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If you want to improve the overall look of your garden and cut your workload in half, there are few better ways than planting a few evergreen shrubs. Reliably beautiful and low-maintenance to boot, evergreen shrubs can serve as the backdrop to your overall garden design. Whether it's a lovely fragrant rhododendron hedge around the perimeter or a beautiful gardenia with huge blooms planted as a specimen right in the center of your garden, evergreen shrubs are perfect for any garden.
Easier Gardening
Evergreen shrubs are workhorses, staying attractive throughout the seasons and adding crucial architecture that anchors your garden design as a complete composition. They make gardening easier because they are reliable and, once established, fairly easy to maintain. Evergreen shrubs are generally static pieces that you can plan around. If you are planting a privacy hedge with junipers or thuja, you give yourself a soft, deep green canvas that lends itself to themed gardens, like Japanese gardens or even English knot gardens if you add a few boxwoods and other small shrubs. Your evergreen shrubs will ensure that your garden is interesting all year long.
Needles and Leather
Most evergreen shrubs can be separated into two categories based on their foliage. Generally, they are either broad-leaf or narrow-leaf varieties. Broad-leaf evergreen shrubs like azaleas, gardenias, and rhododendrons have broad leathery leaves. They often have big fragrant blooms at some point during the season and tend to drop more leaves throughout the year than narrow-leaf varieties. Broad-leaf varieties need to be protected from the winter sun and wind, because they lose more moisture than narrow-leaf varieties. The foliage of narrow-leaf varieties, like pines and junipers, is more commonly referred to as needles. Narrow-leaf evergreens hold foliage for as long as two years. Some leaf-drop is common for all shrubs, even evergreens, protecting the plant from losing moisture that evaporates through those excess leaves.
If your plant seems to be losing an unusual amount of foliage, it may not be getting enough water, or it may be getting too much wind and/or sun. All evergreen shrubs, especially those that are regularly pruned, lose their inner leaves as the outer foliage thickens. This is okay—it’s like a landlord evicting a tenant who isn't paying the rent. Your plant isn't going to keep supporting leaves that aren't producing any food!
Shrub TLC
Don't overcrowd your shrubs. Make sure you know how big they will get before you plant them so you can give them proper spacing. Make sure you have good drainage, and amend your soil as needed with good, absorbent organic material like peat or sphagnum down to about 10 inches. Use an organic mulch around the base of your shrubs to insulate the roots in during the cold months. If you use a good insect-repellent mulch like cedar, aspen or cypress chips, you will have fewer problems to worry about in the warmer months. Water regularly at first, deeply once a week, to establish a strong root system. After a few weeks, depending on your particular climate and the plants you chose, you may not need to water again unless it gets really dry. |
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