Q: I recently planted a gardenia bush for my wife but I ran into a problem. About three feet deep was a large rock that I couldn’t break up. I found where the rock ended and planted the bush out there but I worry about the rock being a hindrance to the bush’s growth.

A: You dug a hole three feet deep??? That’s going FAR beyond the call of duty! But since it was for your wife, it proves the depth of your love.

Gardenia roots, and those of most shrubs, rarely go deeper than twelve inches. Any planting hole deeper than that yields nothing but good exercise…and sometimes a trip to the chiropractor.

If you’d like to move the plant back to its originally planned site, that would be dandy. Just go easy on yourself and make the hole three feet wide, but no deeper than twelve inches.