Well, it took longer than a day (sorry!), but I am back with a bit of an update -- I will likely take a break from outdoor work today (for the first time in a couple of weeks!) as we're expecting lots of rain starting SOON. And I am sick of seeing ticks, especially when they are ON ME (despite my precautions)!
Anyway ... to answer some questions:
Zoisite: my line of rhodies is likely about 6' tall (max). I will prune them (the ones that are left) to hopefully make them look a bit better.
L00k4ward: I don't need an evergreen screen where that line of rhodies is, and I don't need a property line marker as my next-door neighbor on that side is 400-500 feet away (at least) AND I have a huge perimeter of pine trees (and some other trees) on 3 sides of my property including that side. That PERIMETER is my property line marker!
As for the idea for a flower bed a few feet in front of the rhody line: I think it would look fine (OK, we disagree on that), but for ease I may just go with cardboard/landscape fabric/mulch and potted plants for now.
Quote:
Originally Posted by L00k4ward
You sound like a happy urbanite with the dreams of a cottage in the woods surrounded by blooming flowers - isn’t going to happen without mind boggling effort and tons of cash.
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Um, nope, not a "happy urbanite" at all -- the town next to me is 20,000-something and that is BIG for New Hampshire. MY town is well under 10,000 population. I LIKE these sizes and would not want to live somewhere bigger -- my lot is 1.29 acres and that's a nice size (OK, my
ideal would be about 1,000 acres in the middle of nowhere, but that's never going to happen!
).
As I think I wrote earlier, I finally have TIME to do garden stuff regularly, now that I am semi-retired -- last year was a bit of a nightmare in terms of my workload, but those days are over!
In fact, I have almost 3-1/2 months left before I go back to teaching (and my fall load is MUCH smaller than last year's loads) so these months are basically MY OWN to do as I please.
Quote:
Originally Posted by L00k4ward
Keep rhododendrons, perhaps prune off just the lowest branches clear to the trunks 8” -12” off the ground - so it perhaps could be used to shove fallen leaves under them in fall so they become handy mulch? Or that at least you don’t have to haul it to the woods or dump?
If you see dead or crossing branches saw them off with the pruning saw when you have a chance.
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That ^^^ is what I just did with a solitary rhody in another area (just outside the small inset porch on the front of the house -- the porch is a 2nd entry area, kind of a "service entrance," LOL!). THAT rhody is looking better and is in bloom right now, but I still have to cut off more branches.
Two questions: (1) How can you tell for sure that a branch is dead -- no leaves on it? And
(2) Why cut off crossing branches -- just to keep them from being unwieldy? I DID cut off a lot of those as the "interior" was a big mess -- probably more to do!
Cambium: I like your suggestion of pruning the line of rhodies until I can see SPACES between them -- I can't right now! I will add that to my list for next week, after this weekend's rain.
Zoisite again: wow, THANK YOU for the photos! I have a LOT of pruning to do on the bottoms of mine!
Yours look great. They really are pretty when in bloom ... just wish that period lasted longer!
Driver 47: I don't really want or need to obscure my house from the street -- I likely would want to if it were CLOSE to the street, but my house is about 50' back from the street (and it's a quiet street, no parking on it, etc.) so it's fine "open" to the street (as most of my neighbors' houses are in this entire neighborhood). The line of rhodies is in my SIDE yard, right side of the driveway (which is about 60' to the street).
Quote:
Originally Posted by CalWorth
^^^Yep, I don't like those. I don't care for the flowers, they creep me out, and the ones on my property had been allowed to grow way out of control & were also covered with blackberry vines, full of thorns. The rhododendrons that I have seen growing wild in the woods in the PNW have much smaller, delicate, pale pink blossoms. But, hey, that's me. I like morning glory and bougainvillea, for example, & have had people tell me how much they hate them.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Bungalove
How, exactly, do rhododendron flowers "creep" you out?   |
I was wondering the same thing! The flowers are actually the only thing I LIKE about the rhodies -- they are lovely when in bloom, but where I live (the boonies of southwestern New Hampshire), they only bloom for a couple of weeks a year.
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Anyway, here are some pictures of the area now, basically going from the right side of my pellet shed, where I removed the left-most rhododendron in that line to start to clear a space about 10' deep (i.e., 10' to the right of the shed) where I will lay down cardboard, then landscape fabric, then mulch, then potted flowers and little stepping stones so I can get to that wall as I'll be putting up a few outdoor decor items on it -- still LOTS more clearing and leveling to do in the space ...
^^^ That is a bit to the right of the fist picture. Lots of small plants (off-shoots of the rhodies, I think) to cut down more, UGH,
lots of work left).
^^^ Then the line of rhodies seen from the side -- you can also see at the far-right of the photo the corner picket fence I put up -- I added a garden ornament with some potted flowers in it but you can't see those. In front of that you see some of the cuttings.
^^^ And finally, the big pile of cuttings. Any branches less than ~1.5-2", I can use my new wood chipper on to make mulch (I tried it, it works OK, just can't do much at a time so it will take me a while!). I started a compost pile at the back corner of my back yard (the yard is probably about 3/4 acre so the compost pile is out of the way) so I'll add to that from this big pile too. (I finally attached my big cart to my riding mower so it is VERY easy to take big piles of composting material from anywhere else around my house TO the compost pile in the back!
) Any branches over 2", and there aren't many of those, I can take to my town's dump for free. (Between my new compost pile -- thanks, Cambium!
-- and the new wood chipper, I will be taking VERY little yard/garden waste to the dump from now on!)
Oh, the SOLITARY rhody in front of my inset porch is in bloom NOW and it was lovely hearing the buzz of bees yesterday as they enjoyed the flowers.
OK, that's all for now. Lots more work to do next week. I will update this thread with progress reports (even if no one responds, it will be a nice record for me, like all of Cambium's wonderful garden threads!).
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update (FINALLY!) on the rhody line ...
