Planting the new beds

 Now that the trees are down we can plant out the large bed beside the road, and as we pour more of the sidewalk we can plant out the large bed next to the house. We've been sort of stockpiling trees in containers until we had the right place to put them, and we found some crepe myrtles that haven't been available before. it's amazing to me how long you have to look through local nurseries before getting some affordable crepe myrtles that have the right growth habit, height, and flower color. My kids actually got really picky about that.

Added a Thuja Green Giant inside of the corner where the drainage ditch goes under the street

dwarf crepe myrtle fills in the space between the brick wall and the brick edge

The whole bed - 4 crepe myrtles, orange dragon, thuja

L-R, azalea, crepe myrtle, rosemary, orange twisted dragon

Although out of focus, this is a Hardy Orange called Twisted Dragon

more crepe myrtles

This is a red maple named "Flaming Sword"

Have you ever had a named tree before?

The major features are planted out in this bed

This green japanese maple was live harvested from Mt. Fuji in Japan

Last year I placed an order from MrMaple.com and got a couple of trees. We already have a large red japanese maple so I wanted to add a green one. They ship 2 trees per box, and they make trips to Japan every year to keep up with maples. They have a few green jap maples that they live harvested from Mount Fuji so I jumped on one of those. Then I found a contorted tree called Twisted Dragon - how could you resist that name? it's an orange tree that is supposed to bear fruit when it gets big enough. We let both of those trees grow in containers for a year until we found the right place to plant them. I put the orange tree next to the driveway and the green jap maples in the big bed near the house, it creates symmetry with the red jap maple.

 There is a well known red maple tree in Raleigh called Little Lake Hill. It is the most spectacular fall color of any single tree in the area. Every now and then the owners will clone the tree and sell the clones, and they are all just as brilliant as the original! All of the trees are named, our clone came from a tree named Scout, and we named ours Flaming Sword after a red paint color we have used several times. Have you ever owned a named tree before? I think that (and the story behind Little Lake Hill) are really cool.

We wanted to plant a long row of crepe myrtles along the roadside. It's a fairly common practice in this part of the south, but we wanted trees that would get at least 20 feet tall, not be too bushy, and have pink flowers. We finally found 4 of these that fit the criteria, and they were only $16 each at Lowe's so I jumped on them. We had to leave those plants in their containers bedded against the house until the big pine trees came down, then I could plant out that entire bed.

The only thing I really insisted on was having a Thuja Green Giant anchor the corner of this roadside bed. There is a drainage ditch that runs beside the road, and another that bisects our front yard. Where they come together creates an inside corner. My favorite landscape items to plant are evergreens, ornamental grasses, and flowering shrubs. Kelley's absolutely least favorite landscape plants are evergreens, ornamental grasses, and some flowering shrubs. I had to fight for my Thuja, but I got one.