Landscape Design- Front of House/ New House
Hello,
I live in Massachusetts (ZONE 6A) and purchased a house 6 months ago. I am starting to think about a landscaping plan for the front of the house. The previous owner was clearly on a budget and picked up all of the plants at home depot. There are boxwoods, rhododendron's, azalea's, coral bells. At the far left corner there is a cherry tree that got munched by the winter moth and you can see the japanese maple (lost several limbs this winter). I recently planted shade perennials in the mulch bed. The front of the house is due north and I probably could have gotten away with sun perennials, so maybe next season I can fill in, replace, or move them.
Goal: Replace some of the dwarf shrubs to improve the curb appeal, at this rate I would be waiting five years for them to grow. The small shrubs are crowded and look blah. I'd also like to cover the irrigation, and electrical panel, such an eye sore. I do like hydragena's and layering evergreen shrubs with perennials. Can I keep the Japanese Maple there? Or would a flowering dogwood etc, something taller look better. I'll probably wait until fall or next spring as I do not want to plant in the summer heat.
Cost Estimates if landscapers complete the work? Front and Left Side I guess could cost 7500-10k?
Looking forward to your feedback, good, bad etc..
Comments (12)
melle_sacto is hot and dry in CA Zone 9/
8 years agolast modified: 8 years agoI don't think the plant selection seems bad, and a north-facing home tends to be shaded all day. My house is facing the worst of the worst: north-west on a corner lot such that the sun shines on the front in the afternoon. The front is full shade most of the day, then blazing sun.
I think it's important to enlarge the beds around your home so they are more proportional to the height of your home, and I think it would look especially nice if you extend the front beds to incorporate part of the walk. I'd move those conical shrubs that are near the door down to closer to the step on your walk (which means extending the beds that far).
I don't really understand the bed around the trees, maybe find a way to connect it to your future extended beds.
Lastly, and this is just me, I would want to give a little privacy to that bay window. A small, umbrella-shaped tree might be nice there and also might make a more pleasant view when looking through the window from inside.
Hopefully you'll get some better ideas, but since I actually thought of something that I thought would look nice I tried to quickly "draw" it in Paint -- not very skillfully. ;-)
Related Discussions
New Front Landscape for 1850s House on Busy Road
Comments (8)lazygardens: I have measured that distance. The driver is 15 feet back from the edge of the pavement when trying to merge into traffic, so can't have anything tall in that first 15 feet. There are three large trees (2 Sycamores that are 30-40 feet and a mature Horsechestnut) set back 25 feet from the road. So that leaves just ten feet that could have taller planting on the way to the trees. I understand your idea of gradually increasing heights from perennials to shrubs to low growing trees to the big trees, I just don't think there is room to implement it. I have seen people try to fill in a line of shrubs between existing tall trees and that always seems to look wrong, so the more naturalistic idea does make more sense. Yardvaark: Yes, I did fail to profess my love of the house! It is lovely and I would hope whatever we end up doing adds to that. I would certainly agree that the existing plantings don't show off the house and the yews are certainly not doing it any favors, but haven't had the budget previously to deal with this. Old houses and upkeep, you know! Remember that photos always focus your eye on what is close up in a way that you don't do in real life, so the house is more visible that it appears above. So I think you are saying that you don't think it's right to try to make the front private at all? I do feel that these old places are sort of in the public domain. On the other hand, for fourteen years I've been able to go grab the paper in the morning without getting dressed. Now that the lilac hedge that did run the length of the house is gone, I'm finding that lack of privacy irritating. So what would you do to complement the house in your ideal world?...See MoreLooking for landscap design help for the front of my 1st house! (5B)
Comments (20)Congrats on the new home! It is definitely looking better with your current work. Here are some random thoughts that occurred to me while looking at your various photos. I'm interested in seeing the photos Yardvaark requested, and also one that clearly shows the entrance from the sidewalk, when standing directly out from the door. I am another who wouldn't paint the brick since it involves increased maintenance, especially since you have chosen low-maintenance hardie board siding, but you are the one who will have to deal with it. However, I would wait to do this until you have worked out a planting scheme since it may turn out that the current brick color makes a better backdrop for the plants than the light color. Once you have a plan, then if you still feel it will look best, you can do the whitewash before actually doing the plantings. As others have said, I think one of your biggest challenges will be to find a way to make your almost hidden entrance easily seen by visitors. So you will need to keep that in mind with whatever you decide to do with landscaping. For instance, planting an evergreen at the left house corner may hinder the visibility of the entrance from some angles. IME, planting along the driveway edge won't prevent folks from driving off the edge, it will just mean that your plants get driven on. It also presents an issue with where folks walk when they get out of the car; if you have plantings lining the drive, and the cars fill the drive, there isn't anywhere to walk, so grass or a walkway from the street to the door might be your best choice for the driveway edge. Soaker hoses on a timer or with you turning them on as needed will help with keeping things watered. Since they go under the mulch, they won't be visible. Getting the timing right will need to be worked out based on what you plant and your soil, but here (with similar rainfall) I usually don't need to do much if any watering on established, mulched gardens. Rather than just getting plant ideas on line, go to the Chicago Botanic Garden, which is world class and grows research plots specifically to figure out what plants grow well and look good (disease free, etc.) in your area. Go often, like every 2 weeks so you can see what looks good at different times of year. Take photos of plants and their labels so you know what to look for when you have a plan. As for the mulch and paver edging dilemma, I might just add a light layer of a mulch color you like for now, with perhaps some annuals for color, either in the ground or in large pots. Your ultimate plan may have a bed that looks quite different, and once you have a plan of what the planting area will look like and what types of planting and hardscape changes you will plan to make, then you can remove mulch and edging. It just seems a bit of a waste of your time and energy to do much with this area for now. Early fall is a great time to plant, so if you don't get things planned and planted this spring, you can do prep this summer once the plan is in place and plant in September. The annuals will add interest for the summer so it doesn't look so stark....See MoreNeed help with landscaping design for the front of my house.
Comments (1)I like blues with brick. I would also paint your garage doors so they don’t stand out so much. And a big house like that needs deeper flower beds. And a big tree!...See MoreNew house landscaping front yard
Comments (20)What a pretty house! It has great bones! Looks similar to my neighborhood near Boston. I wouldn't add shutters to the wing over the garage--it looks correct as is. Fixing the walk, wall, and driveway will make the curb appeal even nicer. After that, I'd suggest re-painting the flaking trim, replacing the screen door, and painting the door red, medium blue, or black to make a big difference. (Because I love old houses, I also find myself wondering what the condition of the original siding is, since I think you have vinyl over the original wood. But that could be a serious can of worms.) On landscaping: Besides your huge rhododendron and your hydrangea, I think I see two alberta spruces and a bunch of hosta. I can't tell what the other shrubs are near the hydrangea, but possibly arborvitae in front and ilex (holly) in back on left, and another ilex between the rhody and the spruce on the right. If you're looking for low maintenance, it doesn't get much more low maintenance than what you have. You will have to do very little to any of this except perhaps once/year. You should not even prune the hydrangea or spruces. You could edge your beds and mulch and it will look OK. Personally, I don't think the hosta add anything, so you could take them out. Flowers will be lovely, but definitely be more maintenance, and it will be hard to get bright color on an east-facing property up against the house, unless you do shade annuals (which is a lot more work than shrubs). I agree with some of the above posters that if you're not certain about how to proceed, you should 1) cut the rhododendron way back, to below the window. It will survive and bounce back--won't look like sticks for long. I think early spring should be a good time to do this, but do a little research on timing/technique. If the other shrubs are ilex/holly, you can cut those back too. Do not prune the hydrangea (you'll cut off next year's flowers) or alberta spruce (it won't bounce back). 2) besides pruning and shaping, live with it for a year. Maybe you'll appreciate the rhody and hydrangea more once you see them in bloom in June. It will be a lot of work to rip out all these shrubs, so make sure you know that's what you want. In that year, walk around the neighborhood and take note of which landscaping you admire. In the Northeast I bet a lot of your neighbors also have established shrub beds like you have. In my area the *really* bright and beautiful gardens have been professionally installed or their owners are avid gardeners who are constantly out maintaining. 3) Consider just taking out the worst offenders and replacing with something smaller or more to your liking. Suggestions for colorful east-facing shrubs in Northeast: more hydrangeas (check out lacecap and paniculata types), fothergilla (spring bottlebrush, gorgeous fall color), azalea. 4) Instead of re-doing the beds, onsider pots of annuals on your steps to bring in color. How about some bright-flowered begonias and new guinea impatiens in cobalt blue pots, changed to chrysanthemums, kale, gourds and pumpkins in fall? Not an earth-shattering idea, but easy to purchase, easy to maintain, and would look lovely and colorful on your symmetrical steps. 5) If you're getting the retaining wall and path re-done, consider hiring someone to advise on the landscaping at the same time. Check out this instagram for New England curb appeal inspiration. https://www.instagram.com/thefrontdoorproject/ Here are some front door color ideas:...See Morejaybar
8 years ago
PROYardvaark
8 years agolast modified: 8 years agoMy suggestions are to mainly to simplify and embolden...
Remove the low-starting, wide spreading limbs off of the two front trees.
Create a bed of single variety plants below those trees.
Increase the bed size at the left corner of the house and move the small tree in it farther away from the house.
Increase the foundation bed front-to-back depth where possible (to the 6' range or greater.)
Paint the lower portion of the power pole in some interesting scheme.
Add an island with small tree in front of the breezeway area.
Remove the pyramidal shaped plants flanking front door and replace with beds of annual color.
Underscore the left set of windows with the existing shrubs, but don't let them extend beyond the end of house.
Underscore the bay window with a single planting that will not obscure the window lower portions.
Widen the front walk. Does not need to be exact same material. Anything compatible will do. Same material could form cheekwall at single step. Or get rid of that single step. It does not look needed. (Can't tell if existing bricks are laid OK, but the weeds growing in them should be sprayed out for an improved appearance.
A canopy or awning of some type above the stoop would make the house face much more interesting.
PS: Thanks for putting on decent pictures ... one of the extremely few times I have not wished for better!
emmarene9
8 years ago
aegis1000
8 years agojaybar
8 years ago- PRO
Yardvaark
8 years ago jaybar
8 years agoemmarene9
8 years agojaybar
8 years agoHi emmarene- Yes I could move them towards a mulch bed close to my house where they would only get morning sun. However, I think i need to get a landscape architect and have them think of my design holistically.
I lost 1/2 of my hellebores. Primrose and Hostas were already cut back but close enough to stump that they probably are gone. Bummer....
Before and after short of the carnage and a pic of side yard. Again i have a small lot i need to deal with
emmarene9
8 years ago
emmarene9