Why I Oughta...

After the mass boxwood planting under the Linden trees earlier this Summer , I ended up with two very small (1#) Green Mountain Boxwoods that were leftover from the project.  When I started with that mass planting, I was using a mix of Green Mountain and Green Velvet.  After some hemming-and-hawing, I ended up planting only Green Velvet - mostly due to their smaller mature size. So, these two Green Mountain boxwoods have been siting around and I was able to get to planting them in the border around the fire pit in back.  See below for their location. A few notes on these - in relation to my task list for the growing season: 1.  #1 on my 2023 to-do list was to focus on evergreens .  Add two more to the planting list.  I planted five new evergreens in front .   A columnar Scotch Pine in back .  And now 13 more ( 11 + 2) Boxwoods.  That's 18 evergreen shrubs and one tree - 19 in total.  Pretty good. 2.  #15 on my 2023 to-do list was to 'upgrade the fire pit area' .  These tw

Last week, I came across the initial delivery of some common trees in nursery containers at the orange big box store .  These trees were the first real sign of Spring in terms of plant material that arrived, but I knew that more was on the way.  This past week, I wandered out to the parking-lot nursery and saw a few boxwoods in various sizes.  Knowing that I want to add A LOT of boxwoods to a few spots this year, I figured I'd see what they have on hand. First up is Green Gem.  I have a trio of these in the back .  They also have a variety of Green Mountain boxwoods in 3, 2, and 1 gallon sizes.  I have one of these.  At least... I thought I had one of these .  But, it bronzed up pretty good, so I'm not sure if it was mislabeled.  This year, they have a larger one - 3 gallon. The third variety that they had (on-hand) is Green Mound.  That's new (to me).  See below for the one gallon nursery container for $10.98. Green Mound stays pretty small - two-to-three feet all and wid

This is the second winter for this little, evergreen shrub.  Planted in the Fall of 2021 , it has just hung out here, under the Oak Tree (tree swing tree) in the bed on the north side of the property.  Green Mountain is properly named: Buxus sempervirens 'Green Mountain'. And, based on this post where I tried to get smart on variety vs. cultivar vs. sport terminology , the single quotation marks are - what I thought the real tell was.  But, I'm not totally sure?   Single quotes = cultivar, right?  But, I think the second word is NOT supposed to be capitalized? Hinsdale Nursery calls it a cultivar .  So, let's go with that.   Green Mountain is a Boxwood cultivar. And, this cultivar is pyramidal - which was why I was drawn to it and planted it as a single evergreen shrub in the bed.   It hasn't grown too terribly much in the past growing season, but it is still here.   But, calling it an evergreen is a misnomer, right?  Look at that photo.  It is orange, isn't it

This Spring, the backyard bed (under the tree swing) is showing eight All Gold Japanese Forest Grasses that have emerged from the mulch.  These are notorious slow-starters (for me), so I'm happy to see that all eight (from last Fall) have come back.  Here's last year's Fall look .   That's down one from Spring when I had nine in this bed.    You can see this area in the photo below with the grasses near the border of the curve in the bed: There's a lot going on in that photo.  Tulips glowing up in the background and more.  So....Below is an annotated version of the same photo showing the eight All Gold Japanese Forest Grasses.  In the back (in the blue circles) are three Miscanthus sinesis 'Adagio' that I planted last Fall .  In the orange circle is the lone  Green Mountain Boxwood from 2021  that is a pyramidal form.  For some of these, this will be the third growing season, while for others this will be the second - which I'm hoping means they're

On Monday, I shared some photos of a trio of Green Gem dwarf boxwoods that I planted in the backyard after finding them on a late-season sale.  At that same time, I grabbed another small (1# nursery stock container) boxwood of a different variety - Green Mountain - and planned on putting it into the garden to provide a little evergreen structure on the other side of the yard.  Below, you can see the small  Buxus sempervirens ' Green Mountain'. Here's a closer look (below) at the container with the shrub specs:  The Missouri Botanic Garden has a listing page up for Green Mountain Boxwood ( Buxus sempervirens 'Green Mountain) where they describe it as: 'Green Mountain' is a dense, upright, evergreen boxwood that typically grows to 2-3' tall over the first 10 years. This is a slow-growing hybrid shrub that may eventually mature to as much as 5-7' tall. Kelly Nursery calls out that Green Mountain is typically grown into a pyramidal form .   'Green Mount