Why I Oughta...

Planted in the Fall of 2021 as a 1# container, we have a small Mugo Pine shrub in our backyard - planted in the 'nook' area that underwent a "Garden Edit" this Spring.  It suffered some rabbit damage in the first few Winters, so I started to protect it with a chicken wire cage .  I've posted photos of this conifer over the years including this Spring .   This area gets part sun - in the late afternoon - so I'm NOT SURE how big/fast anything that needs sun will grow here, but I'm happy to see this Mugo Pine shrub growing up/out just a little bit.   See below for a look at our first Mugo Pine shrub:

Planted in the Fall of 2021, our Mugo Pine is (now...almost two years later) still a small, evergreen shrub.    I last looked at it a little over a year ago (August 2022), when it was looking good - green and compact and full of needles .   Early this past Winter (November 2022), the dang rabbits went at this thing and gnawed off a bunch of the tips .  And...the little jerks just left them there.   Of course, that meant that a chicken wire ring needed to be put up to protect it from the pests.  Like the Toad Lilies, I've left this chicken wire ring up all Summer.   Here, below, is what the Mugo Pine looks like below.  First, a look from the top-down.  Then, from the side-on: It has put on some height this year and has opened-up a bit.  What was dense and compact last year is now a little more airy.  The tips are full of longer needles that are reaching up-and-out.  I don't have a ton of conifers, so looking at this one makes me think I should be adding some to my Fall 2023 to-d

Last last Fall (October), I bought and planted a small 1# Mugo Pine in our backyard garden - in the north side beds between the Harry Lauder Walking Stick tree and our Weeping Nootka Cypress tree.  I posted the details of the Mugo Pine and how it was doing over Winter here in early January .    Fast forward seven months and what does it look like during its first true growing season?  See below for the new growth and size that it has put on this Summer: I haven't paid particular attention to it, but since it is located in this bed, it has been sprinkler watered along with everything else.  There are some brown needles along the interior, but I'm seeing a lot of bottle-brush-like growth on all the tips.  Good growing - so far.   And...the rabbits don't have any interest in it.  Again...so far.

During the past week or so, I've been poking around doing research into evergreens for this year and think about shrubs and trees that might work in certain spots of our garden.  While I was doing that, I thought that I should do some level of an informal audit on what is in place.  Of course, there are the Hicks yews (in multiple places), but also a couple of Junipers and just last year, I added a Bird's Nest Spruce that I left in the nursery container .   But, when I went out in the yard to have a look at what else there was, I realized that I planted another conifer that I failed to document in the [ garden diary ] this past fall:  a Mugo Pine.  When I was planting some of those tiny Boxwoods , I also dug in a very small Mugo Pine.  While I failed to post about the small Pine going in, I *did* mention it during my 2021 scorecard post .  While that's just fine, I do think this small conifer shrub deserves a post of its own.   What is a Mugo Pine?  From Monrovia : A popula