Most years, it would have to be darn big for me to see most evergreens, I have some at my house, becuase the builder bought them.. he didnt plant them but left there there as a "house warming gift" I could care less about them.. but had a hard time not planting them since he paid 200 dollars apiece for these monstors.. so I did.. But even these guys are only 4-5 feet high.. snow easily covers it.. the only evergreens I can see are pines that are much taller.. I have a mixture of everthing, including roses in the front foundation beds.. wiegalas, azeleas, boxwood, taxus , perrenials like dianthus, echenicia hybrids, blanketflowers, daylilies seedlings (some of my best get this spot.. and roses, john davis, hansa and baltimore belle.. then its filled in at spots with annuals like cosmos, snapdragons, dwarf phlox, calendula... this year I added clarkia and larkspur I dont care what others thing or its not a classic design. I grow becuase I enjoy flowers.. and plants in general.. Beds change, I dont think I would care for one that just stayed the same.. my bed last year, wont look the same as this year.. and when my john davis matures and baltimore bell mutures.. will be totally different.. Silverkelt Last years shot... Ive redesinged it this year.. its going to be weeks for the annuals to be in bloom though..

We have a 6 ft little leaf boxwood (buxus microphylla) hedge that I pass by very closely nearly every day and never recall any unpleasant odors. Suspect the trick may be to stick with b. microphylla rather than b. sempervirens (common boxwood) or b. sempervirens/microphylla hybrids if concerned about the smell. Don't know if those "spiral tree" topiaries you mentioned would need the high maintenance you're hoping to avoid, but they do require a different level of discipline or hired skill. Might be worth checking on the GW topiary forum about the effort to maintain if considering them. Nice thing about boxwood is that they are a very forgiving shrub, so if you change your mind, they can be rehabbed from almost any shape into almost any other..... given enough time. lynnmariep86, Our b. microphylla can take full day sun against a hot aggregate concrete drive with no problems on only the water it gets from rain and once or twice weekly deep lawn waterings. Seems to work fine in sun or shade as the hedge continues to look very uniform among the sunny and shady sections. Only "problem" we've seen is minor freeze burn ("brown stains") on the outer leaves some years (like 2014), which usually disappear with the spring growth spurt. Also, 'Scarlet's Peak' is a relatively new berried yaupon holly (Ilex vomitoria) alternative to 'Sky Pencil' that can survive our heat and apparently can be maintained to only 6 ft (though will go to 20). Don't know how nice it would look close up at an entryway, but is a tough native fastigiate for where durability has been a problem. Here is a link that might be useful:

I'm petrified of dead mice and living ones out here in the New Mexico can carry Bubonic Plague or Hantavirus. So, we use a combination of mousetraps (that DH has to empty for me), steel wool into every possible opening they can get into and pure peppermint oil. Our pest control people told me that mice (and packrats, another huge problem out here) have highly sensitive noses and for some reason hate the smell of peppermint. It must be the pure oil, though, and not the peppermint extract sold for cooking. I stuff plastic webbed tubing with cotton balls, tie off both ends with rubberbands or plastic coated wire ties and then put several drops of peppermint oil on them. I put them in corners and along the walls where I know the mice travel, as mice follow the urine scents they leave as they walk and tend to use the same routes over and over. I buy the peppermint oil at my local Ace Hardware store. You may be able to get the tubing there, too. I'm still using the bunch my pest control people gave me, so I haven't had to buy any as yet. Re-moisten the cottonballs every month. I've been using mine for a couple of years now, so they do last. Here's the oil I use: And here's what I use to make them with: I've also used one of those high frequency emitters outside in our seating area on the front portal. It needs to be plugged into an outlet and seems to have worked fairly well. I need to remember to buy a new one as mine broke a while back. Lynn

Well the sticky stuff seems to be keeping her away from the furniture but she doesn't seem to have settled on any of the desired scratching devices. She's tearing up a runner in the hallway which is okay because I'm replacing it. Though I need to get her onto a desire scratching device before that. No interest in the sisal/carpet scratching post. I also bought those horizontal cardboard scratchers and a hanging fabric one - thought that would be most like the furniture. No interest in that either. She has scratched on the cardboard thing a couple times but mostly she just sits on it. Everything came with catnip so I've loaded all the scratchers up with that. It attracts her to them but doesn't inspire her to scratch them. I also got her (and the other cats) a giant cat tree. Thought she might scratch on that as well as climb it. So far just climbing and playing. I was amazed to find my big ole' no front claws Siamese cat on the top of the thing yesterday. I was feeling bad for him because he wouldn't get to play on it like the new kitty with all her claws but he quickly proved me wrong. Hopefully she will get this figured out soon as DH was very annoyed to find her scratching his very expensive stereo speakers. She even scratched the sticky stuff partway off that. And being on blood thinner, he's also not fond of her use of claws when playing. I do think that can be managed though with the clipping which I will hopefully get much better at than I am now.