Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with shrubs

Fetch me a shrubbery?!

storybored — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 14:10:29 -0800

I would like to plant a low maintenance shrubbery fence, what plant would be best? Here's what i need it to be.... It'd be great if it:

- grows to about three feet and then stops
- is evergreen
- grows fast like a bugger
- is cheap! the fence is going to be 100 feet long and i don't want to spend more than a couple hundred $, if that.
- flowers nice but optional
- isn't prickly or stinky because people will be passing by

I'm in a northern climate where the winters go to -20 deg F. Summers are hot/humid and average high 70's, low 80s.

Sharpening my pruning katana as we speak

TungstenChef — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 13:14:31 -0800

Help this young grasshopper become a tree pruning ninja. The good news is that the previous owner of our house had the foresight to plant a lot of cool trees and shrubs 20 years ago (primarily ficus, oleander, and acacia). The bad news is that he was terrible at pruning and we seem to have inherited every conceivable problem...tree branches growing against the house, ugly dead wood in the center, wild overgrown tangles, and lack of leaves in many shaded areas to name a few.

'Tis the season for pruning in Arizona and I want to learn how to be really good at it. As in, Japanese garden good. Does anyone have any recommendations for really good books on the subject? Or other ways to learn how to do it right? I can find some basic info on the web but I want to go far more in depth.

Gardening for the newbie

hummus — Thu, 07 Apr 2005 07:53:22 -0800

I want to buy some gardening supplies and tools for my partner to use on his house. There is currently NO landscaping, so I assume he will be putting in everything from bushes to flowers to plants. I, unfortunately, know next to nothing about this process, so I am hoping some of you could point me in the correct direction as far as stores and implements.