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Landscape Design

Need help with Landscape design

9 years ago

Well I did it - I (meaning young, strong man, not me) tore out all the overgrown shrubs at my new home. Looking for design help! I was thinking maybe arborvitae on either side of window and under garage lights, maybe a limelight hyrdrangea tree towards street, some double knockouts and then boxwood hedge along side of sidewalk, and moving the rocks out of the way. I really don't know what bushes to get, or where to place them. I like Little Kims, hydrangeas, golden junipers; low maintenance is key. Any insight would be greatly appreciated!!! We live in northern Ohio........house faces south. Thank you!

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Yardvaark

9 years ago

last modified: 9 years ago

That's what I thought it was. It makes an excellent small tree, capable of getting 10' to 18' height, depending on if dwarf or regular. You could just let it grow since it's already there.

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Comments (11)

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Yardvaark
9 years ago
In my opinion you are already committing to a serious design flaw by the mere shape of the bed. Its layout doesn't say, "Welcome." Instead, it says "Be wary of entering" (because you are getting ready to place a lot of barricade material between the street and the door.) It would be better to reshape the bed and you should also aim the camera leftward and show how the house connects with the left portion of the yard.
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klekas65
Original Author
9 years ago
Yardvarrk-I agree! We were thinking of shortening the bed along the driveway as we feel it is too big. When we bought the house it was filled with junk - almost every inch of it. When we emptied it out we too thought it seemed awful big. Is that what you mean? I will take a better picture when I get home and hopefully it will help. Thank you for your thoughts!
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I believe this to repeat of a very similar posting from late last year. And as I recall, there was minimal response or additional info forthcoming from the OP on that one as well. Design cannot be achieved in a vacuum :-)
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I would pull the spireas out from the corner. The yellow doesn't look good against the brick, and you have too many plain green meatball shrubs in a line that the spireas could be used to break up. I'd move the two meatballs that are in front of the cedar to the porch foundation, surrounding the foundation with the same shrub. You might move the one to the left of the doorway in the south bed too, giving you five shrubs. Then the spireas could go in front of/near the cedar, giving some color contrast and a little brightness to that corner. That may mean moving the daylilies. I don't think perennials work well with a hedge-type foundation. I would just use a railing planter of annuals to bring color to the porch. There's a general feeling of messiness and plants growing up through other plants in the south side bed. I would take out most if not all of that juniper (I think that's what the blue evergreen is) and would also remove the yucca. It's just been randomly squeezed in because you're trying to work around the juniper. Same for the hostas, which should be on the edge of the sidewalk. They're okay for that bed but I'd use a golden hosta with the blue juniper, which tolerates sun better than variegated hostas. What is that burgundy-foliaged tree/shrub? It looks like it gets a lot of winter kill, leaving the interior bare and requiring annual cleaning out of dead twigs. Maybe you don't want to keep that if it never looks healthy, in which case you'd have more flexibility for plant selection and placement. Of course this could all change once you step back a bit and take another photo, showing us that entire corner garden and how it relates to the house. ;)
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PRO
Yardvaark
9 years ago
In addition to capturing the house, pan the camera from the same point of view and capture also what's at left of the house, slightly overlapping the pictures.
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klekas65
Original Author
9 years ago
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klekas65
Original Author
9 years ago
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PRO
Yardvaark
9 years ago
Here are some suggestions....
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klekas65
Original Author
9 years ago
Love! Thank you. Would never have thought to make bed this small or put tree on right side of garage but I love both. I see now exactly what you mean about making it more inviting . So much better, thank you from saving me from a huge mistake! Called my landscaper and he is going to reshape the island on Monday. We leave for vacation next sat so I think we should wait until we return in a week to plant? Guessing we need to water daily?
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PRO
Yardvaark
9 years ago
Best to be around after plants go in.

The tree at right of garage is the one you already have there ... just grown out instead of stifled.
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klekas65
Original Author
9 years ago
It's a burning bush that got way too big. I'm afraid it has to go. But I like the idea of a tree!
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klekas65
Original Author
9 years ago
Ok will do - I was going to pull it out but if I can just let it grow, why not?
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