I went straight to social media to ask more knowledgeable friends if this was blight on my precious boxwoods. I had several answers that it was indeed blight and there was no hope... pull them up and burn them. But then along came neighbor Brian. Brian shared that he was working with North Carolina State faculty members on Boxwood Blight and that he, himself, had a degree in agronomy with an emphasis in plant pathology. He got my attention quickly!

Brian came by the next day and assured me the boxwoods could be saved if I followed a treatment plan. He
showed me how to treat the boxwoods, left me with some chemicals and a written plan to treat my boxwoods. We have been faithfully treating our boxwoods weekly as he suggested. I’ll share his plan at the end of this post. Brian is THE man!

But first let me take you on a tour of our little Mirror Lake community. Boxwood Blight can take an otherwise healthy boxwood out in a couple of weeks. Many of our residents are seasonal and will be shocked to return and see the condition of their boxwoods. One new friend contacted me a week or so ago about her boxwoods. Brian even went to check them out, but they were too far gone to save. The owner was devastated because these 50-year-old boxwoods were her grandmother’s. Take a look...

All of the pictures above were taken in our neighborhood. The pictures show blight at various stages, but I know, without a doubt, if left untreated every single boxwood will die. Brian says, “It’s not a question of IF untreated boxwoods will die, but rather it’s a matter of WHEN they will die.” And he clarified that he meant whether it currently has Boxwood Blight or not!

And here’s the plan Brian shared...

Daconil is a contact fungicide and Tebuconazole is a systemic fungicide. The combination of these two products treat the shrub from the outside and from within. YOU NEED BOTH!

Mix the chemicals in a 1-gallon or 2-gallon pump sprayer:
1. Daconil: 1 oz/gallon of water
2. Tebuconazole: 1 oz/gallon of water

These chemicals can be mixed together in the same tank. In the case of a 2-gallon sprayer, you will mix 2 oz of each chemical in 2 gallons of water. Spray the boxwood to the point of runoff, covering all sides of the shrub. These fungicides are safe and will not harm the shrub or other plants in any way. You can’t spray too much.

Boxwoods should be sprayed every 21 days during the months of April-October. No spraying is required from November-March. (Note: since I had infected boxwoods and it was so close to the end of the spraying season, Brian advised that we go ahead and spray weekly.)

Thank you, Brian! I’ll be making you a homemade thank you treat very soon!

Phil and I decided to go ahead with a project we had planned to complete in 2019 and we’re glad we did. We now have a nice fire pit behind Two Holt. All of our flat spaces had been claimed—- the house, the sitting garden, the potting bench, Boots’ Run, parking. So we called our friend and grading contractor, Mark Rogers, to carve a large flat area out of the sloped lot behind our house. And he agreed to the job.

Mark started the job and Phil staked out his observation stations!

I had walked the land with Mark and shown him pictures and drawings two or three times prior to the beginning of the job so I was fairly certain he understood what I wanted. At the end of the first day, I KNEW we were in sync.

The next phase was to bring in the large stones to build the back retaining wall and a smaller retaining wall in the front.

Mark worked for a week creating our fire pit and the beginnings of walking paths through the back lot to the road behind Two Holt.

Mark dug down a bit for the actual pit.

Phil and I tried out the fire pit and immediately knew this would become our favorite outdoor spot.

We began planting our Fire Pit Garden with plants we bought on clearance at Lowe’s which included three Dwarf Alberta Spruce trees...

...a red twig dogwood...

...a Kaleidoscope abelia...

...and several Rain Forest Morning hosta.

I planted three Creeping Jenny plants in the retaining wall and will add many more plants as it becomes another living wall comparable to the one we created in a front garden near the road.

We also planted a white blooming hybrid rhodie, Bloom Struck Hydrangea, and a Red Dragon Japanese Maple in the Fire Pit Garden.

We began a Woodland Path Garden along the lower path leading away from the Fire Pit Garden by planting one Nana Cryptermia, four Lemon Lime Nandina, and a burning bush. Creating this garden will be an ongoing project as we add shrubs and understory trees beside the paths along with benches, a swing, and chairs to create garden destinations all the way to the very back of our property.

Next it was time to spread gravel over the ground within the fire pit sitting area. This was a tough job for Phil and me. We unloaded over a full ton of gravel from Phil’s truck and carried it bucket by bucket up endless steps to the fire pit area.

We found comfortable Adirondack chairs on a trip to Gainesville, Georgia. We bought four chairs (two are swivel glider chairs) and two small tables. But then we had to unload that VERY heavy furniture and carry it up to the fire pit.

Here’s a view of the fire pit from the upstairs guest bedroom...

And here’s the fire pit as we enjoy it today. You can see the tree stump grinder has not shown up yet. Hopefully he’ll be here soon.

We still have finishing touches to add. I’ve ordered lumbar pillows for the chairs and we plan to add another whiskey barrel planter to this area. I’m on the lookout for a few other large pots to add, too. Next spring our gardening efforts surrounding this area will intensify. I hope to achieve a nestled-in-the-woodland look. Happy gardening, everyone!