"we want... A SHRUBBERY!"



I took a ride to the local garden center yesterday morning, looking for some cheap mums to plant in front of our kitchen border and, as luck would have it, they were having a one day only 50% off sale on most of their shrubs and trees. Not being able to pass up a bargain like that, I ended up getting six nice size specimens at a terrific price and loaded them into the truck and headed home. Mrs. SOG has been wanting something to fill the bare western side of the house, which is now very visible from the street, since I felled the Red Cedar and cleared out the Lilac hedge for the planting of the new Thujas across the front of the property. I dug out a free form bed the width of the house and about four feet deep at the two widest areas and spent the day planting the new additions. I got a nice white Rhododendron, three spreading Junipers, a white Azalea and a Gold Dust Aucuba.

Here's the rhoddy, I really love these things. When I was a kid the woods behind my house was full of wild ones, we used to pull off the buds and peel them down like artichokes. They were large enough that they formed bowers you could actually crawl into and hide. A sweet place to hang out when they were in bloom.






Here's two of the junipers, a variety named Andorra Compacta. They will spread out to fill the area nicely and in the winter they turn from grayish-green to a deep plum color.

I added the azalea for some height, although I must admit, I'm not a real fan of them. I much prefer Mountain Laurel, but the price on propagated Laurels is ridiculous, even at half price they were out of my league. It's flanked by another spreading Juniper.

And, last but not least, the Gold Dust Aucuba. That's another one to the right of the new planting that started out the same size. It's taken about five years to grow only half again as much, but it's a beautiful plant. The leave are a bright green base with very light, almost white spots, much like an Apple Leaf Crouton. It does suffer a bit from the winter wind and gets some leaf drop, but comes back in the spring. The new one is suffering from over exposure to sunlight, they really like dappled shade and it will soon settle in to it's new home and provide a nice effect next to it's more mature neighbor.

And, here's the new shrubbery bed, just need to put in the edging and add the mulch and it should be good for winter. I'll post a picture of the final project tomorrow.
Oh, yeah, I never got the mums. I guess I'll have to pick some up one night this week and get them in the ground before the remnants of Gustav Hanna gets here on Saturday. Too many big blows out there to keep them straight.


sow what you will...