Hi, I just moved into my freshly built home in North Carolina. The builder has removed the remaining top soil and laid sod on the whole acre again. I have bought a hose and will be watering the new grass five minutes at a time for the five times a day for the next six months.

The new in ground pool has been installed and can't be moved, same with the septic and ugly power lines.

I don't know how much rain my area receives but we are a new development with almost no water pressure and some restrictions on watering. I know the damn still is holding water so I'm not worried. I can see the water there right below that 40 foot white line of calcium deposits and hanging boat docks.

Here are the main points of my planting plan.

+My neighbors on one side own a domestic car I hate looking at and the power lines are ugly and droopy. Knowing they grow fast and are both conifers my plan is to plant both the Green Giants and Dawn Redwoods right on the property line under the power lines. This should hide the poles and my neighbors as well as support the lines.

+The Silver Maples are needed to shade the roof from sun. I am planting my hostas under one and roses between them to help define the walkway.

+The other, non-Caucasian, neighbor I don't want to see me, looked worried and tried to stop me when my moving company drove the U-Haul over the septic field to the front door so I plan on planting the willow cuttings all around it because know it all says the septic just might leak a little now.

+The street towards the bottom of the picture is expanding to six lanes and sixty miles per hour. It has a nature preserve with two gravel parking spots on the other side so I want to plant some Holly Shrubs to block the view into my front windows. After the sod and $4,500 appraisal fee to get my financing approved I can't afford window shades.

+No where in the natural area my subdivision was carved from do I see an empress tree so I decided we needed one.

+In back by the deck and BBQ I have a Cottonwood already started. I love the site of their pollen drifting by.

+My two favorite cars will be parked on the lot unfortunately in full sun as I've converted the garage into a room for the mother in law. Her private health care had determined she can't have an in home nurse. Darned Obama. As the cars need shade I am planting a Bradford Pear in between them. Do you think I should let the walnut volunteer keep growing in back of the one?

+Behind that is my children's sand box. Kelsi likes purple and picked some barberries out so I am lining the back of the area with them and using another pear for a tire swing. She wants a tire swing and Cleveland Select is superior for strength said the Lowes Depot employee so I am planting it instead of the Bradford right there.

+Further up the hill my cousin Eddie is installing an in ground pool. For privacy, shade, and because I like them we are using a Washington Hawthorne and Cottonwood near it. Are their roots invasive?

+Two big white oaks are on the property line. Their trunks are rough and they loose their leaves in the fall so Eddie piled the soil from the pool up against them and we are planting some Kudzu to protect their upper bark from the winter winds. The soil will help the vines get climbing...Think I need a trellis?

On line I found "Grows Good" nursery to be the only company which will ship me fifteen gallon plants through economy mail mid summer with a five year warranty. They are soo nice and took my dead father's State Unemployment Access Card for payment. You must use them. Plants on their sites are described soo much better than others of the same name elsewhere. They also have blue spruce which start off green their first four years but get bluer as they get taller on sale.

For maintenance this summer I have found a company whose owner said he only hires non-citizens who do not know about workman's comp to hold down cost. By turning them into the Governor for deportation I think I can avoid paying their last bills and maybe even get a reward. My 28 year old son who is at home but can't find any work promised to call anonymously through the internet in-between Warcraft games.

Any additions are welcome. Things have just been slow and dry lately.

can i recommend to cuz eddy .... tree of heaven ... most likely it will be as close to reading the good book and going to services .. that he will ever get ...

and i was expecting .. that he planted pokeweed and bella donna around the kids sand area.. since both are completely invasive .. since birds apparently seem to enjoy the diuretic effects of eating their berries .. and poisonous in toto ... though one might say ... fast growing and simply gorgeous .. with their deep purple berries ...

brilliant .. how did you come to have so much free time for this parody..

i am going to have a hard time.. not coming back every few hours.. to add things.. lol ...

ken

:-)

Oh, one of the Poplars is that Lombardy Poplar thing that grows horribly in Zone 6. When I lived in Z-4, Lombardy Poplars made a decent tree, living more than the 10 years they do around here.

Dzitm - the local power company will eventually come along with their cherry picker and industrial chipper and remove a good top third of those babies. Arrivedirci Lombardy! Valete Arborvitae!

I understand her problem. She wants a shield when the cars turn left from Hokes Rd. I spoke to her when she planted the Arborvitaes. Since there is a bank, I recommended shrubs because they are already 2 ft. tall at ground level. I'm not sure where she found her "miracle" trees, must be mail order.

Where's the freakin ' dog kennel? I don't think it's too much to ask for a kennel for the hounds...like under one of those great shade trees, like that Bradford pear maybe. Can't do it - the breeze from the kenneled dogs wagging their tails could create a catastrophic Bradford Pear failure. Too funny. This whole thread is a riot.

I think a sycamore would look better in that location though ;)

The house is behind 2 maples, 2 Bradford pears, and a flowering Cherry of some kind. (Maple, Pear, Cherry, Pear, Maple) 5 trees along the front of the house, about 15 ft. apart. They are sited about 10 ft. from the porch. She told me her friend Ken from Michigan assured her that 10 ft was enough space to leave for the 2 Red Maples (Autumn Splendor or some such cultivar.)

==>> yeah dzit.. it was me ..

IN ANOTHER LIFE.. lol

ken

When she planted the "hedge" along the road, I stopped one evening when she was at the mailbox. I tried to impress upon her that the trees would soon be in the wires, and offered free advice. She politely listened, declined my offer of help, and about a month later the front of the house was 'landscaped'. Such a waste of money.

I'll see if I can get the trees into a shot without photographing her home. I really don't want to post a pic of somebody's house w/o their permission.