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Landscaping the Plymouth House

Bob discusses landscape with John Sears, landscape contractor.
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Landscaping the Plymouth House

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" We changed a few things in that window."

" Yeah, it was very overgrown there, and it looks much better now. And then of course, some of the material that we had here has been transplanted. You think it's gonna be alright?"

" Well, it survived that long dry spell that [unk] we're into fall so it should do fine."

" And now, over here on the front where we've built our trellis sections, these gentlemen are installing, what's this called?"

" Pyrachanta."

" [unk], right?"

" [unk]."

" Yeah. And it has a distinctive little red orange berry. And that should be a good hardy choice, right?"

" Right here next to the road, it's a real hardy plant and it will grow all over that trellis and give a good screening."

" So we'll have pretty color and good screening from the noise of the street."

" That's right."

" Yeah. Well I'm glad that these new bushes are gonna take because I was concerned, you know, when we did dig them up. I guess it's been about a month since John and I did a survey of the property and figured that these would be salvaged out here. Let's take a look at some footage we rolled about a month ago."

" Okay, John, it's a good idea to get all [unk] off, but won't it grow like that here?"

" Well, it probably will, but what we're trying to do is get rid of all the roots that [unk] down here now."

" Yes."

" And it's the same with [unk]."

" Well, that just wouldn't work if the window is still valuable."

" Yes."

" They can get a ball up [unk."

" Well, with it out of the way now you're getting lots of daylight coming in."

" It comes in through the window."

" Just jump right in there."

" Yeah."

" Good. And then, the same problem existed here on the front of the house where all of the original foundation plants had gone as big as this little roses Sharon. Any tips on how best to transplant, how to dig the hole and so forth?"

" Well, most important to be able to save a complete ball of root, you can see Rick has the back of the shovel towards the plant, and you shave it down and try to maintain a good firm ball around the plant."

" And the ball doesn't have to be any bigger than what he's working on right there."

" No, it doesn't. It can be actually a smaller [unk] but without cutting the big root."

" That's great."

" So we had 3 or 4 or 5 of these, what do you call these? Yews."

" These are yews."

" And some of them are already being put into place."

" Right. We're planting these out next to the street. Try to cut down a little of the noise from automobiles."

" Yeah. Now John, the root ball itself is only about maybe 16 inches in diameter. I see the hole a good 24."

" Well, we try to give it enough hole so that the new roots can be spread out. We're putting some peat moss and cow manure in there now. It's pretty dry so we're trying to maintain some moisture right around the roots when it's transplanted."

" Couldn't you just toss some fertilizer in there?"

" Well, you could, but we'd rather use an organic fertilizer so we don't burn tender roots."

" Okay. And so the root ball on this one, I see you've actually pruned some of the big roots though."

" Well we have and we discovered something here, Bob. Years ago, they used a plastic----"

" Wrapping."

" wrapping----"

" for the root ball."

" rather than real burlap."

" Yeah."

" And, in all the years, this has been in the whole. This has still confined the roots to that point. So, what we're gonna do here is we're gonna slash this with a knife and start it out that."

" We wouldn't be able to remove the whole thing."

" Yeah."

" But we're gonna give it a chance in getting some of the roots out of there."

" Okay. Alright. So is this ready to go in the hole?"

" This is ready to go in the hole and we can put it in."

" Not that heavy, is it? Beautiful."

" And we've marked the front of those so they'd go back the same way that they came out."

" Then you've got---- this one is identical to the one that he's digging up over there. These 2 bushes are a little bit taller and they look a little different."

" Well, this is Densiformis yew and that over there are Hatfield yews."

" Uh huh."

" So we're gonna do a little something different with them planting."

" Yeah."

" And we've also marked this. So that other plant is ready to go in the hole now. We will still need to be able to put some fertilizer and some topsoil in this whole over here."

" But the important thing is to give it a trickle of water."

" Right."

" Give it a nice long drink of water."

" We'll put plenty of soil below the ball and then we'll also put more peat moss and cow manure. Spade that in. and then when we water, the most important thing is to try to drive the air----"

" Yeah."

" from away from the ball, and then we will----"

" John, it looks like you've got it totally under control."

" Well we've had a good layer of mulch in place to hold down weeds and to keep the moisture."

" Uh huh."

" And they should do well."

" Dresses up nicely. Okay, then close to the house herem you've got all sorts of new stuff installed."

" Well we've put [unk] juniper at the entrance here."

" Uh huh. This will spread out all over the place here."

" That will spread out and it defines the entrance and controls traffic toward the walk."

" Right."

" On the corner, we've put a [unk] yew, and that's important because we'll be able to hold that forever, right that's size with just regular pruning."

" Right."

" Dig deeper from getting out of shade. It's in size as the other ones there."

" It's in scale with the house right now."

" It is, yeah."

" Yeah."

" Because the windows were so low why we [unk] juniper, which is a very soft juniper. It will never get any tall than probably about a foot tall."

" But again, it will spread around."

" It will spread around and still let light in the windows."

" What's this bush?"

" This is a Delaware white azalea."

" Oh, yes. They're very pretty."

" And it's very colorful. A lot of early spring flowers. Back in [unk], I've got a whole panel."

" Will it get kind of tall?"

" It can get tall, but it still won't obstruct the windows and pruning will keep it back."

" What about that one there?"

" This is a PGA rhododendron. Very small leaf rhododendron. They have a fragrance. This will build into this corner and give us a good background against the doorway."

" It's nice to choose something with a fragrance next to the door."

" Wow."

" That's a good idea."

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