The Mulch Makes It

The mulch was finally blown in Monday and Tuesday so we can show photos of this phase of our landscaping completed.

We added two more white pines to the three that went in two years ago to shield the view of the neighbor's house. The new ones are not as tall, but are just about as big around as the old ones.


The next photo was taken from just below the white pines, looking back toward the raised bed and the house. The small bright green shrubs visible in both photos are American Beautyberry. This time, we hope they really are beautyberry. The rocks that line the mulched bed were not really part of the plan - they were apparently an on-the-spot decision by the landscaper to help delineate the areas for the mulch to go. All the rocks were there, they just had to be moved a little.


This next photo shows the view looking down toward the street from about the same point below the pines. There are three new redbuds, a dogwood, and our favorite American Beech. The green bags will help us keep the trees watered, but we'll we using our root waterers for the shrubs. We plan to have more shrubs put in, but we opted to put off planting them for now. Watering in new plants is a lot of work and our rainbarrels have limited capacity. This way, we will spread the burden out.


The next photos shows how the original landscaping directly in front of the house and along the sidewalk has grown since the plants went in two and half years ago. The Virginia sweetspire are just flowering. The Carolina silverbells (the tree in the foreground) has really responded to this spring's rains and unusual temperature fluctuations.


We had to have a few shrubs moved to make a path so that we can get to the stone steps from the front door and walk. We also moved one holly that was making access to the gas tank difficult (it's buried in the slope to the right of the front door in the photo above).

This is the overview from the street. The rhododendron blooms have faded, but the mountain laurel are just starting up.



And we wanted to show what the scarecrow looks like up close

From the front side, which is how we see him from the house -


He can turn around on the pole, so you can see his expression is just as charming from the other side -