You may have seen on the news that we are experiencing record high temperatures throughout the Pacific Northwest. With hotter temperatures, people tend to wear fewer clothes; which from my perspective can have both its ups and downs.
Take this morning for example. I get up at 5:45am and the outdoor temperature is 71 degrees F. So, I open the house up, and take my bowl of blueberries and melon out on the front porch to enjoy the early morning garden while the temperature is most comfortable. I hear some kind of racket going on next door, the neighbor’s dog begins to bark aggressively and then a naked man flops over the short fence and runs through my front yard. As I was processing that sight, here comes the neighbor’s dog rounding the fence near the road with what appeared to be the man’s pajama bottoms in his mouth.
Not sure what I should do about all this activity, my mind immediately went to what conifers I should consider planting along that short fence to prevent this sight from occurring in the future.
Now, I like my neighbors quite a lot; in fact we are good friends, so I really don’t want to plant anything that will get huge or require a lot of shearing to maintain. My first thought is something with very long and sharp needles (to defend against unwanted fence hopping). Then again, I don’t want to be mean, and I am sure there must have been some kind of rational explanation for the activity I just witnessed.
I decide on a mix of dwarf cultivars of Thuja occidentalis. They will grow slowly enough not to take over the entire border between our two homes and will add nice color and a soft texture to the hedge.
A few great dwarf and intermediate cultivars of Thuja occidentalis that I will consider are:
- ‘Hetz Midget’ – a good green globe-shaped mounding plant.
- ‘Golden Globe’ – great color and very tidy globe-shaped habit.
- ‘Sherwood Frost’ – makes a fine textured narrow pyramid with nice creamy variegated foliage.
- ‘Bobazam’ (“Mr. Bowling Ball®”) – is a fun, small, ball-shaped, fine textured green mound.
- ‘Yellow Ribbon’ – although it will grow large, one or three of these placed along the hedge row will add impact with their contrasting color and size.
Of course there are others to consider as well. The more I think about it, the more I like the idea of designing the hedge to creatively incorporate all these different shapes, sizes and textures to make my new hedge not only functional, but a showpiece as well.
Now, the rest of the story.
As it turns out, the man was fleeing the home on the other side of my neighbor. When he hopped the fence on that side, he tipped over a couple garbage cans which alerted the dog and well, as they say, the rest is history.
Ed-
Conifer Lover
The Amazing World of Conifers 