Some people get so taken up with flowers, and leave out evergreens, when they are designing their gardens. They forget most perennials hibernate underground during the cold months of winter....and that WE, unlike bears don't. No we walk around our gardens all year, even if it is at a much, much brisker pace. Sometimes a mad dash.
Evergreens are the "bones" of the garden. They are there to hold it all together when the other plants don't want to come out and play in the snow. Yet most beginning gardeners don't include any in their island gardens or borders. The only downside is that they are more costly than perennials and annuals yet should be one of the first investments. Lowes, Home Depot, and Walmart are just a few stores that sell these for a little bit of nothing compared to the larger plant nurseries. They provide shelter from cold drying winds and keep the microclimate a little warmer.
There are little perks not usually mentioned with evergreens and that is they provide shelter for birds and their nests. Big birds prey on little birds that come to your feeders. If they can make a quick dive into an evergreen shrub it saves their life. You need the little birds to eat the, no so welcoming, foraging insects.
The next plus is that you can take cuttings from your evergreens and start new shrubs. Yes, people can add to their gardens in a big way, if they have the patience to wait until the cuttings become established.
Have a Westie Day...full of spunk and vitality!
Living in the country enjoying a westie dog, painting with watercolor, acrylic, oil, and gardening. Loveliness.
1 comment:
Good thing we have mostly evergreens in our landscaping even here in Florida! Last night there was a frost warning and most of our neighbors had covered up their palms and other fragile Florida plants with bed sheets and blankets so we did the same. But we only needed to cover our trio of date palms, 2 gardenia bushes, and one jasmine standard. The rest of our shrubs are boxwood and other evergreens, no coverings necessary! I just trimmed my spiral juniper topiaries this past Saturday. They are looking much neater now and I think have grown quite a bit since last August when they were planted. I am hoping the gardenia bushes will bloom this spring. When they were planted last year there were maybe 3 flowers and that was it. Do you think I need to fertilize them to get them going?
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