Les Jones

Dear Lazyweb > I Need Landscaping and Plant Ideas

Dear Lazyweb,

I thought LANDSCAPALOOZA 2007* was supposed to start this weekend, but my landscaper says I was confused and it's in two weekends. That works for me, since I'm still trying to get my planting map together. I could really use some suggestions.

A little background. The landscaper is bringing a Bobcat and will be doing the hardscaping - railroad tie retaining walls, railroad tie steps, clearing out old beds, and trucking in topsoil and mulch to create new beds. The Bobcat has an auger attachment that makes drilling holes for trees and shrubs really easy, so we're planting trees and shrubs now and my wife and I will fill in with flowers later. But what trees and shrubs?

Small, evergreen shrubs
A half dozen of these will go around the corner of the driveway in full sun. They need to grow to 2 plus feet. They should stay compact width-wise, otherwise they'll grow out into the driveway and scratch cars. (That rules out Otto Luken Laurel, which eventually gets quite big, though I like that look, and it flowers in the spring.) Some of the thornless hollies look good and aren't too expensive. I'm tempted to plant azaleas for the flowers, but I'm not sure how they'd do. This is on a hillside where we can't change the soil very much. I know azaleas like acidic soil. How hard is it to get azaleas to grow?

Evergreen privacy hedge
This will go between the house and the road in full sun. We have about 80 feet to cover, so economy is a must. The default choice if we can't find anything else is Leyland Cypress, which isn't bad, but I wouldn't mind something that flowers conspicuously or attracts birds or something. Needs to grow to at least four feet in height to provide privacy and four feet or more in width to keep the cost reasonable.

Red maples
I'm thinking about small, ornamental red maples in a couple of full sun locations to add color. Any reason I shouldn't go that route? I'd love to have some of the banzai-type, wide Japanese maples, but man oh man they're expensive - like a thousand bucks plus at Saplings garden center on Kingston Pike. I'm looking instead at the common, taller variety. Can I shape those myself so that they're low and wide?

Fruit trees
We'd like to put in a few fruit trees in the lower part of the yard. I want to avoid plum and cherry because I've found them to be disease-prone. We're thinking dwarf versions of apple, peach, and pear. Anything else we should consider? If we can find pawpaw trees there are some shady spots I can plant them.

* This is the event formerly known as LANDSCAPOCALYPSE 2007. I decided I wanted a more upbeat name.