A Walk On The Other Side
In my last post, I talked about the pathway and flower border along side our house. This post will show you the other side of the path. This side had leyland cypress along it (see August 28, 2016); this made it the perfect border back drop and wind break. But because they were diseased, we had to take them down. Although we had been planting small trees and shrubs on that side for awhile, we now had no backdrop for our border and no wind break either. We knew we eventually wanted a mixed border of flowers, shrubs, and small trees (no more large trees!), and so finally decided a berm with small hollies might be just what we needed.
These photos show what the other side of the border looks like now (2020). The first photo shows three of the trees we planted a couple of years ago: from left to right, a kousa dogwood, a jane magnolia and a variegated dogwood, with assorted bushes and small plants among them. It also shows how high the berm is—our house is on a hill, so at the end of the berm on the left side in the photo it is almost four feet high, but it starts out at about two feet high. Let me tell you, that is a LOT of dirt! The center photo shows the hollies; we used Needlepoint hollies for a couple of reasons: they have a lot of winter interest because they are evergreen and are loaded with red berries. Plus they don’t get much taller than six feet even if we don’t prune them. The last photo is of the Strawberries and Cream hydrangeas when they were first blooming. This is a beautiful, fuss free hydrangea and I highly recommend it.
The first photo here shows the border as it was earlier this year (2020). We had just planted the rhododendrons; the hostas have been there for a few years. The rooster is peeking out from under one of the hydrangeas. He probably won’t stay there, though. It seems chickens just don’t stay in one place very long!! And the little bird house is hanging from a branch on the biggest tree in the first photo of this set of three. Since we didn’t get it put up until the middle of summer, it probably didn’t house any birds. Maybe next year. It’s cute, though.
Most of the above photos show the border from a vantage point of looking down towards the front of our yard. This photo shows the border looking up to the top of our property. We took the leylands here down two years ago, and put in these plants then. Emerald Green arbovitaes in the back, Needlepoint hollies next, and variegated euonymus on the end. Since this overlooks our back garden, we left room to add seating when the arbovitaes are tall enough.
The next photo is of a bird house we have had for a few years and, yes, the birds do use it. The last photo shows what the hollies looked like when we first put them in. They have really grown! The two little trees in the foreground of the photo are althea (rose of sharon) trees. Both of them are white; one is a single bloom and one is a double bloom. Love ‘em!
Final thought:
Gardens are never static. We learned a long time ago, that change in a garden, as in life, is constant. When a plant dies or, in our case, an entire row of trees, it opens up a whole new world of possibilities–and new beginnings.