Bye Yew Hedge, Hi New Hedge: The Optimist's Garden

The Optimist's Garden
At the moment we have labeled it the Optimist's garden. The dwarf conifers that we selected haven't even begun to realize their potential size. But we can squint and pretend they are much larger than they are and get an idea of how stunning they will look once they have grown for several years. Or perhaps several decades.

Choosing the new shrubs was a big thrill for me. I realized years ago that I had this tree problem. I am rarely attracted to the usual varieties of trees - the usual maples and oaks and other garden variety greens. Not when I could have ones that had gnarled and twisty limbs, or ones that came in interesting shades like purple or gold - or variegated. I have resisted buying most trees that I am drawn to (with the exception of Japanese lace leaf weeping maples) because I knew that otherwise I would invariably end up with a spotty looking yard full of specimen trees.

But this new front yard planting gave me the opportunity to play with my attraction to the unusual. I was giving in to the unspoken front yard rule, in a way, by using evergreens as my foundation planting. Everyone uses them, and having spent most of my time preaching individuality, this may seem like a cop-out. It's not.

Few people seem to use the more interesting evergreens - the ones that are actually ever-gold or ever-blue. You may see the occasional Colorado blue spruce used as a lawn specimen, or perhaps a gold rug juniper in a large garden bed, but no one seems to take advantage of the many varied shapes and colors of conifers to create visual interest. So here was my opportunity to gather a collection of specimen trees, paying careful attention to their textures, shapes and eventual sizes, to create a planting that would be colorful even in the dead of winter. Something unlike any foundation planting I've seen.

Planning and Planting Designs
Shapes: I ended up with a front planting of specimen trees, but they were planted with a distinct design purpose. Some were tall and cone shaped, others wider and flatter, a few mounded and a couple spread like groundcovers. I arranged them so that tall and pointy contrasted against soft and mounded or low and spreading so that instead of a straight line we had (or will havem when they grow some) an

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