Trimming the Wisteria

We have the very large wisteria arbor that grows wildly out of control.  Each year, I have to trim it back so that I can mow under and around the arbor.  The wisteria continually puts up new shoots all over the place and if I don't mow under and around it, the vines get bigger and bigger and I'm afraid this would turn into one big wisteria jungle.

But last year, I never got around to it.  The vines had draped down to make a solid wall around the whole thing.  It would be neat to have a little fort under there if kids lived here.  Or, a nice little "room" to host an afternoon tea...if I was an English aristocrat.  Alas, there is nobody here to take advantage of the wisteria fort.

So, I decided to get to work on this mass of vines.  This picture shows the end where I haven't cut anything back yet.  The whole arbor looked like this.

You can see on the ground where the shade has killed the grass, but somehow, the wisteria can sprout and survive in that shade.  Normally, that is solid St. Augustine grass there.

I chose to do it this week, in part, because I have a little helper.  At first, I gave him some shears and showed him how to cut the vines, but that didn't work out too well.  

So, I gave him a job any little guy would like...driving.

He picked up the vines as I clipped them and loaded the golf cart.

When he got a full load, he drove - by himself - down to the burn pile, unloaded the vines into the pile, then drove back for another load.  I made a couple of trips with him until he got confident enough to go by himself.

He was a great help.  I usually hate this part of the job and have been known to just leave the vines where they fall, let them wilt, then mow over them with the mower.  Don't tell hubby!  He thinks I'm too hard on the mower, and he's probably not wrong.