this is my boxwood hedge.
currently, it is undergoing rather significant dewinterization. (i think i made that word up, but i'm sticking with it.) weeds and renegade grass have so overgrown my poor little boxwood plants, the mayor had to stake a plumb line before i could clearly see demarcation between the lawn and hedge bed.
it's not pretty. my troweling and weeding muscles are getting a good work-out.to preserve my efforts - and to help insure that my boxwood hedge will never again be so disgraced by winter's neglect - we hobbits purchased bags of landscaping bark from our local hardware store about a month ago. they were spectacularly on sale! consequently, the word "nuggets" on the label didn't really catch my attention.
(you did see the word "small" on the label, too, didn't you? small. as in, of unobtrusive size.)well... behold the small nuggets in action! i have peeled russet potatoes smaller than some of these so-called small nuggets.
just so we're clear, this is not a close-up, bug's-eye-view of my hedge bed. this photograph represents accurately the visual perspective of an irritated albeit somewhat vertically challenged hobbitwife.
small nuggets, i believe i disdain thee!for three weeks, i have lived with and stared at this portion of weeded hedge bed thinking that the small nugget look would eventually logjam its way into my heart. well, it hasn't. my hobbit sensibilities continue to snarl. the small nugget look recalls to mind those hideous, rust-coloured, synthetic lava stone bits venerated by californian landscaping twenty years ago.
nope. i like it no better from this side of the fence.
perhaps it's just me, but shouldn't respectable hobbit landscaping boast of something a wee bit more subtle, a wee bit more earthy than these small nuggets?!all right.
now that we've established my dislike of the small nuggets in my boxwood hedge bed, here are a few other details you, dear reader, should know:
1.) the small nuggets do not bother the more level-headed and equally aesthetically-minded mayor of michael delving one bit. (this astounds me. but i think it is critical to small nugget defense.)
2.) we have nuggets aplenty for the entire hedge bed. they were, as i've said, spectacularly on sale, and i'm not sure we may return sale items at this juncture.
3.) using a different landscaping material - beauty bark, for example - would require additional purchase of said material (money) as well as the removal and immediate torching of all small nuggets currently lodged in my hedge bed (time and effort).
4.) irked as i am, i must fairly admit that the size and weight of the small nuggets will likely preserve my weeding efforts much more efficiently than any landscaping material of finer grain - beauty bark, for example.
so now, my dear reader, i am anxious for you to voice your opinion. is my disdain for the small nuggets warranted or not? should we honour the boxwood hedge with a more hobbitlike ground cover? or should we give these unduly maligned small nuggets a chance to earn their keep and, in so doing, accept them as fitting residents of michael delving?
