Privet, Broom, and Crab

October 16, 2020

Privet, Broom, and Crab

Two massive shrubs border our back fence and sit side by side. One is Spartium junceum, the other is Ligustrum sinensis. Common names are Spanish broom and Chinese privet -- a United Nations of shrubbery.

Two big blobs in the gravel

Although they are big blobs in the landscape, they do a job screening the fence and the side of the neighbor's house. Both are evergreen in winter. But between them they leave a deep shady gap in the middle that I tried to fill with an urn and plantings, not very successfully:

The urn doesn't do much except draw the eye toward the gap

They need something with height to balance the fat shrubbiness of their forms next to each other. A third element. And something to distract from looking at that gap, which is all I can see from the kitchen window.

Standing at the kitchen sink, this is my view

I can plant a tree there. But there is so much to consider when you only have a few feet of space to plant a real tree in.

For one thing, the view. Looking down the length of the yard from the deck, I enjoy this sight of the blue door. It's one of my favorite views when I sit outside.

I love this view, seen when I am sitting on the deck

As shown in this longer look down the walk, there isn't much room to plant something substantial in that patch of gravel between the stone walk and the shrubs without blocking the view.

Long shot of the blue door and a second limbed up privet next to it

But I do want to block the view from the other direction, entering through the gate, which is how we come and go. When the gate is open, the patio table is in a direct line of sight to the street. I'd like the table to have more privacy from the street. I want both a view from one side and enclosure around the table from the other.

The table needs to be enclosed, shielded from the gate and street

Recently I had coffee with a friend outside in her courtyard. She has a tightly jam-packed little space and I loved the sense of envelopment there. You are embraced IN her garden. Her table was closely overhung by a small tree and surrounded by plants and paths and containers and shrubs and shade. I loved the feeling of enclosure.

I don't want the close planting scheme she has, but I do want more of a sense of being surrounded at the table, and more privacy as seen from the gate. And I want something more than a gap between two shrubs to look at from the kitchen sink window.

Here's what I planted: A crabapple. Malus 'Sugar Tyme'.

Just planted, still a bit yellow and a bit shaggy from its youth spent in a pot

Crabapples are some of the more popular trees in Santa Fe. They grow well here. This one, 'Sugar Tyme' has pink buds that turn to fragrant white flowers, red fruits, and it grows upright to about 15 to 18 feet tall. It even has good fall color, a russety gold.

'Sugar Tyme' crabapple in spring

This little tree has so much riding on it: it has to fit the space, lift the eye from the shrubs, offer a break in the sightline but not block the view, shelter the patio table and block the view from that direction, and enhance what I see from my kitchen window.

It has to eventually spread out over the walk, smell nice in spring, feed the birds and still keep enough red fruits on the branch to sparkle under snow in winter. It has to be an amiable companion for the privet and broom.

Light snatchers in the morning sunshine.

It has been in the ground one week, and already I can see it wants to be here and will willingly do all the things I want it to do. It glows in the mornings, grabbing the early sunshine.