As you might remember, we prepped a bunch of holes along our neighbor’s retaining wall so that we could plant forsythias about 3 feet apart to create a thick green screen to block their view of our messy back yard (where all the trailers are.) What I didn’t report, is that when Jack and I went to dig five more holes, we found a BOULDER in the last hole. My husband took Friday off, and between Mike and Jack, they were able to dislodge the boulder and break it into pieces. Phew–it was a whopper–easily 120 lbs. So we had 25 holes for our forsythia…except…they sent us 26 forsythia bushes, so we had to dig one more hole. Fortunately, we didn’t find any more boulders.
The forsythia come bare root from Musser Forests, but very well and carefully packaged. We soaked the roots in water for about 45 minutes while we were dealing with the boulder. We put a plant in each hole and filled the holes with planting mix–a combination of top soil, mushroom compost, and sand–and packed it down. This should give them a really good start–and they will need it because the soil right here is terrible. Once they were all planted, I watered them thoroughly. We are supposed to get rain the middle of the week, so it looks like a fortuitous start for these little bushes.
Once we are sure that the grass and weeds are truly and thoroughly dead, we are going to cover the area with rocks like the ones against the wall.
The best part is that I think that these will bloom for us this year!
Cathy At Home on the River 
We have had NO LUCK with forsythia–the deer ate them all (despite assurances that deer don’t like them). Interested to hear how it goes!
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Here’s hoping all your work will be rewarded.
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Me too! I think that we are going to plant more along the next part of the wall next spring. Poor Dianne has to see our trailers with grass grown up all around them.
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