Garden Design Help: Lousiana

11 years ago

Hey Guys,

This is my first house and I'm starting to shape the garden/landscape how I want it, but need a little advice on the front garden bed. Right now there is a Palm Bush (?) at either end with hedges running along the foundation and mini rose bushes by the entrance. I put some annuals this fall just to add a little color until I redesign it. I'd love to put azaleas on either end to replace the palms, but don't know about the hedges or by the entrance. Would these hedges flow with azaleas or should I replace? Any help is greatly appreciated!

Here is the left side:

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Comments (8)

JV28
Original Author
11 years ago
Here is the right hand side, basically the same layout stretched out a little longer:
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Yardvaark
11 years ago
If you keep the beds confined to the curbed area, you will not be able to to achieve an optimum landscape. It's too pinched. A larger view is probably needed.
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Rocks are wonderful in the landscape! I use them in my designs all the time - the ultimate in low maintenance gardening :-) But siting them correctly so they look as natural as possible can be a bit of an art - that is all that Christopher meant. A defined semicircle following the bedline and spaced equidistant from each other is not a look you should be shooting for and I'm glad to hear that's not their permanent home! The other issue is they are all of the same approximate shape and size. I generally prefer rocks of that size used in clusters rather than placed individually. More visual impact and you can nestle plants around them easier. I'd also give consideration to the previous advice to stagger the senecio planting. Even with the curved front bedline, the layout is a bit too linear and regimented.
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What a splendid, beautiful place! That house does indeed "desrve" a nice garden! I can't help much, since I live in Tuscany, Italy, so our climates are so different. However, I can in some ways relate to your situation, in the sense that my garden is a 20-minute drive from my home (alas, we don't have a cabin out there),and it is in a wild place, in a clearing on a very steep. wooded hillside. There is no running water out there, either,so my plants -mainly roses for now-only really get to count on being watered in their first year (I harvest rain water and bring water in small tanks with my car),and then only really in the summer. So, if I can do this huge project of mine in overly-hot, droughty Italy (and note, I am a middle-aged woman with limited financial resources, and I do almost everything out there by myself)I should certainly think that you up in Ontario,with a stupendous lake right there, can do a good job of landscaping around your fine house.However, in the first year or so, while you are trying to get it going, I think you may well have to make fairly regular trips out there to tend the plants while they are young and struggling to become established,or else, if you can afford it, to hire some local person that you know you can trust to take care of it for you at the beginning. I definitely agree that you should go for a natural,kind of wild look. I like the idea of evergreens; you do indeed have plenty of marvelous trees, but you could go for some dwarf conifers and shrubs. You could also investigate flowering shrubs (there is even a series of very hardy roses-https://www.helpmefind.com/gardening/l.php?l=2.1931 ,for example; there's also "John Davis" "William Baffin", and a few others) The idea of going to a local nursery is perfect. You could also look around for flowering groundcovers -I love vinca, but don't know if it's hardy up there.And what about naturalizing some bulbs? that would be great in a woodland setting , but again, I don't know what's hardy up there in Ontario. Since it is in a woodland, getting organic mulch should be easy. However, I myself dream of getting to the point where much of my garden will be covered by "living mulch" ; i.e., ground covers and bushy, low-growing plants. The main advice I can give is this: don't expect to do it all in one year-a garden needs time to grow and develop and evolve,and requires trial and error. And only do it if you think it's fun!
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Brad Edwards
11 years ago
I am very familiar with nola and BR.

I think those palms are fairly overgrown, I would trim out the bottom fronds giving you more bed space. That would also draw your eye east to west. Your bed isn't deep enough for a lot of stuff so quality is more important than quantity in your case. I would take out the shrubs, appear to be barberry. I would replace with things like daylily, Louisiana Iris, and birds of paradise if in nola for great color. You could then use sweet potato vine in the front of the bed to break up the edging. Think uptown landscaping. I would then look into a mandavellia or something with color for the area that gets to 4foot in front of the brick wall on the left. Maybe even if your feeling wily a dwarf meyer lemon or key lime that you espalier yourself in front of the brick wall on a piece of black metal garden lattice, try to find something with 3ft wide by 6ft high, I in vision it with flour de lis on the top and fresh limes or lemons in my mind. I wouldn't find a cheap piece of metal work either, it is going to be viewed everyday and thin aluminum or steel is decent but I would go out and spend 150$ on it. Any kind of climbing vine would work and if the front of the house faces south you can get away with most tropical vines.

I would also kill the grass on the front entry right in front of the house # on both sides for an area to get two 2 foot high pots. That will pull your eye more to the front door and make your beds seem larger than they are. In them I would go with a 3 plant design involving spillers, fillers, and focal. Something like a grass, some bright coleus, and supertunia or echoing the sweet potato vine. If your in nola the spv will survive the winters that don't get cold, you can propagate it easily in water, and it will look good. You will have to prune the heck out of a dwarf meyer lemon to keep it espaliered in that space but the lime will work. Its about as small a space as I'd ever try an espalier but would be amazingly cool and great conversation piece, not to mention the fresh fruit. I am in town some if you needs some help hit me up.
PRO
Yardvaark
11 years ago
JV28, a heads up... your thread will probably wither on the vine unless you interact.
JV28
Original Author
11 years ago
Thanks for all the great advice Oceandweller!

My wife and I love the idea of planters or urns to put more focus on the front door area which I know is lacking. The palms will be coming out as well as the hedges, since they aren't fitting in with my vision. The black lattice as you described was something I thought about, I have a friend who does metal work and could possibly fabricate something for me. As much as I would love to have azaleas or camellias, i'm starting to agree that there's simply not enough room for something like that unless I can find a dwarf version and keep it shaped...
JV28
Original Author
11 years ago
Thanks for all the great advice Oceandweller!

My wife and I love the idea of planters or urns to put more focus on the front door area which I know is lacking. The palms will be coming out as well as the hedges, since they aren't fitting in with my vision. The black lattice as you described was something I thought about, I have a friend who does metal work and could possibly fabricate something for me. As much as I would love to have azaleas or camellias, i'm starting to agree that there's simply not enough room for something like that unless I can find a dwarf version and keep it shaped...
rosiew
11 years ago
Hope you'll consider taking out the lower branches of the pams. They're both beautiful specimens......and you wouldn't lose anything doing that, other than delay removal time. I really think you might end up loving that lush greenery grounding your home at the corners.

Rosie, with palm envy
JV28
Original Author
11 years ago
Hey Rosie,

Don't you worry, they will be going to a good home! We will be transplanting them to a friend's house.

Garden Design Help: Lousiana

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