My Former and somewhat more Humble Metro Washington Dwelling: 

My 3 BR, 2-1/2 BA, 2-level end-unit, by Ryan Homes, built 1986, as it looked in
Dec 1997 with my truck parked in the left-most of my two assigned spaces
(318, 319). I was usually at about the midpoint of the far wall of the front upstairs
room, when online.  I hadn't the sense (or need) to build a home office yet, and
could thus host two rooms of guests.  As you can see, top on my list of projects
for the 1998 growing season was to restore some decent landscaping, at least
to my front, which had suffered the slow attrition of everything that was there
when I bought the place in Oct 1990. The top photo was made with my Apple
QuickTake, just after the finish of the pivotal removal of a Bradford Pear that
had overtaken a yard-too-small and which had suffered storm damage in July 1997
(see below):

[The dearly-departed is in the immediate foreground; 2 more down the row got hit
during the same intense early-evening squall.  Things happen. Note also the front walk
sag, since remedied by the concrete contractor.]

SO...with the thought-filled advisory assistance of my long-time friend, Matt Peterschmidt,
of MEP Designs, I planted in May and June 1998 what you see below--

Front:

Shrubs (L-R):  Hicks Yew, 3 x Compact Japanese Holly (Hoogendorn's), Emerald Green Arbor Vitae
Foreground:  Yoshino Cherry

Back:  Inkberry (where the sun don't shine and grass will not grow)


Update--April 1999:

The cherry came out in bloom in the week of 5 April 1999.  What a sight!  Its leaves are currently under attack by some manner of larval worm.  The yew, arbor vitae, and inkberry did well over the winter; the inkberry has grown out into twice its original height.  That is a very wet planting site back there, yet I seem to have it up high enough at the base to provide enough aeration.  The Hoogendorns are a different story.  Each of the original 3 plants has had loss of foliage to undetermined causes, starting almost as soon as they went in; #2 plant was lost and replaced with a 1999 version (which has leaves more like the Inkberry ilex shrub).  Autopsy showed I probably should have scored the rootball and given it a bit better start last May.  I may end up planting a whole new row of those, if plants ##1, 3 get much worse.  Matt P.'s philosophy says it best--when they suffer and die, just pull 'em out and buy new ones; they aren't people.  Now, comes the task of getting at those broadleaf weeds in the grass, and especially the crabgrass, which likes the spot where that old Bradford had grown.

Update--June 2000:

All the plants I had in place in 1999 made it to this growing season.  After 2 years, what had been a 4-foot emerald green arbor vitae is now a gangling 6 1/2-foot tree.  Matt P. was right about needing to keep that Hicks yew properly pruned--it's upright growth tendency is more than the bush can support.  I still hate pruning plants that aren't badly out of hand, though.  I never touched that inkberry, and now it's gone from knee-high as shown above to chest-high.  The cherry came out in a proper bloom this year, in sync with the ones downtown, and the County sprayed for the cankerworms in April.  Bugs of some sort have attacked the lower trunk, however, and there has been a gooey run-off of sap that looks like it might be letting up now that the hot season is here.  The lawn is looking good, especially since I bought a new Craftsman push mower (one that really cuts, something I haven't had the last few seasons).  I also bought a Weed Eater Featherlite SST gas trimmer, which has been a timesaver, and I like playing with small engines.  The weeds are under better control after doing a couple treatments with Ortho Weed B Gon and Crabgrass Killer.  I do enjoy my lawn and taking care of plants.  This might be some artifact of our family's agrarian roots.  Birch Creek, MI is a part of me, like it or not.

Final Update--May 2002:

Well, it has all been relinquished to new hands, with the sale of the old home.  The cherry bloomed all right this year, though some agent of destruction keeps clipping at the lower branches.  I don't know if it was the kids or the landscape company.  I certainly have my share of gardening memories and tales ahead at the new place.  The hustle of moving prevents me from showing you more of what I've taken on, only it is a good bit more, and could be even yet more than that, with tasteful pruning, revision, and amendatory plantings in certain places that look gone to the dogs.  I shall miss my plants at the old home, and that's for sure.  I wonder, in particular, about that vibrant arbor vitae.  That plant has grown into at least an 8-foot monster since I planted it and cared for it.  I hope the new owners have an appreciation for botanical wonders and will see what I've done to submit to them some plants worth keeping (except maybe for Hoogendorn #1, which still looks a little weak.  The 1998 crop must have been substandard, if not the 1998 planting authority at my place.).  Keep tuned to bo-hemian.com for further gardening tales!

*****
The new place, in Fairfax 22032, whose page will be forthcoming.


This is truly an Estate, and in the fine Virginia landed-man's style, I've derived a working name:

Welcome, tired travelers, to: 

Xana'02

Raymond's Pleasure Dome

From the great Orson Welles' exertion towards Mr. Kane's Xanadu in Citizen Kane.
My accumulated possessions, in many cases, are a micro-version of the panned-over warehouse of crates.  Rosebud is in there somewhere, I'm sure.
The '02 is a dual reference to having moved in in 2002 and the last 2 digits of the street address.

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