don't make it, it will be okay. 

So we pulled out our electric hedge trimmer (it's a Black and Decker we bought at Home Depot in the fall) and a couple of big orange extension cords and got to work. 

Pete was the trimmer and I gathered the trimmed branches and put them in a pile to dry out for the fire pit. It was a pretty easy process and made a huge difference. 

That's one of four piles we made that size of branches we trimmed!

We can actually see the back fence now! It's probably hard to tell in photos since everything is dead right now, but in the spring when we have more foliage growing I will post a before and after photo. 
Next warm day we have, we will start working on transplanting them all. I feel like that's going to be a longggg process. 
Happy Monday and have a great week!