Project Privacy

Last Friday I shopped. I hate to betray my gender, but frankly, I don't like to shop. The one exception to that rule is garden shopping. Since I'm chomping at the bit, I called around to see which of my favorite nurseries were both open and have shrubs available. I didn't get too far, as the ones that are open don't have much yet, and others aren't open for a few more days. I ended up at the local big box home improvement center. They had weeping cherries, a few evergreens, and forsythias. Since forsythias are on my wish list, I got one! It's nicely branched and nicely tall. For the rest, I'll have to be patient until the nurseries start opening and the stock starts rolling in.

Of course I had to prune it. . .


Even after pruning our new forsythia is about 6' tall. It's a start. A pussy willow or three or four is next on the list, maybe another forsythia, a red twig dogwood or two, a winterberry, and a river birch. I'm eying a blackhaw viburnum that suckered - a freebie if I can dig it up.

I'd like to transplant the baby, since the rest of them are in a hedge that DH likes to keep nicely trimmed. In the 4 years I've lived here, I've only seen one flower cluster on the entire hedge. I'd like to put one in the back in our newly-naked area so it can get to it's full natural size and bloom.

Blackhaw viburnums tend to get rather unkempt looking when they're mature, which is why DH likes to keep them trimmed. As an individual shrub in a mixed border all the way in the back of our property though, I think it will be fine. It will be dense and tall, great for privacy, they're beautiful when they bloom, they make excellent cover for birds, and birds enjoy the berries. I know it will be fine in the wet soil where I'd plant it, since the viburnum hedge ends at the back of our property where the drainage swale begins.

The new forsythia is in the ground already, and I'll post a picture when it blooms.