Narrow perennial bed

16 years ago

I had a strip of lawn by our driveway between ours and the neighbor's house. I got tired of hassling with the care of this one little strip of grass isolated from the main yard. Pulling the hose 40 feet and trying to set the sprinkler so it watered this one patch, moving it a few feet to water the rest and still having half of it end up in the driveway. Putting fertilizer down only to have the neighbor follow suit and end up burning the grass when he overlapped mine.

I got rid of the grass and created a 6.5'x41' planting bed in which I've planted 1 Holmstrup arborvitae, 4 Arctic Fire red twig dogwoods, 3 Nick's Compact junipers and one dwarf globe blue spruce. I planted them somewhat towards the back instead of centering them so I would have some room for some perennials, at least in front of the dogwoods.

I like tulips and lilies and was thinking about them but our street runs almost directly north/south, straight as an arrow and we have a large farm at the south end. When we have windy days when they're southernly it's like a wind tunnel. We had such a day recently and it beat the heck out of some 2' tall tulips we have about 4 feet from the house.

It's likely I'm only going to plant a 5'-6' space in front of the dogwoods as the junipers will spread over time and I want them to have their own space. That would make a 2.5'x5'-6' bed in front of each dogwood, accounting for the expected spread of those shrubs.

I tried to mix it up a bit by planting some differently shaped evergreens along with the vase-like shape of the dogwoods as well as offsetting them somewhat I have this tendency towards symmetry and precision centering and spacing that doesn't look bad, but I feel as though I get a little too ordered. I would appreciate any suggestions for this little bed regarding shapes, colors, textures to help me stay out of this pattern.

I have pictures of the before and after as well as a side view of the bed. It may be kind of hard to visualize in the pictures because the dogwoods just went in, are on the small side and don't show up very well in the pictures.

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Comment (1)

prairiegirlz5
16 years ago
Dave~I think you're on the right track, any excuse to remove turfgrass and replace with plants is a good one! :)

I can see where you moved the spruce on a stick from where the arborvitae is, but I still don't think it's working, unless you underplant it with something. It looks so lonely and naked, drowning in a sea of mulch. That's where I'd put my sturdy perennials, and flowering groundcover. Nothing that would get tattered by the wind. Try to picture the spruce as a miniature tree, and layer the plants down from it, so that they tie in to whatever else you have in the front of your house.

I also think the junipers should be grouped in front of the arb, and the dogwoods should be grouped in front of the junipers. Then you would "see" them; as you noted yourself, they are getting lost visually the way you have them now.

Remember, after a year or two, you'll be cutting a third of the dogwood branches out every year, to keep the twigs bright red. They'll show up better en masse, with a dark green background. And the junipers will get slightly taller than them, and carry more visual weight because they're an evergreen.

You don't need to plant everything in a straight line either. In fact, the two groups should zig-zag a little, and have a little breathing room between them.

Hope this helps you get the look you want.

(Great photos, BTW, they really showed the area you're working with).
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Narrow perennial bed

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prairiegirlz5

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