Features Of The Overplanted Border 1: Trees and Shrubs

[plantaholic]

For this my maiden thread I'll pass on notes w/pics to elaborate on those items
which kinda provide a showcase for the flowers -namely, the perennials- in
the backyard landscape of my, um, subdivision courtyard. Feedback is encouraged.


Now I've been picking on this Scots Pine, thinning branches snipping
back new growth, etc., in my East Border over the years with a pleasingly trimmed appearance
as the objective.

Here's how it looks today. Photo expands to fullscreen size:



It started out years ago as a potted Christmas tree, and over the years it has
proven to stubbornly resist efforts to keep it manageably sized. It's about
to shed some needles, and I'm agonizng as to how much to trim down on top to
keep it within reach of a Fiskars pole pruner w/5' stepladder. The only tree
guys available here are chainsaw operator types.



Click here for
pics of the East, West, and South borders.

[plantaholic]

Now here is how that pine - aka Torimatsu here- looked
back in 2003 after major remake. Like, whole limbs were
thinned out, as well as smaller branches.



Ever since, simply trimming back new growth to stimulate bushier growth has been
done annually.

I'm encouraging its lower branch to cascade over
a Nanking Cherry bush.


That bush gives a delightful show of flowers when in bloom.


Click here for a springtime landscape view.

[plantaholic]

Hicks' Yew here serves as The East Wall:

[Spider]

Wow, that is a bunch of flowers. You may want to ask your pruning questions over in the japanese garden forum, they may have some answers for your pine tree.

[Chris_W]

That looks quite ambitious with your pine tree. I would be too worried about damaging a tree with that much pruning.

Thanks for the chronicles of your gardens. I look forward to reading and seeing more

Chris

[plantaholic]

It was pruned to within an inch of its life, Chris, for that one time.
This shot shows new growth three months later.


I kind of use this image as a model in keeping Torimatsu yard-sized; pinus sylvistris, is, after all, a forest giant.

Now in this view can be seen a generic apple, kept groomed
for its flowers, and a lilac just to the left of it. The yews
serve nicely as a privacy wall.

[plantaholic]

...And now,the West Wall,which, like the others, hasn't reached completion, featuring lilacs
on the left and being maintained to six feet high; and Amur privet on the right being
kept at five feet.



The sidewalk leads to the composter.

[plantaholic]

A peegee hydrangea accents a passage through
that privet hedge in the West Bprder, seen
there to the right, as of last year:




Here's a closer look at it as of August 2008:



It was pruned too hard that following
winter--to maintain a uniform
height with the privet; therefore, no flowers this year.
Next year it'll have some, for sure.


So far, that peegee hydrangea is
fitting into the hedge nicely,should be even
better next year, when the two textures blend without a gap:


This is how it looks today.

[plantaholic]

The foliage of a tall(40")Japanese peony,, Nippon Chief, may be seen near the lower right corner of that last photo, placed so as to be showcased with a green backdrop provided by that privet hedge.

Having been set out year before last, it should bloom this coming spring.

[plantaholic]

This headon view, as of last June, of my West Border, inspired this thread's
title. Hopefully, more lilac flowers will show up in the background come
next June.






Now here's a sideways view of the South Border. Seen here is a privet bush, about
two-thirds away from being fashioned into a pyramid, at the corner by the West Border.
A generic -started as a seedling- pink flowering crab stands just behind it, and is till part way toward being
groomed as an ornamental specimen. It has a bushy growth characteristic, so it responds well
to pruning and shearing.

[Linda P]

plantaholic, I have about 2 acres of overplanted borders. The good thing about them is that when you are busy (as I have been this gardening season) away from the garden, it's harder for anyone to tell whether or not you've been weeding!
Someone I know who maintains a garden of plants carefully spaced with mulch between each plant walked around my garden this year. She kept saying...it's just so full!
That's the way I like it, packed to the brim with plants. Now and again I lose something that gets crowded out by something else, but for me the good thing about a garden is that it's always changing.
Linda P

[plantaholic]

Oh Linda, we're kindred souls then. Our manifesto is: If you have space for weeds, then replace them with flowers and shrubbery.

I'll confess that if my borders were in acres, I'd refer to them as hedgerows to be more descriptive. As it is, they give overwintering birds, like cardinals and bluejays, along with the finches, shelter.

Now, everyone, come on along with the garden tour.

The maple has its fifteen minutes of glory in mid-October:



As viewed from the West Border.

[plantaholic]

picture enlarges

A study in green and gold.
Seen here are: Scots Pine; Eastern White Pine; sugar maple a. saccharum; Macintosh apple.

Even a hosta sieboldiana at the foot of the maple is adding gold to the display.

[plantaholic]

I do believe my lilac hedge will start to seriously bloom this coming spring.
Up to now, no flowers gloomed because over the years I trimmed off flowering growth to maintain
an evened-out height as I added rooted suckers in the process of making a hedge .

Here's the hedge as of today, now in winter mode:



photo enlarges


Now here's a close look at the blossom buds up on top - they're a distinctively
purplish color:



photo enlarges

[Linda P]

I think you're right...those look like blossom buds. My lilacs are SERIOUSLY in need of pruning.
I have one by the front door...planted there in some dim memory of the Walt Whitman poem:


In the door-yard fronting an old farm-house, near the white-wash’d palings,
Stands the lilac bush, tall-growing, with heart-shaped leaves of rich green,
With many a pointed blossom, rising, delicate, with the perfume strong I love,
With every leaf a miracle......and from this bush in the door-yard, 15
With delicate-color’d blossoms, and heart-shaped leaves of rich green,
A sprig, with its flower, I break.

The poem is an elegy to the fallen president; the lilac I have planted there is, I believe,
President Lincoln, though it may be President Grevy. It was a passalong with a forgotten name
and I choose to believe it's President Lincoln!

The bush has overgrown the path, and threatens to decapitate anyone who tries to come to that door.
My mother in law was here yesterday, along with BIL and SIL. MIL warned SIL when she went out
on the porch to be careful...the steps are uneven, the sidewalk cracked, and the lilac bush threatens.
I can imagine the look on her face when I say,
"Ah, but the lilac is President Lincoln, and I planted it there because it reminds me of a poem I learned in high school.....


Linda P

[plantaholic]

LOL Linda that's a good one. Is any backyard complete without
one or two of them?

Anyway.....


By the same token,I suppose, these buds on some
white lilac bushes promise flowers this spring.


picture enlarges

I'll show how they rurned out, to share this
bit of garden lore, come May.

[plantaholic]

Whereas the maple commands attention in the fall,
my flowering crab in the West Border dominates the scene
at springtime, in mid-May:



This is how it looked last spring.

[Linda P]

Beautiful! I've never subscribed to the 'less is more' theory.

Linda P

[plantaholic]

We get color in the garden in mid winter, Linda; look here.

The east border is home to the resident cardinals
year round. They feed on the dining room's window ledge
throughout the day.



They've been around for as far back as I can remember.

[Linda P]

That's one of the very nice things about having a lot of shrubs! I have birds all around the house all winter, too.
This year, I have yet to see the BLue Jays. They usually show up at the feeders about this time.
A couple of winters ago, I had over 30 pairs of cardinals in the yard all winter. This year there are only
about 5 or 6 pairs so far, but I haven't had the feeders out for very long.

Linda P