The garden in spring 2008 was looking great.  The tress and shrubs were all doing well – some a little too well and bulbs and spring flowers all blooming and looking lush.  Trouble was the Lily of the valley were beginning to run rampant and some of the shrubs had been planted too close to the wall and too close together, so for the next few years we ripped out all of the Lily of the valley and took out a few of the shrubs.  The ivy was looking great over the right arch but it was swamping the Zephrine Drouhin rose so we took the ivy out to give the rose a chance.  We took the black Elder out as it was going to get huge and there wasn’t really enough room for three large shrubs in the raised bed.  We also tried to get rid of the bluebells as they were the Spanish type and not our native ones.  This is an on going project as they keep popping up (as is the Lily of the valley).