Our front yard has been dominated by a trio of huge evergreens that, while not pretty (the top was broken out of one by a storm a few years ago), they did give us shade from southern exposure  and a bit of a dust block from the dirt road and the corn field across the street. You can see a bit of them behind Ben in the photo above from last summer. We’ve been trying to figure out a replacement for some time.

And then our state nursery had a sale. And we were lucky enough to hear about it in the nick of time! So we purchased hybrid willow cuttings, and seedling of redbud, nanny berry, and other varieties, all labeled as “wildlife package.”

So Ben got his chainsaw out and went to work. And soon, the evergreens were history.

These things grow like crazy! They should be six feet tall in 12 weeks! And by next summer, they should form a thick privacy hedge.

Next, we planned three rows of staggered hybrid will cuttings, hoping that at least half of them will take off and form a hedge. We covered the ground in black plastic and then simply jammed the cuttings through the plastic and into the ground at regular intervals. And then watered them in and topped the plastic with mulch.

Ben added a bed of several redbuds and nanny berry trees to one end of the hedge row.

Most of the willow cuttings are going to make it! As you can see, above, the willow is already taking off! We will have our hedge soon enough!

I  planted a row of sunflowers to be a bit of a privacy screen  for us this summer. Here’s a look at the life of the sunflowers I started in the greenhouse just a couple of months ago…

Happy summer, y’all!