for the love of ligustrum

Spring has officially sprung around here and I couldn’t be happier!  As the last of the pollen clears out, I’ve been spending countless nap times pulling weeds and picking up the five million pinecones all over my yard in preparation for opening the pool for summer.  It takes me a while because I stop to admire my insane (in a good way) landscaping and the most amazing, versatile, GORGEOUS evergreen shrubs we planted four years ago that seem like they have doubled in size every year and make my relatively new yard seem like it’s been here forever!  I thought I’d share my little plant secret in case some of you have the itch to revamp your landscaping or need to build a privacy hedge…if you’re like me and like instant gratification for all your hard work in the yard, you won’t be disappointed!!

When we built our house, we asked the builder to dig beds all around the perimeter but to leave them empty so that we could landscape ourselves. I knew I could save a lot of dough on both the greenery and the labor and end up with what I really wanted, but I also wanted to take my time figuring out what would be the perfect match for every space around the house.  It turns out the answer was ligustrum, an incredibly versatile evergreen shrub that is more like a wonder plant!  Part of the privet family, it thrives in full sun and does extremely well in part shade, too; it grows up to 12 feet tall, makes a great privacy hedge or a backdrop for smaller plants or a perennial garden; it boasts small white blooms in spring with an amazing scent that attracts butterflies and hummingbirds, is easy to find and is so affordably priced!  The more you prune it back, the more it fills out, making it the perfect plant for filling in spots in your landscaping. 

I wish I could find a picture of when I first planted these four years ago just to show you how tiny they were and how much they’ve grown in such a short time!  I prune these under my deck every so often so that I can still see the pool from my kitchen and doing so makes them even more bushy and full!

A closeup of the waxy green leaves.  I love to plant lime green or purple sweet potato vine as an accent around them for a pop of color:

The vine growing up my deck steps is Carolina Jasmine.  It, too, gets more and more full the more you prune it back (it has a tendency to sprout two foot pieces literally overnight in the summer) and in Spring it has the prettiest yellow blooms that smell AMAZING:

Happy Monday and happy planting!!