Friday, April 25, 2014

and all that we want is a shady lane...

Last year at around this time we were having the Dr. Seuss' garden conversation (http://www.sparrowhaunt.com/2013/04/the-color-purple.html).  With that pressing issue resolved we were left to find street trees that fulfilled MANY criteria, including maxing out at 20 feet, non-destructive roots, high crown, indestructibility, and some level of uniqueness/beauty.  We had thought about planting hawthorns to match those on the other side of the street - but those trees are doing terribly, so it was obviously a poor choice.  What we came up with instead was Amur maples (flame cultivar).  Incredible fall color in addition to all the other requirements, plus pretty leaves and persistent red seed pods.



 The problem was, I couldn't find them anywhere!  Once I make up my mind I'm fairly stubborn, and even online these were not only small, but very expensive as well.  So we had resolved to leave our sidewalk bare for the time being.  On a whim I looked them up again this spring, and lo and behold Lowes said they were stocking them at all their stores.  This ended up being a lie - but we tracked down one store about 45 minutes away that was the only Lowes to get them in the region.  The drive was well worth it, we found three highly branched, 10 foot tall trees for $34 each.  Sometimes the big box stores really come though...


This leaves our sidewalk with 3 Amur maples and 2 Grace smoke trees which flank the stairs.  There are two tree wells that are too close to the telephone poles for trees, so we'll probably plant more of the Wine and Roses weigela that flank the stairs if they do well this season.  The rest will just be planted with free daylilies and irises (hurray for craigslist and freecycle) as they seem to be made of steel and maintenance free.  On the house side of the sidewalk are the existing ancient mock oranges, roses and lilacs, blooming again after a few massive prunings since we bought the house.  At 11:00 last night we also picked up 5 beautiful boxwoods and about 20 huge variegated hostas (thank you mystery craigslister).  Three of those boxwoods are now planted on the new section of the berm that was created when we closed off the driveway, with the hostas serving as edging.  Although none of these plants are that exciting on their own, the fact that after all these years the house is beginning to have a cultivated garden again is more that exciting enough for me.  

Today - don't mind the chunks of concrete the trash truck wouldn't take
Before we closed on the house - ivy and "driveway"
right after closing
November 2012 after finishing the driveway and sidewalks
There's a lot more that needs to be done over the next couple of weeks (before it gets hot!), but I'll wait until things have leafed out a bit more so you can actually SEE the lovely new plants in question unless of course the cat eats them first.  


6 comments:

  1. Oh my goodness, your house is beautiful! The red maple trees will be beautiful, too!

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    1. Oddly enough, the red in fall ended up being one of the deciding factors as everything else we have turns yellow.

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  2. Hooray for free stuff on Craigslist, and for inexpensive trees at big box stores! It's looking really nice.

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    1. Thanks Jayne! How did people garden before craigslist I wonder?????

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  3. I wonder which Lowe's that was. Probably not ours, though how would I know? They don't let us outside!

    (Oh, did I tell you I'm working at the one in Monaca? In the blinds department. Sheesh.)

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    1. Monaca huh? How, ummm, exciting for you... I can't believe with all your experience you're stuck working in the blinds dept. I guess you can't challenge the intelligence of any of the other employees that way?

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