I planted one of the small hollies on the tree side of the walk. It is closer to the porch, but pretty much lines up with the hellabore on the other side of the tree.
I used all the mulch I had and it did not even come close to being enough to go around just the three hollies. So, it was back to Home Depot for 4 more bags of mulch. I also bought a bag of 45 crocus bulbs since they were all 1/2 off (the crocuses were the only ones that still looked decent) to put around the tree over on the line between my and Curtis's properties. After seeing Bobbie's pansies at her house yesterday I decided I had not purchased enough pansies and that my containers looked pretty sad, so I got 6 white and purple pansies to add to the pots. Then, while I was heading toward the bulbs I walked along the shade aisle and a rhododendron called out to me. It is an English Roseum and should bloom pink in May if it survives.
Back home with the mulch, I finished up mulching the three hollies and I think they look pretty good. Then I ran out of mulch trying to mulch on the tree side.
I had purchased the rhodie thinking it would be great to go along the area I just cleared in the back of the house, but when I got there the spot I was thinking of was in full afternoon sun, which will not work for a rhodie. So, instead I decided to plant it on the very edge of my woodland garden. I planted it as directed in several books, I scraped back the soil a little bit, set the plant on top and threw dirt over top and around it in a little sort of volcano. The plant's hang tag said to use basically pure peat moss, but a bag of that would have been more than the plant (rhodie- $6.97, peat moss- $9.95 on sale) so being the cheapskate that I am sometimes I decided to forgo the peat moss. Instead I used leftover soil I had from planting the hollies (which should be acidic) and added some Miracle Grow soil and a bunch of mushroom compost. I'm hoping the soil will be well drained enough but still acidic enough. We shall see...
I also planted the 45 crocus bulbs under the tree on the property line. Most of the bulbs seemed in pretty good shape to me so we will see if I get any flowers. They should be purple, yellow and white. I also added the 6 pansies, splitting them between several pots and added more soil to the one pot that I seemed to have really shorted on soil.
This evening I decided to go back out to Home Depot as I needed ONE MORE bag of mulch and I also wanted to go to a nursery to look for more of the large cabbages, as I thought they might look nice to put between the hollies temporarily to give it a more filled in look. My original plan was to go to Country Boys, as I thought they might be most likely to have the cabbages, but we somehow managed to overshoot them on the way up there. So, we went to Twin Bridge, where they did not have any big cabbages (or is it kale, who knows...). We did manage to find Country Boys on the way back home and they didn't have the cabbages either. So ended up at Home Depot getting the last bag of mulch and also 3 big pavers to make a little path to the water spicket. The hose leaks badly and is making a mess, and I am planning on adding some plants in the area, so figured I'd get the pavers now while the ground is freshly dug and the pavers are on sale. They each weigh 20 lbs and they are currently in the back of my car. I'm actually going to have to carry each one through the house to the back yard. YIKES!!
Tomorrow I have to work all day so I won't really have time to do anything in the yard or the house. My plan for Sunday is to finish up the mulch in the front of the house, set the pavers and try to get to Underwoods for 2 more cabbage.
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