The Blogger's Garden

Trying to figure out what to plant around the pine trees in this yard.

Continuing to the right of this photo are a lot of hostas, groundcover, ivy, a stone path, and stone wall; up one level is a small area that I’m going to do something with next year, I think; it’s very cool and shady and I’m thinking ferns. Up the next level is a border of wild flowers and then the biggest part of our yard which is flat and dry and just a mess. Too many pine trees make growing things difficult and I’d love to put some raised beds up there, but I have no idea how we’d get the dirt there because you actually have to climb a series of concrete steps to get up there.

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Read more from this blogger: Melanie and her German Garden

I'm stumped by this tall tale of pine trees.

About three years ago our neighbor mentioned that he wanted to take out the tall pine trees beside our house and also to replace the (then) nearly new fence. He asked us to contribute towards the cause, as the trees are on the property line and the fence, once moved, would be also. We declined, as we had just moved in and were still paying on both houses (and therefore were extremely broke).

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Read more from this blogger: the tree story

If the WC is outside, consider planting a few pine trees.

I take great pleasure in informing you that the WC is situated nine miles from the house in the centre of a beautiful grove of pine trees surrounded by lovely grounds. It is capable of holding 250 people and it is open on Thursdays and Sundays only. As there are a great number of people expected during the summer months, it is an unfortunate situation, especially if you are used to going regularly.

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Read more from this blogger: Time for a giggle…

Fixing the landscape with shrubs after the pine trees were removed.

We live on a fairly large (a bit over an acre), partially wooded lot. Out front there used to be a stand of pine trees that the former owners removed. In its place, they left a large pine straw bed with a nice water oak (Quercus nigra), and then they planted a ton of shrubs as well as a handful of cherry trees. Unfortunately, they had somewhat odd tastes when it comes to shrubs, and they also didn’t really seem think things through with regard to placement. Thus, we were left with a number of unhealthy, or just unsightly plants in our landscape.

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Read more from this blogger: Sweat Equity: Improving our Landscaping