Leap. I Say Leap.

As the barren time settles in for the duration my garden thoughts turn to the evergreens. It simply is not acceptable to be without a functioning garden for six months of the year. Every effort is being made to plant my way out of that fate. I want to be drawn out and into the garden even in the dead of winter.

Now is the time, when all else is gone, for me to check on the progress of the evergreens that have been half hidden in the Lush during the time of vegetation.

This variegated sedge was pure luck. I rescued it from of a rubbish pile and brought it home having no clue who it was or how hardy it might be. Well it is cold hardy, evergreen and has doubled in size. Time to divide it come spring.

This year's reveal is proving to be a great struggle with patience. The baby Bosnian Pines have grown. The cold hardy, clumping, Fargesia bamboo has grow. They have not grown large.

Little rhododendrons are twice as big as when they were planted. A tiny camellia to the right of the top rhodie is still really tiny. It's alive and looking healthy. That will have to suffice

The new Chamaecyparis obtusa 'Crippsii' grew and turned green. It is supposed to have lovely gold tipped foliage. It needs to reach for the sun and grow taller than the Lush. Sunlight will bring its color back.

The Weeping Nootka Cypress is a slow grower. It is really testing my patience. But yes, even it has grown.

Leap. I say leap. We are at three years and counting for some of these evergreens. The hollies grow taller in methodical increments.

Evergreens are not just trees and shrubs. I'd classify the Yucca as an evergreen perennial by function. The Creeping Raspberry around it is a groundcover.

The Blue Star Junipers are further along. These are going on five years old now. Five years! How long must I wait for substance?

Part of the move towards substance is coming in the form of new additions. Five Taxus cuspidata 'Monloo' were planted this spring.

A relocated White Pine survived.  A client's discarded Luecothoe found a new home in the garden becoming.

Where there is more sun there is more growth. The Gold Mop chamaecyparis have been the fastest growing of all the evergreens. Now I want to move one of them.

The baby evergreens appear much larger in pictures than they do in the vast expanse. At the rate things are growing it could be another decade before I am rewarded with any real substance.

Leap. I say leap.

I have not been a doting gardener. I plant. I might water a couple times. Then it is sink or swim. There are no mulched beds. Weeding is limited to the prevention of smothering. I do not fertilize. The lazy gardener theory behind this is real acclimation to the site conditions make stronger, better rooted plants.

If I get ambitious there is a shrinking mountain of dung that can be fed to the baby shrubberies, but patience is my only real choice.