Tuesday, October 7, 2014

Plant a Tree, Or Maybe 250 Boxwoods!

Tally:

Sunday--50 boxwoods planted
Monday--150 boxwoods planted
Left to plant--50 boxwoods Planted!!!

My hub is the best hole digger in this great land of ours! All 250 holes were dug by him with his papa's trusty, sturdy bulb hole digger. Most of the 200 holes he dug out along our walk path to the front porch were "killers." The soil out in the front yard there is mostly clay and seems to turn to concrete when it is dry. So he was pleasantly surprised and happy to have a "gully washer" rain storm yesterday morning flood up that pathway and make the hole digging somewhat manageable.

And as the resident MG (Master Gardener), I propagated the 250 boxwood cuttings ( made cuttings and dusted with rooting hormone powder and kept in moist soil from April 2014 until October 2014) and am on my way to finish up the planting. (I finished around lunch time!) We have wanted to do this project since we moved into our home in 2007,  and now we see the light at the end of the tunnel (oops, pathway).

P.S. These 250 plants join our 95 maturing boxwoods.

We hope that someday the boxwoods (buxus) will look like the ones we planted along our driveway in Zoeterwoude, The Netherlands.

These are the mature plantings as they looked in 2012.

Here is the second group in 2012.

And these were the babies in 2012.

This is one of four boxes of rooting cuttings in the summer of 2014.

Now all four containers contain only soil.

In April 2014, these 4 year old guys had haircuts to provide the new cuttings.

Don't they look sharp in October 2014?

The "junior high" group planted a year later is next. They are filling out nicely.

This profile shows off the juniors. Those with the yellow/orange ribbon were the youngest ones until yesterday.

Those plants marked with the faded ribbon to the right are those elementary guys. And then the dark orange newbies on the left joined the growing club.

200 hundred of those newbie cuties (difficult to see, I know).

Any better?

What about this?

Oh, and here are the 50 boxwood "sprouts" I planted along the pathway from the garage driveway to the mudroom door.

They get to enjoy the knock-out roses and agaves on the other side of the walk way.

One last look at some of the bigger newbies who have a few weeks/months to harden up before our Louisiana winter. Who knows what Mother Nature has in store this winter! Temps this afternoon are back up to the 90's F!

(Want to propagate your own boxwood (buxus) hedge? Use my SEARCH box up in the top right corner of my blog. Just type boxwoods. Super simple instructions, and then watch those "sprouts" grow.)



5 comments:

  1. When they all mature it is going to be an impressive sight.

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  2. So is Pop the best immigrant hole digger in all the land??!? ;)

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  3. Wow- That is a lot of work, Linda. Good for you because it is going to be just gorgeous when it has grown and filled in. You did a wonderful job. It will be interesting to see if they all overwinter. xo Diana

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  4. You have worked hard, they are going to look amazing when they've filled out. I love box, it's such a useful structural plant. Well done for growing your own from cuttings.

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  5. You have done a hard work during the long period. Great job

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