There are at least seven temporary garden hedges that are fairly easy to grow. Even though it’s cold and snowy now, in just a few weeks it will be time to begin gardening in earnest. A little planning now will make things go much more smoothly come warm weather.
Temporary garden hedges perform a variety of functions:
Define a property line
Separate different portions of a garden
Accentuate a driveway or walkway
Provide shade where there is none
Provide height in a sea of low grass
Provide a display of vivid color where there was none
Hide an unsightly heating/cooling unit or gas tank
Attract a flock of butterflies or hummingbirds
There are seven annuals that I have used effectively to create these types of borders. With a little bit of pre-planning this year you can easily get results just like these photos. Sit down anytime (now is good) and create a rough sketch of your property. Where might one of these seven temporary garden hedges fit in perfectly?
seven temporary garden hedges – hollyhocks make a superb border
1–Hollyhocks have a number of reasons to commend them as borders. They are tall, so they create an effective screen along a driveway or against an old weathered wall. They grow thickly and crowd out other weeds. But one of their best attributes is that they self-sow. Hollyhocks are biennials, meaning they usually grow in one year and bloom in the next. But it is oh-so-easy to get them started, let them self-sow, and enjoy them each year for as long as you want. The colorful blooms on tall stalks can bloom for several months during spring and summer.
For as far back as I can remember I have associated stately hollyhocks with my childhood homes in Kentucky. I spent a lot of time with my grandmother, and hollyhocks were her lifelong favorite. Recently a cousin sent me an old black and white photo of grandma–circa 1940’s–and in the background of the photo were hollyhocks, standing regally against the weathered clapboard of her house.
Katy and Hollyhocks
Grandma grew hundreds of hollyhocks on the rocky hillside of “Pea Ridge.” A forest of them towered over me as a child. I marked their progression upwards with each weekly visit.
And though hollyhocks generally love full sun, grandma’s hollyhocks grew to gigantic proportions–or so it seemed to a small boy–in the partial shade of a giant elm. The secret was her soil—dark earth amended through the years by countless buckets of chicken manure. It also helped that the hollyhocks were “out back” of the kitchen door, where grandma tossed a dishpan of water after each use.
About the only thing that grandma loved more than her flowers were her hens. The chickens loved nothing more than to dig around the hollyhocks for grubs. When the soil was dusty hens would flop around under the leaves, making low croaking sounds. In a way, the hollyhocks fed the chickens and the chickens fed the hollyhocks.
Hollyhocks against my fenceGrandma has been gone for 30 years, but I cannot pass a clump of lofty hollyhocks without thinking of her, which happens often around here. Hollyhocks along a fence or up against a barn wall are almost a given in the Kentucky countryside. And though many gardeners no longer grow hollyhocks, considering them old-fashioned or not stylish, I smile inside whenever I see them.
Do you associate a particular flower or shrub with a loved one? Please return to My Garden Buddy and enter the conversation. Thanks.
