Comments on: Instant Screening without Busting the Budget.

By: Laura

Laura — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 00:30:57 +0000

I understand the need for screening as I live on a corner lot and have a wire on wood fence in the backyard that borders the street and the side between my neighbor and myself.

You did a great job for temporary screening.

By: sharris

sharris — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 20:13:56 +0000

Deirdre, my last house was a bungalow, too, and I LOVED my front porch with its view of the street. In my new house the front faces a parking lot, no actual passersby. SO my need for front-yard screening is brand new to me. I hear ya!

By: Deirdre in Seattle

Deirdre in Seattle — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 19:57:21 +0000

We moved into a charming craftsman bungalow with a sweet front porch, and my husband immediately wanted to plant a huge hedge so we couldn’t see or be seen. I have fought him tooth and nail. I have planted strategically placed shrubs and trees so we don’t have to look at the neighbor’s garbage cans or messy side yard, and passers by can’t look straight into our front window, but I LIKE to sit on the front porch and exchange greetings with my neighbors as they walk their children and/or dogs. If I “vant to be alone” I sit on the back deck.

I do love freebies.

By: sharris

sharris — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 17:04:10 +0000

Rhea, I prefer a couple of the alternatives to Leylands – esp Cryptometeria and several varieties of Arborvitae. I’m also using 5 hollies in this back garden, eventually to be 4-6 feet. The Cryptomerias grow surprisingly fast, seemingly no matter how much sun. And they’re nice to the touch.

By: Rhea

Rhea — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 14:02:43 +0000

Susan, what about leylandii cypress for evergreen screening? I garden 5b/6a and planted a couple. Despite several years of drought and some not so benevolent neglect these guys are troopers. In just about five years, the one planted in an exposed northeast location has grown from a potted size of 3-5 feet to well over my head and about six feet wide. And have I mentioned gorgeous?

Love watching your garden grow. Thanks

By: sharris

sharris — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 13:13:15 +0000

Lauren, thanks! I’ve gotten some great suggestions from readers, so blogging is paying off.

Coming next? Posts about the much larger garden I’ve just adopted because I’ve already run out of space. It’s just two doors down, an end unit, which I avoided buying because I thought it would be too large for me. Ha! Fortunately, my neighbor is fine with it (obviously, not a gardener).

By: Lauren Scheuer

Lauren Scheuer — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 12:40:05 +0000

Susan, I’ve been following your garden and your view since the staining of the fence, and am loving your thought process and the transformations.

By: sharris

sharris — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 01:23:23 +0000

Good idea for a Rant topic! And one of the MANTS suppliers I asked was a bamboo grower, exclusively.

By: Christopher C NC

Christopher C NC — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 01:09:46 +0000

Susan I think those nursery people at MANTS just haven’t tried. I will admit that the climate in Hawaii is the optimum greenhouse conditions and there is a natural advantage.

I think we need to ask a bamboo grower and at the same time ask how they propagate most of their stock, by division or tissue culture. You have to wait for seed for about a hundred years.

I just took a division off one of my new clumping bamboos about two months ago and it didn’t bat an eye or shed a single leaf. Next they’ll be telling you, well maybe in NC they can, but not here.

Bamboo would actually be a hot topic for the Rant.

By: sharris

sharris — Tue, 22 Jan 2013 00:41:31 +0000

Christopher, I asked around at a nursery trade show I attended last week (MANTS) and was told that indeed it cannot be done (cut bamboo taking root), at least here in the Mid-Atlantic. I quoted you and everyone said well, maybe in Hawaii but not here. I also checked with local horticulturists.
And having dug up 6 small bamboo plants to grow in pots and seen two of them die already, I have to agree with what I was told about the difficulty of transplantation. Their root system is very different from that of shrubs, at least the ones I’ve ever grown. I was told the clumping kind of bamboo is much more amenable to being uprooted and planted in pots than the creeping kind.