Island Beds

The general vision was always to have a larger island bed in the front yard. I particularly wanted to experiment with a technique called shrub massing. I usually plant annuals or perennials in groups. This is doing the same thing but with shrubs. And since shrubs are larger, the whole bed needs to be large.

We established the first two beds in fall 2008. I chose fall because I’d have more time to focus on it — there’s always so much to do in spring — and because some of the plants might be on sale, it being the end of the season.

The Big Island

The big island (so called because it is the biggest island we have) has been one our the bigger winners, although there have of course been surprises and things to learn. Chief of which is that when it comes to shade, it’s not just under trees that you need to think about, but in the shadow of trees. Duh.

My goal with this island was to provide four season interest, because it’s right in front of the house, and to make it very low maintenance by using primarily shrubs. In fact, at this point any perennials that were actually planted — I discovered during the planting process that there just wasn’t room for most of them — have been crowded out by shrubs and have either been moved or are slated to be moved.

In preparation for planting we killed off the grass using Roundup and installed brick pavers as edging for easier mowing and less weed-whacking. Yes, that’s me on the right, scratching my head about how to turn my 2D scratchings on paper into a 3D living landscape.

One end of the island is anchored by a river birch that was one of the first things we planted, as a shade tree for the front yard. We’re glad we included it in the island because it drops a lot of twigs. The other end is anchored by a “stone” retaining wall. It’s actually chunks of used concrete that Steve picked up on a job site. We liked the look and used it on all the islands in the front yard, as well as one in the back yard. We built a raised bed here because I wanted to grow heather and needed a way to seriously amend the soil. The heather didn’t survive. Nor did the wintergreen or lingonberry I tried after that. Finally I’ve settled on stonecrop and it’s doing well.

The island is pretty much what I wanted. The one big disappointment is that some of the junipers got twice as large as they were supposed to so now it’s a battle to either get them back in bounds or get rid of them, because they block the view of other plants. Some of the shrubs haven’t survived, mostly due to too much shade, but for the most part their neighbors are filling in those areas. I think some shrubs are leggier than usual too, again probably because of too much shade.

Here’s what it looked like three weeks later, with the mulch in place.

One 2025 addition to this island is a PJM rhododendron in a raised mound composed of peat and compost. I’m taking one more chance on a rhododendron, a variety that I successfully grew at our old house. Fingers crossed.

Here’s a list of the plants with some notes on how they fared and how things have changed.

Trees

• Betula nigra (river birch): We love these trees but they do like to drop branches and twigs. We also have to prune ours yearly as they’ve gotten older. Otherwise some of the branches droop nearly to the ground.

Shrubs

• Berberis thunbergii ‘Atropurpurea Nana’ (crimson pygmy barberry)
• Clethra alnifolia ‘Hummingbird’ (summersweet) and Clethra alnifolia ‘Ruby Spice’ (summersweet): It’s just too shady for them and the remaining couple are barely hanging in there. For now, though, I don’t have anywhere else to put them.
• Cotoneaster apiculatus (cranberry cotoneaster)
• Hydrangea quercifolia (oakleaf hydrangea): We love the flowers and the fall color. One of the shrubs died but the other is spreading into the area it occupied and beyond.
• Ilex glabra ‘Shamrock’: Getting overcome by the giant junipers.
• Ilex verticillata ‘Aurantiaca’: They produce few if any berries.
• Ilex x meservae ‘China Boy’ and ‘China Girl’: Doing reasonably well but the rabbits seem to be chewing the hell out of the lower branches. Grrrr.
• Itea virginica ‘Henry’s Garnet’: Spreading happily into the surrounding area.
• Juniperus chinensis ‘Sea Green’ Juniperus x pfitzeriana ‘Pfitzeriana Compacta’: The disappointing (aggravating? maddening?) junipers that grew much larger than planned.
• Juniperus conferta ‘Blue Pacific’
• Juniperus horizontalis ‘Compacta’
• Pinus mugo (mugho pine): We haven’t had much luck with these pines. We have one left. It will probably be gone by next year, taken over by the oakleaf hydrangea. (Which we like better anyway.)
• Potentilla fruticosa ‘Goldfinger’
• Rhododendron ‘PJM’
• Spirea japonica ‘’Snowmound’
• Spirea x bumalda ‘Goldflame’
• Spirea x Media “Snowstorm”
• Spirea x ‘Neon Flash’
• Syringa meyeri ‘Palabin’ (Korean dwarf lilac)
• Viburnum Dentatum ‘Blue Muffin’

Grasses

• Helicotrichon ‘Sapphire’: Didn’t last long.
• Miscanthus sinensis ‘Gracilimus’: Beautiful when the setting sun highlights the seed plumes, which persist through the winter.
• Pennisetum alopecuroides ‘Hameln’: Never really grew.

Perennials

• Daylilies (moved to other areas)
• Heliopsis
• Phlox paniculata ‘David’
• Sedum Autumn Joy: Mostly invisible and prime for moving to other areas.
• Astilbe (never planted)
• Cranesbill (never planted)
• Daffodils (never planted)
• Euphorbia (never planted)
• Heuchera (never planted)
• Purple leafed sedum (never planted)
• Veronica (never planted)

Here’s a look at the island transitioning from fall to winter.

The Takeover Island

This island (originally Blueberry Hill) has gone through a few iterations, most without our help. (Hence its new name.) Originally we planted blueberries and cotoneaster in a raised berm and filled the flat area with purple wintercreeper from another part of the yard. The blueberries didn’t thrive so we moved them to one of the driveway islands. (They didn’t like it there either, so now they’re in the herb garden, where they seem to be happy.)

The local birds planted blackberries in the area and we’ve let them do what they want because we like the berries. We’ve had good blackberry harvests for a few years but they seem to be finally winding down so this year we might cut back the remainder and start mowing over them. The cotoneaster, meanwhile, has been overtaken by a shrub version of euonymus. I don’t know where that came from. The berries are pretty but the shrubs are taking out the wall, so they either need to be pruned into containment or removed. If we remove them I don’t yet have a replacement in mind.

• Blueberries
• Blackberries
• Cotoneaster dammeri ‘Coral Beauty’
• Euonymus fortunei ‘Coloratus’ (purple winter creeper)

The Driveway Islands

A couple of years later we created two smaller berms at the mouth of the driveway for some visual interest at the entrance, and to use up more of the leftover concrete. These first two photos show them right after planting, as viewed from the roadside.

These two photos show the beds from the yard side. On the left are an existing oak and hazelnut shrubs. On the right is another oak and a leaning apple tree. Steve used to drive by here on the way to and from jobs. He always liked this apple tree and never dreamed he would one day own that property!

The North Side

The star here is our doublefile viburnum. It’s spectacular when blooming and interesting with berries and in the fall when the leaves turn maroon. As a bonus, it dropped a couple of volunteers and we transplanted one to the backyard that survived. That bed also contains an American cranberrybush viburnum and a bird’s nest spruce. It’s backed by a Serbian spruce. Originally that bed was fronted by Flower Carpet roses that I’ve since moved to the herb garden, since they were getting too much shade. We moved in some reblooming bearded iris that were too boring most of the year for their former prominent location in front of the house and I plan to relocate some spirea that are being overcrowded by surrounding plants. I wanted some ornamental grass in both beds because we like the multi-season interest. We started with some free fountain grass from my parents but it then replaced it with some Karley Rose grass from another location.

• Pennisetum orientale ‘Karley Rose’
• Picea abies ‘Nidiformis’ (Nest spruce)
• Picea omorika (Serbian spruce)Reblooming bearded iris
• Viburnum plicatum v. tomentosum ‘Mariesii’ (doublefile viburnum)
• Viburnum trilobum (American cranberrybush)

The South Side

The bed on the opposite side of the driveway is still somewhat of a work in progress. Virtually all of the original plants have either died out or been removed. The original plan was based around rhododendrons, with the idea that we could acidify the soil in the raised bed and there would be some shade from the surrounding trees. We included some Japanese anemone for fall interest. I read they were invasive so I thought planting them here, away from other beds, might limit the spread. We fronted those with pulmonaria, ferns, and Japanese forest grass.

All of that is gone except one fern.

I’ve included before-and-after plans below since everything has changed so much since I planned it.

We replaced the rhododendrons (we moved those elsewhere and they didn’t like it there either) with the blueberries from the other island, then moved those along too. We haven’t come up with a replacement yet. We moved in some reblooming bearded iris and added some taller ornamental grass at the back. Some American hazelnut and heliopsis has moved in. I think the hazelnut needs to go because it will get too big for the space, but we have to decide if we want to transplant it, and I don’t know what I want as a replacement shrub. Something with four season interest that’s not too large.

The bed is backed by a Brandywine maple and a small blue spruce.

• Acer ‘Brandywine’ (Brandywine maple): We love this maple that has great early fall color and won’t get that tall. Which is why we chose it, since there are power lines overhead.
• Anemone hupehensis: Never really did much.
• Corylus americana (American Hazelnut): Moved in from nearby.
• Ferns: All but one died or was eaten.
• Hakonechloa macra: Eaten.
• Heliopsis: Volunteer that gets to stay for now.
• Miscanthus sinensis
• Pulmonaria: Eaten or died.
• Picea pungens ‘Bakeri’ (Baker spruce): It’s getting taller than I want. We like the color in contrast with the Brandywine maple in fall and the oak behind that.