Yay for Free Labor!

UPDATE: We had a few people come and look and most gave up almost immediately. One couple held out and in about an hour got the big round bush in the front of the house (which now is a vegetable garden) and the azaleas (which is just dirt...for now). Better than Daniel was hoping for! Now we have to get those big bushes out ourselves...

I've heard rumors here and there about a wonderful use for the internet: giving away unwanted plants without even getting your hands dirty. I've seen it happen to Young House Love, so I'm hoping we can be as lucky. Because we have a bush problem. I don't know who decided that it would be a good idea to plant a million bushes and then plant ivy (really, people? ivy?) all around them, but I would love to meet them and let them know what I think of their "landscaping". In the front yard, we had an evergreen, surrounded (and being strangled by) ivy, with some yucca bushes thrown into the mix. We cleared that out (and found a disgusting number of palmetto bugs hiding in there) as soon as we could, cutting off all the branches until about 6 feet up. Of course, the roots in that dirt were impossible to get out, so we still struggle with persistent ivy and some type of thorny vine there. We also took out a small tree that was blocking the only kitchen window. What we were not excited about tackling was all those bushes. All along the house, there are scraggly bushes being eaten by ivy along with who knows what else. Some of these bushes were left to their own devices so long that now they are way too big, and trimming them to an appropriate size would only leave nubs. Enter craigslist and freecycle.
We are hoping to get loads of people just dying to take all out greenery off our hands! Daniel doesn't believe it will happen but I have hope. I just want these things gone! We are basically giving away anything people will take, but we are especially hoping to get rid of these:

Who knows how many separate plants are actually in this bunch...

They're so big! We tried trimming them down to a better size (as in, not a foot taller than the porch!) and that would have resulted in leafless branches. So we left them be until now! We are also hoping someone will want the trees we don't want, like the one I already mentioned

Not such a bad tree on its own, but in the ground is the aforementioned ivy and thorn. Also, our house is white and green and every single thing in the yard is green, with one white azalea bush on the side, so I would much rather have something that is, you know, a color other than green! I have in mind a Japanese Magnolia. I can't want until I can actually do that! I even have a placenta saved to put under it...

And just to show you, these are actual trees:

Yes, trees!

In the upper right hand corner of the photo is a tree that was left to grow, so you can see what these things are supposed to look like. Who decided that was a good idea? Not me!

So, we'll see how this experiment goes. The ad is up on freecycle and I've had a few bites, next up is craigslist. Please, people of Augusta, come take our scraggly bushes!