Muscling out azaleas

I think I may have committed Southern gardening sacrilege yesterday.  I ripped out and tossed out four large azalea bushes.  These bushes have occupied the space in the front of my house from (I'm guessing) the time it was built - that is, 23 years.  I've lived here for 8 years and they were here and large when I came.  I've severely pruned them twice.  But they grow back.  Bigger and healthier than ever.  They are just too large for the space where they're planted.  Honestly, look at this picture.

Do those plants look beautiful?  No, they do not.  For a couple of weeks in the spring they are glorious, but the rest of the year they are scraggly and overgrown and filled with dead, brown oak leaves from last fall.  Not pretty.

I had thought it would be at least a nod to Southern gardening etiquette or something, to dig out and transplant those azaleas in another part of my shady yard.  But, oh my!  Have you ever tried to dig out a very large azalea bush and maintain a decent portion of the spreading roots while getting scratched and poked by outstretching branches?  It is not fun.  At all.

After I muscled the first bush out, I thought a change of pace would help, so I took my shovel to the area where the bushes would be transplanted and tried to start digging a hole.  Anticipating that I would be doing that this week, I had watered that area very well a couple of days ago.  That should have made the soil nice and soft, easy to dig.  Right?  Well, it didn't.  I could barely stick my shovel in two inches.  The thought of digging several large holes to transplant these azaleas was rather disheartening.  Of course, I do have slave child labor here that I could employ to dig the holes, but you know, I just started feeling less and less sure it was really worth the effort to save all those azaleas.  Gasp!

Here's how it looks now.

I left one azalea, very severely pruned and cleaned out.  I don't know if it's going to stay or not.  I'm putting it on probation while I determine exactly what I'm going to do in this space.

And now, I'm hitting the books.  Southern Living Gardening.  Taylor's Master Guide to Landscaping.  The Well Designed Mixed Garden and scads of old copies of Fine Gardening magazine.  I have a very large mug of tea beside me and my garden notebook.  Freed now of those overgrown azaleas, I'm dreaming....