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Texas Gardening

Need help deciding what to plant here (see pic)

14 years ago

I'm very new to gardening and need some advice as to what to plant. I want to plant something along the patio wall that will give us some privacy but isn't so large that our walkway gets blocked. The guy living on the other side of the privacy fence is creepy and I need something that will grow at least 10 feet tall. The area gets morning sun. Right now, as you can see in the picture, I have a Mexican Bird of Paradise and a Sweet Olive. I think that they may have been bad choices, I just read that the Sweet Olive gets 15' wide, so I'll have to move them.

side yard view:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/42712907@N08/3931788121/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/42712907@N08/3932568236/

Thanks!

Here is a link that might be useful: Side yard view

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Comments (5)

hoddys
Original Author
14 years ago
I forgot to mention that I'm in San Antonio. I was also thinking that I could put up a trellis with a climbing vine, do you have any evergreen vine suggestions that won't attract too many bees?
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debndal
14 years ago
Sweet olive would probably work fine, but I do think it is planted too close to the house. They grow very slowly so your creepy neighbor might be gone by the time you get privacy from it. They smell wonderful tho. Southern Wax myrtle grows fairly fast and can be limbed up as a tree. Crape Myrtles are pretty, but you might get a lot of trash from it on your patio and is not evergreen. Some kind of holly - like Mary Nell or Foster's or yaupon holly. If you want privacy any time soon tho, I'd try to get one in a fairly large container. And I'd plant whateve you decide on farther away from the house - closer to the fence without encrouching on the neighbors side.
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Which direction does the house face? You have that strange overhang which mostly isn't a porch. Well, you did say the porch area gets some sun, so presumably the house faces south-ish. Perhaps it's lack of water that's made the yews under the windows so unhappy. If you decide to replace the yews with something else that height, plant them away from the house a couple of feet. That'll allow you access to the brick and windows for cleaning, painting, etc., and will get the new shrubs closer to the sun and rain, which will make them happier. I'd put brightly-colored flowers in front of the lower evergreens which are in front of the yews (junipers, perhaps?). Because the junipers aren't so tall, I'd keep the flowers shorter: pansies, petunias, candytuft, English daisies, etc. This is not quite what you were asking, but perhaps it will be helpful to you. My parents once owned a house with a circular driveway. Like your situation, the apex of the circular driveway was in front of the main entrance to the house. Theirs had a wide brick walkway from the driveway to the front door. The landscaping was designed so the view from the street to the front door was unimpeded. In other words, where you have a lamp with shrubs to either side, they had only grass. There was a gap of 20' or so, then shrubs which continued along the driveway on each side to the street. It was an elegant way to frame the front door. Obviously you have a lamp in front of the front door to complicate matters. But if you wanted to do something similar -- without moving the lamp -- you could plant low flowers (under a foot in height) where the shrubs are now, with shrubs or taller flowers (probably no more than 2' or so) to either side. With nothing else tall in that area, hopefully the lamp wouldn't give the same effect of blocking entrance to the house when surrounded by low plants as it does now with its wall of shrubs.
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I would seriously consider removing the Coralburst from the raised bed. I have two of them, one planted over 12 years ago and a newer one planted about 5 years ago. Coralbursts are very wide trees. The one planted 5 years ago would not now fit in your bed without pruning away the back almost completely. The older tree shades an area at least 15-20 feet across, but is not all that tall - these trees are one story trees (to one and a half stories high), with the widest areas beginning at 6-10 feet or so from the ground and naturally creating a widened dome shape at the top. They need to be out in your yard somewhere, or at least 15 feet away from your house. The Coralbursts provide very DENSE shade. They have a very neat and shapely growth pattern. They also need to be thinned out every 3-4 years once they reach around the 10 year mark. The branching looks wonderful in our winters, especially covered with snow. At maturity, shade plants (with soaker hoses) will grow very well under Coralbursts (no root problems), but not sun plants. For now, I would add some spring bulbs (if you don't already have some) to the bed and perhaps a solidago for fall to go with the aster. Bed looks lovely by the way!
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prairiepaintbrush
14 years ago
You might consider Will fleming yaupon. They grow tall and thin.
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treelover
14 years ago
Confederate jasmine is a nice evergreen vine; has sweet smelling blooms for a couple of weeks in spring/early summer & may have some bees at it then, but the rest of the year it's just there. Sends out long strands that grab on to anything they can and grow up. I cut some of them off occasionally.

It's a fast grower and doesn't seem to have any problems that I'm aware of. It's quite drought tolerant; I give it only a little extra water in summers. I've had the 3 below for 5-6 years.

The far one on the left is growing up a 2x2 that I mounted (with spacers) against the post holding up the carport roof.

A year later I planted the pair on the right on treated 2x2s that I sunk into the ground with their tops attached to the 2x12 holding up the roof. You can see them here in their first year . . . just one long branch twining up each 2x2. Within a couple of years they had bulked out and now look as they do in the first photo (each about 2-ft wide):
{{gwi:658680}}

If I were doing this again, I'd put the 2 posts just a little farther apart.
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knittlin
14 years ago
I wholeheartedly second the advice to plant Confederate Jasmine there (it's also called Star Jasmine, so you may find it under that name). It's a fabulous vine for privacy screening. It's evergreen, so will provide year-'round privacy. It's easy to keep in bounds, so won't get too wide (and if it does, just whack off the stray tendrils, or weave them back into the trellis). It's also tough ~ deer (and most other pest) resistant, will grow in sun or shade, can stand wet or dry conditions, and will still grow in most soils (though will do better in fertile soil of course). It's just a great plant that I think would be absolutely perfect for your spot and needs.
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