One of the more tedious chores on the outside of the main Gorge View house is trimming the Virginia Creeper. I call it "giving the house a haircut", and like hair it just keeps growing (although happily unlike hair it all falls off and stops growing for the winter).
During spring, summer and even early autumn it needs trimming every month or so or it would take over and wreck the roof and guttering, cover the windows and the floodlight, and the house sign would be pointless.
So up and down the ladder I go, shifting a few feet and repeating, time and again to prune it off. Luckily I don't suffer vertigo, but sometimes I wonder what the accident rate is for 50-somethings falling off ladders!
However as we enter October I remember why I love this plant so much as the large fleshy leaves start to turn from a lush green in to a remarkable deep claret red, and seeing the house swathed in this beautiful autumn blanket is a sight indeed.
And so the work is worth it. And indeed (to Mary's surprise given my manly grumblings) I am actually wondering whether we should not plant some to grow up the cottage - I have spied a lovely more delicate variety on a house around the corner which would be much easier to manage. By coincidence that house is owned by the builder who converted the cottage. Small world.
During spring, summer and even early autumn it needs trimming every month or so or it would take over and wreck the roof and guttering, cover the windows and the floodlight, and the house sign would be pointless.
So up and down the ladder I go, shifting a few feet and repeating, time and again to prune it off. Luckily I don't suffer vertigo, but sometimes I wonder what the accident rate is for 50-somethings falling off ladders!
However as we enter October I remember why I love this plant so much as the large fleshy leaves start to turn from a lush green in to a remarkable deep claret red, and seeing the house swathed in this beautiful autumn blanket is a sight indeed.
And so the work is worth it. And indeed (to Mary's surprise given my manly grumblings) I am actually wondering whether we should not plant some to grow up the cottage - I have spied a lovely more delicate variety on a house around the corner which would be much easier to manage. By coincidence that house is owned by the builder who converted the cottage. Small world.
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