I hesitate to mention this for fear that my wife might read this entry (a rarity). But if she did, it could lead to trouble. The plantings on both sides of the driveway entrance are out of control. Occasionally, I debate chopping everything out and starting over, but I greatly prefer lush and overgrown to “it’ll look okay once it fills in.” Barbara would enthusiastically endorse ripping out the entire mess and starting over.

To the left of the entry is a ‘Torulosa’ cypress (Chamaecyparis obtusa ‘Torulosa’) with contorted and sometimes fused, scale-like leaves at its tips. From a distance, this appears as a large, somewhat pyramidal green blob, but I know better. It’s been here nearly the entire thirty-five years of the garden, and I figure it’s at least the sixteen feet height listed as its mature size. Miraculously, the cypress does not encroach on the driveway, but you must poke the nose of your car beyond it into the road to avoid colliding with neighbors out for their evening walk. Barbara mentions her close calls frequently.

While the single cypress fills the left corner, the right is a jumble. A tall crape myrtle stands over the mishmash below that is a mix of roses, nandina, two deutzia that were initially misidentified as a low growing type, and a seedling dogwood and American holly that now tops out above ten feet. I must regularly chop back foliage for the mailman to access the box, but otherwise, this isn’t much of a problem.

I suppose the dogwood will be the first to go, certainly within a few years. Not that any part of this makes sense, but a dogwood under a crape myrtle is nonsense. The native holly is a curiosity, but it too will grow far too large to be appropriate for the space.

In fact, I don’t much care what this entry to the driveway looks like and hardly care for the front garden. I don’t spend any time on the street looking in besides gathering the mail. So, it’s decided. A bit of editing might be required, but the jumble will remain, and perhaps when I’m dead and gone, someone will bring some order to this mess.