Green Mountain Boxwoods - By Firepit - November 2026

Back in July 2023, I planted a pair of TINY (one-gallon) Green Mountain Boxwood shrubs back by the border around the firepit in the far backyard.  I don't seem to have posted about these in the years since, but they've just ambled along in the years since being planted.  

They've had 3.5 growing seasons (1/2 of 2023, 2024, 2025 and now 2026) and have put on some size and mass.  Without much of anything other than the water they get from rain.  They're planted in a pretty shady spot, too. 

I have another Green Mountain boxwood that is planted under the tree swing tree. Similarly...planted as a TINY, TINY, TINY shrub.  In 2021.   It gets a little bit of "Winter bronzing".  If you plant these, just know they'll do that in Winter.  Don't worry.  They bounce back in Spring.  

Here, below, is what the pair of Green Mountain boxwoods in the far back of the yard look like right now, in early November.  Covered in some fallen leaves from the trees that are being dropped all around them:

Back a few years ago, my eyes were open to evergreens and conifers.  And, how much I had 'missed' on them over the first few years of our garden.  In the post when I planted them, I talked about how these were part of my effort around adding evergreens and structure to my (at the time) mostly perennial garden.  In the years since, I've posted my v1 draft of Jake's Great Garden Rules - which includes #2:  "Conifers should come first".  I'll (slightly) amend that to include evergreen shrubs, too.  

Note for 2027:  I should add more evergreen shrubs, including boxwoods.