Shrubs Were a Consideration

I love growing vegetables. For a long time I didn't think any other kind of gardening was worthwhile - I thought flowers were frivolous, wasting space that could otherwise be used to fill bellies, and I didn't hardly know the meaning of the word "shrub." Of course that had to change when I found myself a suburban homeowner with an enormous lot of grass, grass, grass. Some shrubs were provided (sad and spindly bridal veil, poorly placed peonies, a beautiful pair of lilacs in back awaiting the ax, and something I suspect to be rhododendron) but my biomass consisted mostly of a few shade trees and a bunch of tenaciously suckering weed trees.
For Mother's Day I went to Fleet Farm and spent way too much money on bushes and shrubs. Happy Mother's Day to me. First, a forsythia, the one shrub I've known I would plant as soon as I owned a spot of land. This was a beast to place - I wanted it near the front door, which meant scraping away layers of rock and landscaping plastic, relocating a peony to a spot beneath layers of rock and landscaping plastic, and finally regretting how close I put the forsythia to the front door. But now I have a forsythia, and I can't wait for next spring.

Then there were three blueberry bushes. OKAY, not shrubs, but shrub-like, especially considering their bonus vocation as foundation screen. I haven't had my soil tested but I believe it's acidic, in part because the blueberries are killin' it in my lightly amended clay soil.

I also bought a red currant from fleet farm for $10. Who could resist a fruit bush for $10? No, not me. Thanks to my mom who, after weeks of that poor currant sitting in its pot, pointed out the perfect location for it to grow. It anchors the front corner of our yard and balances out the vegetable beds.

The spirea (bridal veil) gave us a lovely bloom in the spring, but sadly the blooms were like a toupee on a mass of lifeless branches. I thank Carol from the Guthrie for suggesting I rejuvenate the poor things. We cut them back drastically, down to 6" from the ground. As I write, they are lush as chia pets in my lawn. I'm talking seven little chia pets, green and bushy and wild.