After my emotional story last week of being “Banished from the garden I cleared,” I have news about the other large garden I’ve adopted. (Technically, I’m a “caretaker” of this garden – the sign on the left says so.  It’s the landscape around the office building of my housing co-op.)

Readers have seen this one before and may remember when I asked you all “Can these junipers be saved?” Then despite most commenters saying NO, I did save all but the ones too close to the sidewalk. Then I bragged about how much people seemed to love the bonsai-like pruning I had performed on them.  

Then suddenly last summer that perfect (to me) scene turned into this! The underground water main had burst, requiring the removal of two of the four large old junipers, and a months-long mess until the site was ready to be planted again, with something. 

Readers, you may be surprised to learn that I did NOT freak out. Shit happens; gardeners adapt.

I heard from a co-op member suggesting something NEW go in the now-blank space, like a pollinator garden. But to my mind there was only one thing to do – replace the destroyed junipers with more of the same, restoring the garden to how it looked in that top photo. 

(Reminds me of the suggestions I’ve heard over the years to create NEW borders in the garden – mostly from people who work in the building and want flowers outside THEIR window – and I say no because it would add to the maintenance burden.  Creating beauty with less and less maintenance has always been my goal because I d0ubt I’ll be laboring here 10 years from now and I KNOW I won’t be in 20 years.) 

Wrong plants/wrong place

The co-op DID ask me what I wanted to plant there and my response was to replace the old junipers but, long story short, the staff went to Home Depot and bought these instead. They’re the native Juniperus virginiana or Eastern redcedars, which one source tells me will grow to about 90 feet tall!  Also, about 10 feet wide. All sources agree they’d be far too large and couldn’t be pruned to resemble the remaining old junipers, no matter how skilled the pruner. 

Oh, and they’re the wrong color, too! Blue, not medium green.  But THIS story has a happy ending.  After a great local nursery ID’d the exact Chinese juniper (‘Sea Green’), my co-op paid for them, I picked them up and planted them (not taking chances on the staff’s planting skills), and here they are awaiting the 10 years of growth it’ll take for them to catch up. 

In front of them is a bunch of volunteer garden phlox from elsewhere on the property. They don’t look like much yet but by next summer I hope they’ll hide that water main cover.