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Published on 02/08/01

Plan Carefully Before Planting Landscape

I realize it's not spring just yet, but I had a little spring fever creeping up on me recently. And with spring fever comes the urge to plant something. It happened to me, but before I could plant something, I had to get rid of something.

Our house has a lot of dwarf yaupon holly and Burford holly as foundation plantings. I guess they were planted when the house was built. We inherited them when we moved in. Both types of plants are very nice, and very low-maintenance. The problem is that they're all planted in the wrong place.

The yaupon hollies are planted about 8 inches from the house, and that's way too close. The Burford hollies aren't dwarf Burfords, and for the small space they're planted in, they get way too big. But the shrubbery I planted in back of the house a few years ago is just right.

Déjà vu!

I seem to have heard a story similar to this when I was a kid. Wasn't there somebody named Goldilocks?

Anyway, I wanted to replace the hollies in front. But I had to dig them up first. And that, my friend, is a big job. I first had to find a mattock I could use to dig them up, and I don't have one. I asked a close neighbor if he had one.

"I don't know," he replied. "What does it look like?"

I proceeded to describe a mattock to him. Together we looked through all his tools, and sure enough, he had one. I asked him, "If you don't know what it is, what do you call it?"

Borrow a 'Hoe'

"I just call it a hoe," he said.

Well, I borrowed the "hoe" and started to work, trying to dig up the dwarf yaupon hollies. And that's where the job got even bigger.

I found out there is nothing dwarf about a dwarf yaupon holly root. That blame thing must be the size of the big end of a baseball bat and at least 2 feet deep.

Even with all my digging with the mattock, I have yet to get the holly to even budge. And that's the "dwarf" ones. I'm wearing myself out just writing about it.

Plan Before You Plant

The point in all this is that if spring fever has you itching to plant something, especially shrubbery, some careful planning can save you a lot of work later on down the road.

How? Simple. Know what it is you're planting and how big it's going to get. Plants come in all shapes and sizes. Whoever planted my hollies just didn't know.

Granted, some people just love to do yard work. But most of us probably don't. When my spring fever subsides, I'm afraid I'll still be digging on that holly.

Mike Isbell is the Heard County extension coordinator with the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.

Experts/Sources:
Mike Isbell
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