Daily Home Renovation Tips

Merry Christmas!

We thought it appropriate on Christmas Day to write about……..evergreens. ;) 

We have written before in our Garden Makeover series  about our desire to have a low maintenance front garden.

Part of the garden plan we used called for Pyramidal Yews to be planted in both the two side gardens on either side of our front door as well as in our main front garden which was the primary focus of our garden makeover.

Here is what they looked like right before planting.

Now, what surprised me was how wild these evergreens can grow in a relatively short amount of time.

What do I mean by that?

 Well, we planted these in late May, and by early November just look how wild they had become.

 I mean, I figured that all of the branches would not grow at the same speed; after all, Mother nature’s work is not necessarily symmetrical with smooth, straight lines. :-)  

However, I did not expect the upper branches to grow so fast while the rest of the evergreen would stay relatively in the same shape.  

Pruning is not hard and does not take much time. Here are some after pictures of the Yews once the wild upper branches had been pruned.

 That’s better … I like the pyramid shape of these Yews. I wasn’t sure if I should have pruned the top part of the Yew, even though it was sticking out beyond the bulk of the branches. I decided to leave it and if the branches just beneath did not catch up in the spring then I could trim it too.

I like a low maintenance garden even more.

Merry Christmas to all!