So there I stand with this super successful professional, a man of high learning, who wants to know how we can coax this spent row of 5 foot tall trunks and stems along his walk into growing more hair in bottoms. He thinks that fertilizer cures all of man’s cruelty. (Remember that you must see things through eye of plant?) How am I to explain this to this person! My professional self developed a cunning approach. “A landscape has a life expectancy of about 20 years. Yours seems to be about 5 years overdue for replanting.” If this was not enough to convince customer, I would go on to ask how long wallpaper in their kitchen had hung there. Explaining that redecorating outdoors was just as necessary to variety in life than it was to keep up to date with their interior décor. But they wanted back what they had before it turned into bare branches! The issue of certain control may very well be answer.

Now I am not against hedges. I am not anti-evergreen. Pruning, thinning and shaping is of definite necessity to full and lovely shrubs and even some trees. Even every other aspect of life we look for right thing to accomplish task, but when it comes to plants we place in our yards we seem to fall short in search for proper element. Proper planning should be first consideration and whacking could become almost obsolete. It is good to know that plant breeders are busily developing new Arborvitaes and Yews that will stay in a nice little meatball shape without whacking. News that will lessen maintenance you must forfeit your weekend to perform, alleviate need to butcher bushes and make all hedge trimmer companies hold their breath over next year’s third quarter earnings.

As for aspect of proper planning vs. constant replacement, if space is 30 inches wide, then it would be best to consider installing only those shrubs that will never exceed 4 foot in width. Remember, a little shaping is good and a harsh whacking is lowering life expectancy of elements in your landscape. Proper planning is one of best tools in creating a low maintenance planting.

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On side of a beer bottled we have a warning from Surgeon General warning us not to operate automotive vehicles or heavy equipment and goes on to say that alcohol could cause health problems. Have you ever seen such a warning on a bag of mulch or invoice you pay that nice young man from? While there is such a thing as natural death among plants, death without explanation is easily blamed as trees cannot say:

"Hey! I am dying because I cannot breathe anymore because you have put way too much mulch around my trunk!"

Nope, no tree can scream HELP! They can’t tell you I need water, my toes hurt, its hot out here; they are helpless unless we know instinctively problem. They can only get your attention if you WANT to hear what they have to say. Selective listening has serves no purpose when one deals with plants.

Where was I? Oh yes, this yearly freshening of mulch in beds...if you were a tree, you would see instantly why this is not a good thing. Trees have a natural breathing ring (as well as many types of shrubs and other woody plants) that develops right at point of their trunk where their "stem" and soil meet originally upon their sprouting.

When you pull a weed, properly extracting it from soil, it is going to deposit dirt on top of mulch. The more soil that is mixed with wood mulch, faster it will decompose and return to its’ previous state as soil. Remember what comes from soil returns to soil; it is a natural revolution no one can prevent.

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