Backyard landscaping is all about making your surroundings look better. When you do it right, it can almost become a science of planting, growing, constructing, and sculpting the area to look its best. All the elements need to be taken into consideration such as climate, presence or lack of wind, lighting, and overall weather conditions to beautify the areas around your house.

The soil that is in your backyard or garden along with the climate will have an impact on what types of plants and flowers you should use. You might also find out what kinds of pests might be a problem and what you will have to do to fertilize and keep everything pest free and growing. Once you have considered these things you will then be able to start putting together a plan of what you want things to look like.

At your disposal will be a full array of colors to use as you choose. There are plants that have red, pink, yellow, purple, and blue flowers and leaves also come in different shades of green. You also have vines and shrubs that will all look different as well as all types of trees that will help complete your yard. You will also need to decide whether you want evergreen plants that stay green year round or ones that lose their leaves during the winter.

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Any corrective pruning should be finished in February. Remember to paint all wounds over one inch in diameter with a pliable water-proof paint. This prevents drying out and checking of the wood and resultant decay and also prevents the entrance of disease or insects.

Do not prune the early flowering shrubs such as forsythia, lilac, spirea, quince, currant, red bud, peach, etc., until after flowering as any material removed now will reduce the number of flowers. Prune these after flowering to encourage new growth for blooms next year.

This is the month to do shearing or pruning of evergreens as they are usually unsightly after this operation, but with the beginning of new growth, they are unsightly for a shorter period of time. Prune the flowering shrubs that bear their blooms on new wood like althea, vitex, crape myrtle, and buddleia – this will stimulate flower production.

Whatever pruning you do, especially on your shade grapes trees, be sure you know what you are doing or call a recognized tree surgeon. Do not butcher your trees or allow inexperienced “tree surgeons” to do so. Irreparable damage can be done and often results in the death of the tree.

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The official start of spring is just a few weeks away and that means that many of you will be planning to overhaul your landscape design. If that is what you plan to do, keep in mind that solid landscape design principle should be followed. The primary key being that evergreens are the anchors of any solid design.

Here are just a few of my favorite evergreens for home landscapes and what I like and dislike about each one.

Yews

Taxus Yews are the most common evergreen bush found around foundations from the near south to the Midwest and all the way out east. They have dark green foliage and the new growth each spring is lighter neon or pale. They make a great backdrop to your landscape plants and flowers and they are not susceptible to insects or disease. Yews can also take a tight sheering, so if you are looking to carve cartoon characters into your bushes, Yews will be just fine. The only drawback I can see with Taxus Yews is that they are just way too common and boring.

Arbs

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