Jay Gaulard Blog

Rhododendrons To Line the Woods

Saturday, June 7th, 2008

Every time I visit either Lowe’s or Home Depot, I try to go into the nursery to grab a few shrubs. I can always find a use for shrubs, I just wish they were free. That would be wild.

I need about 50 Rhododendrons. I would like to line the entire wooded area up front as well as both sides of the driveway. I love the look of fully grown Rhododendrons. They are great cover and have wonderful flowers.

I remember one house down in Yonkers that I did some work at years ago. It was owned by an old (rich) dude. He had everything looking just perfect. There were huge Rhododendrons, Japanese Yew, Hemlock and all the rest. It was so green and so was I, with envy. I still have the image in my mind and that’s what I would like to have one day.

But for now, I will have to do with small Rhododendrons to start.

I bought three of these during my last trip to Home Depot.

This is one of the areas I would like to line. When the plants grow larger, they will hang over the rocks and all I will have to do is push the mower under the plants. I know, I am too slick.

Holly, Hydrangea and Tomato Plants

Thursday, May 29th, 2008

We made a visit to Home Depot yesterday (we are going to be buying from Lowe’s from now on). I wanted to go shopping for shrubs. Maybe I can just cut this, and the following posts short. You can just read all the other ones about shrubs I have written through the years.

I had a bunch of stuff on my list, but mainly items from the garden area. Here is what I got:

- 1 Blue Hydrangea
- 4 Holly bushes
- 2 Rhododendron
- 1 25 lb. bag of grass seed
- 2 Tomato plants

and some other stuff. Maybe I’ll write about that later.

Laura picked out the Hydrangea and made sure it was blue. There are a few others around here, so it should fit right in.

There are a lot of areas I need shrubs. I really like shrubs at the ends of driveways. I don’t know why, but I do. Therefore, I needed shrubs to put at the end of this semi-naked driveway. I put the Holly and Rhododendron there. There is room for a lot more though.

I also did some seeding yesterday. I went through the whole bag in about two minutes. The spreader settings needs to be high, so it really shoots out fast. I raked the seed in some bare spots in the lawn, and just spread it out on the areas up near the road. If the birds eat it, I’ll just get more.

What’s really exciting is our new tomato plants. These are hybrid something-er-others. They are supposed to produce nice big tomatoes. I like tomato sandwiches, so I am hoping they come out nicely.

Transplanting Shrubs

Thursday, May 22nd, 2008

Today’s job was to start transplanting some of the shrubs from the front of the property to the back. I am trying to take all the good shrubbery (did I just say shrubbery?) from the front hillside to transplant in the back, near the driveway. I already showed you the area I am working on in a previous post.

The reason I am taking these shrubs away from the front, is because I think more height is needed up there. I am planning on planting a good variety of Blue Spruce, Norway Spruce, Canadian Hemlock and Cleveland Pear along the whole hillside. With all the new stuff, the old, low shrubs will just be swallowed up. I mean, I am not going to go crazy with trees, just enough to add a nice green look up front. I think a variety of evergreens looks really good.

So, back to the back. Here is a picture of what the garden area looked like without the shrubs. Basically, the only stuff in there is the Iris I planted the other day, along with that plant no one can identify. I am going in rows, front to back.

These are the shrubs I planted today…

I like the variety of color. Also, back here, it’s going to be much easier for me to maintain each shrub. What I really like is that everything is here already…all I have to do is move stuff around the way I like it.

There is some more stuff in the front that I want to get. I am planning on doing that in the next few days, so I’ll have more photos then.

Ice on Trees - Photos

Tuesday, December 11th, 2007

I took some pretty cool photos this morning of all the ice on the trees. I heard that the midwest got hit hard. We didn’t get hit nearly as hard. Things are icy, but it is actually really nice outside. It is warming up fast, so you can hear all the ice falling from the trees out in the woods. It’s a really neat sound and very beautiful.

I was walking around outside this morning with my coffee. Just what I always wanted. About halfway through my little walk, I realized what I was doing…

Soaker Hose for the Garden

Tuesday, June 19th, 2007

As you may know, I like to plant things and admire the things I plant. I even like Planters Peanuts. I take it personally when things droop or die.

You may also know that the success of any new plant depends on many things, but one of them is the amount of water they receive. So many people sit there and watch the trees and shrubs that they just planted a few days ago die. I would think that many of them scratch their heads in wonder.

If you ask any of my neighbors what I do in the evening, they would probably tell you that I like to walk down the road and back as well as water the gardens. I do water a lot. I always knew that my hose and sprinkler method was not the most efficient way to do things, but that’s what I have to work with.

Laura came home the other night with a new shipment of plants she got from her friend. We planted them with some success. Some are taking off and some are half dead. Since such new plants require a lot of water and a lot of attention, I decided to get some of those soaker hoses I have heard about in the past. They are much more efficient than regular watering methods and are partially made with recycled tires. It’s all good.

If you are interested in water conservation via soaker hoses, you can check out these resources…

- Saving Water Partnership
- Fiskars Bulk Soaker Hose
- Garden and Soaker Hoses (EPA)

I have to say, these hoses are pretty cool. When you turn them on, you just watch them get wet. I did this last night and wondered if they were actually doing anything. Then, I dug my hand under the mulch to see that they were.

Save some water, give ‘em a shot.