And on the second day.....

I planted shrubs. Okay, it wasn't really the second day, but it was my second major task.

Aside from my ugly house, I had an ugly fence that bordered the south and much of the west side of my yard. It provided privacy, but there it was .....just grass and a very weathered fence, staring at me whenever I walked out of my door.

My house came with several geometrically shaped shrubs which I determined to be Waxleaf Ligustrum (Japanese Privet). This plant is very common in this area and I assume was the foundation shrub of the decade when this neighborhood was developed. While this wasn't my choice for my front yard, I had other priorities. I decided to live with and maintain them for a while as I tackled bigger projects.

I had noticed that these same shrubs could also be pruned to be interesting looking trees. There were a couple in my back yard in the "natural fence" that bordered the rest of my lot's west boundary. They were also abundant at a golf club that always looks picture perfect. They were evergreen, had twisted, gnarly trunks and a nice canopy. I made the decision to plant them along the fence on my south side.

There was grass already growing in this bed of shrubs that I was about to create. Remember, at this time I had lived in condos all of my adult life. I did not have much of a collection of garden tools. I think at the time, I had a hoe, a shovel and a weed-eater. What I lacked in tools, I made up for in stress.

I was having had a very good year with the corporate-America job that I had at the time. I was loading several new accounts as I was buying, moving and getting settled into my new home. With these new loads came an abundance of situations that were not going too well and were beyond my control. These were not problems that I could just lay aside for the weekend.

What I could do is vent that frustration at the task at hand. I physically removed every bit of grass, with a hoe and by hand, for an area that was about 4 feet by 6o feet.

I planted my ligustrums - probably a little too close together, but that again stems from my desire to hide the ugly. I have to say, overall, they have been pest and disease free. They've had a moderate to slow growth rate (my neighbor's oak grew faster and provided a little too much shade). In the first few years, I had to prune the bottom two-thirds pretty regularly so they would grow into 'trees' and not shrubs. Maintaining the 'tree shape' has numerous advantages: (1) I do not have to prune hedges (2) they do not look so predictable (3) they take up much less space. Space is important when you have a small yard and big ideas.

They are far from mature but they do provide a much more pleasant backdrop for my southern border and for the plants now underneath them.