My layout is filled with mostly rock.
So when I planted last year, I used buried pots (a little larger than the ones they came in) for all plants, with the exception of a half dozen “test” trees actually planted.
So far it seems they are doing fine. In fact, the ones planted in the fill look a little more healthier to me.
I just bought some more from the annual $2.50 HD sale and I am going to plant these directly in the fill to see what happens.

I plant all my trees in their pots that they come in. Just trim off the edge down to the soil level. Keeps them smaller, plus if they die, easier to dig up. I have some that are 10 years old still in their pots.

Jerry Barnes said:
I plant all my trees in their pots that they come in. Just trim off the edge down to the soil level. Keeps them smaller, plus if they die, easier to dig up. I have some that are 10 years old still in their pots.

Jerry, we have been doing the same thing, with the Dwarf Alberta Spruces... Just cut off the bottom inch or so of the pot, and plant them in the pot.... Stunts the growth, as their height goes in relation to the spread of the roots, the more the roots spread, the taller the tree becomes...

Why is it I never hear about these $2.50 plant sales? Went looking for small shrub stuff yesterday. Half-Off of $30 for a 1 gallon juniper. Ouch! I passed.

Yuh gotta go into the big city and hit the big box depots!

Jon, they were on sale here last week… They got a new shipment in last friday, and the prices were back to normal last weekend…

Jon,

They are on sale where you live. And they sell for $2.50, but there is figured in the $12.50 environmental tax before you see the price tag and then the add on of the sales tax when you buy it.

That sounds about right

Home Depot has had sales in the spring for $3.99, but by the time I get there they have no stock left.

I’m really ticked at myself for leaving a nice pair of dwarf boxwood plants I bought cheap last fall outside in their pots above ground. They didn’t survive the cold.

I wuz gunna post the picture I took of them last fall, but my host is screwing up again.

Just got an Ad in the newspaper, starting today, shrubs, 3 for 10 bucks at home Depot…

I’ll look at lunch.

Jon, you should have kept the boxwoods. A little trimming and they would have made great dead trees!

Can’t believe I didn’t keep the For Better or For Worse where he’s spent all day in his workshop to make a dead tree

(http://www.outsidetrains.com/smile/rofl.gif)

Andy Clarke said:
Just got an Ad in the newspaper, starting today, shrubs, 3 for 10 bucks at home Depot....

Ours are 4 for 10--That makes 'em sound cheaper than $2.50 each. :) :)

Doug Arnold said:
Jon, you should have kept the boxwoods. A little trimming and they would have made great dead trees!

I thought of that, and I had a dead dwarf Alberta Spruce the layout for a while, but I just don't like the look of dead trees in my gardens. So much for realism :(

I have two dead dwarf alberta spruces that I have transplanted as “gin poles” for lumber loading and offloading, but have never rigged them. They actually have weathered pretty well, I guess it is the relationship to cedar that allows them not to just rot and fall over. Good root structure holds them up.

John Bouck said:

Andy Clarke said:
Just got an Ad in the newspaper, starting today, shrubs, 3 for 10 bucks at home Depot....

Ours are 4 for 10--That makes 'em sound cheaper than $2.50 each. :) :)

John, sounds like a nice bargain, but, I think the gas needed to shop there, would outweigh any money savings on the shrubs.... :)

Chts
I remember you telling me you were going to have rock fill and plants in pots, this is an Excellent idea. Don’t be an idiot like me and start putting in plants. I have ripped out 100’s of plants and just recently ripped out more areas of ground cover. We run trains we don’t garden! Its nothing but a pain in the butt! Was working on the RR and did nothing but cut lines for the drip system. Take the plants out!
Poss

Poss,
You’re pulling out drip systems–I can picture it now. Poss pulling on a drip line like a robin on a night crawler
And I have to install a drip system.
I’m tired of carrying a water pitcher back and forth all over the layout.
I don’t have ground cover, just trees and bushes. (And weeds).
chts

GET RID OF THE PLANTS! Put in a rock quarry sit back and enjoy doing nothing! I took out 1/2 my layout and don’t miss it at all. Now if I could take out the rest life would be good!

I put in a drip irrigation system not long after I got tired of spending several hours watering all the plants by hand. I can water all the trees and shrubs in one hours. It is a wonderful timesaver!