How to Landscape a Driveway Island

Remove any sod where the plantings will go using the sod removal tool. Push the blade of the tool down beneath the sod and shove it forward to break the grass's roots. Lift the pieces of sod away.

Double dig the exposed soil where you removed the sod. Dig down one shovel length along the width of the center island about 1-foot wide and stack the dirt along the outside of the planting area. Dig a 1-foot row and turn over the soil onto the first row you dug, adding peat and compost to the soil at a ratio of 1 to 1 to 3 of compost, manure and soil in that order. Continue in this fashion until you've dug the whole garden bed. Fill the final row with the soil from the first row plus the peat and compost.

Position the 2-foot boulder to one side of the garden area.

Position a low-growing evergreen, such as a ground-cover juniper, half its expected final width, to the right of the boulder. Position two more evergreens, if there is enough room in your island, to the right of the first evergreen, spaced appropriately for the plants' full width. You do not need to plant the evergreens yet, just put them in position.

Fill the front of the garden with fairy rose bushes. These roses love full sun and grow to 2 1/2 feet tall. To calculate how many fairy roses you need, draw 3-foot wide circles in the soil until you fill the bed.

Rearrange your shrubs until you like the appearance. Dig holes the depth of the pot the shrubs and roses came in, remove the shrubs from the pots and plant them in the holes. Press the soil down around the plants to eliminate any air pockets. Plant the shrubs so that the final position of the plants' crowns is the same height as they were in the pot.

Top the island garden bed with 4 inches of mulch. Organic mulch, such as wood chips and shredded bark, will add organic matter to the soil as it breaks down. Water the shrubs liberally for several weeks until the shrubs roots grow.