Forsythia! What Is It Good For?

Oh, my, the temptation to sing
Ab-So-Lutely Nuth-ing!
Is very strong.**

 Is that too harsh for flowers that glow against the collinsia blue sky for several weeks early in spring? Okay,  I will admit that it also has fine fall color. But, folks, you have to agree, that for the the rest of the year it is either a big green blob or a tangled mess of branches?

I admit, I am biased! Hedge and I have had at best an uneasy alliance. While, I appreciate that it's made a wonderful privacy screen for the front garden (especially for sitting on our screened front porch), it has hogged dominated the sunniest section of my garden. Nor does it appear to have much wildlife value~no visiting bees and no nesting birds.

Hedge is a yard  and sun hog

 Consequently, I have been chopping away* at H for years, planting shrubs that are not only beautiful in the spring and fall, but provide food and shelter for the critters that live in this garden. That's how this gardener rolls...I garden for wildlife!

'Grey Owl' junipers, native grasses, Crepe myrtles and even a fig tree

They just take so long to grow and I have to remind myself that Hedge didn't spring up over night!

xoxogail 

*and I will continue to chop away! 
** and a link to the song WAR! 

Gail Eichelberger is a gardener and therapist in Middle Tennessee. She loves wildflowers and native plants and thoroughly enjoys writing about the ones she grows at Clay and Limestone. She reminds all that the words and images are the property of the author and cannot be used without written permission.