Planting a garden for all seasons - ITS HARD!

[SarahFair]

Thanks for the link suggestion vfem!

I do like the camellia flowers!


I have 2 holly bushes (from previous owners) and i hate them! Ones soo scraggly and the other grows like a V. I would like to trim them back and make them look nice but dont know how really.. They stab me all the time when Im gardening around them

 

[journey11]

I have 2 holly bushes (from previous owners) and i hate them! Ones soo scraggly and the other grows like a V. I would like to trim them back and make them look nice but dont know how really.. They stab me all the time when Im gardening around them

The more you prune them back, the bushier they will get.

 

[SarahFair]

I have 2 holly bushes (from previous owners) and i hate them! Ones soo scraggly and the other grows like a V. I would like to trim them back and make them look nice but dont know how really.. They stab me all the time when Im gardening around them

The more you prune them back, the bushier they will get.

Ive been thinking of pruning them into a small looking tree. Is it possible to over prune?

 

[Rosalind]

You can make them into a tree shape. Bush shapes are usually easier. Hollies are fairly slow-growing critters though, so yes, you can over-prune them.

For 3-4 season plants, I really like Mahonias. Yellow blooms in spring, blue-colored berries in late summer, foliage turns bright red/orange in fall and hangs on the bush for most of the winter. They do not grow so fast that they even need regular pruning, and they do not get so almighty big that they wreck your foundation if planted close to a house. Unfortunately they get all sun-burned and wind-burned and frostbitten up here, there's only a few that do even OK. But there are many more options in your area.

Another favorite, but which might not be suitable for your area, is Harry Lauder's Walking Stick, AKA contorted dwarf hazel. Beautiful curly branches in winter, catkins in spring, just looks like a green leafy bush in summer, edible hazelnuts in fall.

I was always given to understand that you should start with the "bones" of the garden--evergreens, trees, bushes, fences, paths, statues and things that will create a structure for the space in winter, and think of it like architecture, a little spare and geometric, design-wise. Then fill in with deciduous perennials that will have stalks and things sticking up in fall/winter, and be mounds of green & flowers any other time, but still leave plenty of strategic space. It should look uncluttered at that point, but more complex than the geometric layout of winter. Then back-fill the spaces you left with the temporary bloomers like spring bulbs and summer annuals.

It's a little bit of a formulaic method, but it mostly works OK.