Current Project: Addressing the Hedge Conundrum

I inherited a LOT of hedges with our current garden, including hedges next to other hedges as in the case of the Ceanothus and Xylosma planted in the front and back gardens.

Photo of the side-by-side Ceanothus and Xylosma hedges in April 2013, when the former was in far better shape.  The space between the two was just over 3 feet wide.

As discussed in a post in October 2015, the Ceanothus shrubs throughout the garden began to fail in 2015.  I can't entirely explain this.  They have a reputation for being short-lived when grown in areas receiving regular irrigation but, if anything, the irrigation in the area decreased after we moved in, especially once the adjacent lawn was removed and water restrictions were implemented in response to our drought.  Perhaps the shrubs weren't as deeply rooted as they should have been after years of more intensive irrigation, or perhaps they couldn't handle the regular shearing they received to keep them within the space designated for them.  In any case, they died off one after another in the front garden, leading me to wonder if I should just pull out the remainder.  But I hung on to the last of them until I could stand their ugly appearance no longer.

Photo of the remaining section of Ceanothus hedge in the front garden taken last month

This is a closer look at the worst area of the remaining hedge.  At this point, I was convinced that the shrubs weren't going to mount a comeback.

I asked my mow-and-blow gardeners if they could take out the remaining shrubs but, when they made minimal progress during two of their 20-minute weekly visits, my husband and I tackled the job.  My husband deserves most of the credit - I served mainly as the clean-up crew.  We made quick work of the job and, voilà, in less than 2 hours we were done!

The pathway parallel to the street is now far less claustrophobic and I have a new area to plant.

The plants behind the old Ceanothus hedge may also get more sun and better air circulation.

The "new" area is roughly half shade and half sun.  I'm still working out what to plant there.  The ground above the stacked stone wall is sloped so I think I need another supply of rock to stabilize it before I get too carried away buying new plants.  Having new space to plant is a great mood booster, though.


All material © 2012-2016 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party

Foliage Follow-up: Hedges

I've got hedges on my mind, in part because the Strelitzia nicolai (giant bird of paradise) that formed a visual barrier between us and a neighbor on our north side was recently cut to the ground and in part because the Ceanothus hedges on our property are slowly dying.  When I considered topics for today's Foliage Follow-up, the post-Bloom Day celebration of foliage sponsored by Pam at Digging, hedges seemed the obvious topic.

We inherited a LOT of hedges with the house and garden we acquired almost 5 years ago.  In fact, I hired a garden service for the first time in my life after we moved into our current home mainly because I realized it was going to be difficult to maintain all the hedges on our property (with or without my husband's help).  By my count, 6 different types of hedges surrounded us: Auranticarpa rhombifolia (aka diamond leaf pittosporum), Ceanothus (no ID), Laurus nobilis (aka sweet bay or Grecian laurel), Prunus caroliniana (aka cherry laurel), Xylosma congestum, and Yucca elephantipes.  We even have hedges next to hedges.

This view from the backyard shows the Ceanothus hedge running alongside the Xylosma hedge.  There's a path approximately 1 foot wide in between, which gives the gardener (or landscape service) space to maneuver in maintaining both.  In the distance you can see another sort of hedge consisting of some kind of manicured shrub belonging to a homeowner in a neighborhood below us.

Another set of hedges (Ceanothus on the left and Xylosma on the right) runs along the front of the property on the south side of the driveway

Some hedges have held up better than others.  The Yucca at the bottom of our backyard slope may have been intended serve as a tree but it had turned into an impenetrable multi-trunk mass long before we moved in.  Fearing that it had become almost uncontrollable, my husband had it removed, leaving a gap I'm currently trying to fill with Pittosporum tenuifolium.  I cut into the Auranticarpa hedge along the street on the southwest side myself in an effort to rejuvenate it but lost several of the component shrubs leaving gaps in the screen these plants once provided.  However, I subsequently planted a succulent bed in this area so I'm not inclined to restore or replace this hedge, especially as the Auranticarpa tends to suffer from a permanent case of chlorosis.

The best of the hedges are those comprised of Xylosma congestum, a plant that seems to have no common name.  It forms a relatively dense boundary but air and light easily pass through it.  It takes regular trimming in stride without developing a thicket of dead interior twigs.  It also has glossy leaves with orange-tinged new growth.

Close-up of the new growth on Xylosma congestum

A hedge made up of Xylosma lines the main backyard border, providing a frame for our view of the Los Angeles harbor.

View looking southeast toward Angel's Gate, the entrance to the Los Angeles harbor

View looking northeast

The hedge neatly blocks our view of the neighbor's property from the backyard.

This taller portion of the Xylosma hedge, which divides my dry garden from the steps leading down to the back slope, also blocks my view of the neighbor's property

This is the view that lies beyond the Xylosma hedge.  The hedge in the foreground is comprised of Laurus nobilis, which lines our side of the neighbor's metal fence.

 A Xylosma hedge also lines the front of the property, giving us some privacy from the street.

In addition to shielding us from the street, this section of hedge currently hides one of the 2 areas recently stripped of lawn

The worst of the hedge materials used on our property is Ceanothus.  While I love Ceanothus in virtually all its incarnations, I don't think it should be used for hedges, at least not of the type created here.  When combined with plants that are regularly irrigated as these shrubs were, they struggle.  Worse yet, the regular trimming they're subjected to to keep them tidy and low creates and mass of dead growth below the surface and appears to undermine the plants' overall health.  Or that's my theory anyway.

The Ceanothus hedge after a recent shearing to allow passage along the path between it and the Xylosma hedge in the front garden

One by one, within the last year, the Ceanothus shrubs making up the hedges in my front and back gardens have been dying.  Their removal leaves large gaps.

The death of one section of the Ceanothus hedge here left a gap of more than 12 feet.  With no particular plan in mind, I filled in the space with Aeonium and Pelargonium tomentosum cuttings.  Although there's still a lot of soil showing, I'm rather pleased with how the space is filling in.

However, the next section of Ceanothus hedge is about ready for removal.  The photo on the left shows its best side but it looks sad when viewed straight on as in the photo on the right.

Rather than try to recreate the Ceanothus hedge behind the Xylosma hedge at the front of the house, I think I'm going to fill the area in with other plant material.  I like the look of the Pennisetum advena 'Rubrum' with Pelargonium tomentosum  (peppermint geranium) and Aeoniums below and may continue that approach but I'm open to other suggestions!

What I'm going to do in the backyard is an open question.  Although I've lost one section of Ceanothus there, overall those shrubs are doing better than the ones in the front so I have some time to formulate a plan.

There was a Ceanothus shrub adjoining 3 others here to form a hedge directly behind the Xylosma hedge at the top of the slope.  I'd like to plant something to fill in the space but I need to leave room to move behind the Xylosma for maintenance purposes.

Got any ideas?

Fortunately, the Laurus nobilis along the eastern border with the neighbor on one side and the Prunus caroliniana on the southern border with the neighbor on the other side are holding up just fine.

For other views on foliage of all kinds, visit Pam at Digging.


All material © 2012-2015 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party

Views from the Street

A couple of weeks ago I took a stroll around our neighborhood to see what was going on in nearby gardens.  I posted some pictures, which you can see here.  However, I didn't include any pictures of our own front yard.  Like many of our neighbors' yards, ours is partially hidden behind tall hedges.  In fact, we have hedges behind hedges, which I find a bit odd.

Pathway between 2 hedges running along street (pipes left behind from someone's prior plumbing project)

My guess is that the Ceanothus hedge and dry stack wall shown above pre-date the installation of the hedge of Xylosma congestum that runs along the street.

The house has 2 planting beds beside the walkway to the front door.  I've made a lot of changes to these beds in the 2 years we've been in the house, although the pink Meidiland shrub roses, Agapanthus, Coleonema albus, and Nandina domestica that give the beds their basic structure were in place before we moved in.

Right front planting bed

Left front planting bed

The front door is covered by a wooden pergola.  I've never felt that the glass door and side panels entirely fit this mid-century modern house but we love the light that they let into the interior.

The view from the doorway looking outward provides a different perspective of the yard.  There are a lot of trees on our half-acre lot, including a large Magnolia (no ID, probably Magnolia grandiflora), a Hong Kong Orchid tree (Bauhinia x blakeana), several California pepper trees (Schinus molle), and several strawberry trees (Arbutus 'Marina').

View from walkway looking Southeast

View looking Northwest

From the vantage point of the lawn area on the right of the driveway, you can see the Xylosma hedge running along the street.

There's a peek into the front side yard from a pathway used to move the garbage cans to the street for pick up.

And, to the side of the driveway, a concrete cat, a Christmas gift from my husband many years ago, peeks around the corner.

In addition to my ongoing fiddling with the existing planting beds, there are a lot of other changes I'd like to make to the front of the house, including reducing the size of the the lawn area.  I'm inclined to keep some of that lawn up front, if not in the back, just because I like the rest it provides for the eyes; however, maybe in time I can find a less thirsty grass to replace the weed-ridden lawn we currently have.  Give me 10 to 15 years...