Yesterday wifey and I made a pilgrimage to several of our favorite garden centers, which is a dangerous thing for two plant-loving gardeners to do! A couple of hours and a few hundred dollars later, we headed for home with the truck full of plants.
The main reason we went plant shopping is that we are planning two new island beds out back of the house. We have several large trees there that have hostas planted right around the trunks, where they are competing with the tree roots and losing the battle.
I fought the tree, and the tree won
Lynda has been busy digging up hostas ever since we moved here in 2007. It seems the previous owners had planted tons of them, but only two varieties: Hosta undulata ‘Albo Marginata’ and H. ‘Royal Standard’. While both are nice enough Hostas, we decided we wanted more variety. So we have gradually been adding different hostas to the mix. We figure one plant of a variety is plenty, since in a few years they will need splitting and then we will have all the plants we need.
Yesterday we picked up about a half dozen different ones, including ‘Frances Williams’, ‘Sum & Substance’, ‘Guacamole’ and the red-stemmed ‘Red October’. Our plan is to get the beds planted with the larger anchor plants and hostas this year, and fill in with other plants next year.
One of the bigger plants we wanted was an Oak Leaf Hydrangea. We found a nice variety called ‘Snowflake’ that gets 6-7ft tall and should fill in the area nicely.
Something else we wanted was azaleas, which would give some nice color to the area in spring. We found six that suited us. They were on sale for 20% off. If there’s one thing we love even more than plants it’s a S-A-L-E!
azaleas near their new home
We also plan to move a large Japanese maple to one of the new beds. Like most of the other foundation plants, it was planted way too close to the house. It is crowded and needs to be in a spot where it can be seen and admired. This is an older tree that is 5 feet tall and over 7 feet wide.
specimen maple, too close to the house
I’m not comfortable moving a tree this big, so we will get a pro to do it. Our neighbors had a similar sized maple moved last year, and it is looking good in its new location. We are going to get the same people to move ours. Hopefully by this time next year it will be in a new location and thriving too!
We are excited about this project, and we’re hoping the new beds will give us something to look at and enjoy for many years to come. Maybe someday we will have this place whipped into shape!