Need help front foundation planting
Canadian~gardener
7 years ago
last modified: 7 years ago
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Yardvaark
7 years agokitasei
7 years agoRelated Discussions
Need help with foundation plantings in front of old house
Comments (20)Just a comment on the north facing situation. It's the back of my house that faces due north. I'm in zone 6, which for me means very hot summers and winters with bitter cold, and cycles of snow - ice - thaw that can be plant killers. Throw in prairie winds out of the west and it's no fun right now. But my absolute favorite planting bed is a 9' x 20' border snugged up against the back of the house beside my back patio. I understand what you mean about the intense light in summer, but there may be a trick to it that will help you decide about what you will plant. I've watched how the shade line moves back toward the house as we move from spring up to the summer solstice (about June 21). At that point the shade line is about as close as it will get to the house itself. For me, there's a 3 ft band that is always in the shade. I don't plant that close to the house, but I do plant near that 3 ft mark. Those plants have access to growing some of their roots toward the shade. Plus the plants nearest the house are shaded through the days of the spring when the tilt of the earth thingy is moving that shade line. Anything closer to the house also gets the reprieve from the sun soonest as the shade line moves back in the other direction further and further from the house. In other words around the spring equinox (about March 21) the house shades an area extending beyond the bed and the patio. At that point everything is in complete shade and the plants are coaxed up from the ground by the warming earth and gentle ambient light. Tulips, daffodils, hyacinths poke up a little later here because they are kept cooler in the shade. Right at the sweet spot (about 5 ft from the house in my situation) a gorgeously robust clematis is beginning to need a little more space. It usually blooms long and then blooms again in the fall. So far I mostly have shade plants in this entire bed in spite of the fact that I know the afternoon light is coming. Kept watered, and tended, and mulched, I have been amazed at how well these shade prefering plants do. But ... I think it helps that as the earth's tilt again shifts the light southward, the shade in this area slowly begins to give its reprieve to these plants. I once used this bed for vegies ... just to see how that would go ... and the things that really love light to do well and are harvested in Aug and later, didn't produce much once they were tucked under the growing edge of the shade. Your situation is different, so you'll have to watch the light. On a sunny day in January the north side of my house is gloomy and significantly colder. The south side is the brighter warmer side. Anyway, my point is that you can work with this exposure and expect good results. There are all kinds of ways to create shade protection. A stepping stone in just the right spot is incredibly effective for keeping the ground moist and cool near a plant. I sometimes use that technique in addition to plenty of mulch. I love my north side beds and was actually planning to add hydrangia to my little playground in back. Wellspring...See MoreNeed help with entry foundation plants
Comments (5)If the designer has a solid coposition, I would suggest that you ask her for an alternative plant for the reasons that you gave. She is more intimate with the entire composition than any of us will be from a description and is in a better position to make changes that work as an entire composition. I know that when I am asked to change out a plant for whatever reason, it is not uncommon for me to change to a plant much different than the originally proposed plant. The important thing to me is that the entire composition works and I would expect that of your designer as well. The funny thing to me is that the last two times I had someone want to change out a plant, it has been a columnar yew (Veridis Yew). It seems that the males in the house tend to be uncomfortable with the form. Depending on the comfort level of the males in your house, it may be a good thing to ask for a plant with a different form right off the bat. Veridis Yew is a readily available columnar form yew that I can easily find at 4' high. You might consider it as an alternative. Thirty years ago, my father told me not to use upright rocks in gardens for elderly clients and not to use columnar shrubs for guys that seem obsessed with a macho image. His stubborn son has had to knock over upright rocks once (seems I learned that one) and removed columnar plants twice (for the president of an NFL team from outside my area) and just last week (although the landscaper may have been behind that as he was the one who had to replace the shrub that the NFL guy did not want)....See MoreHelp with asymmetrical ranch house front foundation plantings
Comments (5)Because of all the trees at the left side, you do not need to plant a tree at the left side of the house ... but you do need to unswamp the right side of the house from all the low hanging foliage of the tree there. It makes the house look gloomy and unkempt. I see you are planting a hedge across the front left side of house. This will be a chore to kept prune low or, most likely, it will grow to engulf the entire lower half of the house and the window. I would change it. The other notes are in the picture. ("Wraps corner" does not mean touching it.)...See MoreHelp Needed for Foundation landscape and Front Yard
Comments (5)Much better pictures. I would remove the AC screen and return to the smaller, neutral colored, original version. Screening it only makes an out-of-place thing grow larger. I think if you plant better in the area, it will seem less obtrusive. Then, when it craps out in some future year, you can finally have it relocated to the side of the house. The garden at the middle of yard does not work to distract from any other thing that you don't want looked at. Instead, it seems more like an impediment to better seeing an inviting entrance. I would opt for blank, clean lawn instead. The tree that's in the island might could stay. I don't know if it's a good tree and can't evaluate its placement based on the pictures we have so far. (It would need to be a picture from a distance showing the whole front yard all the way to the street.) If it remains as a tree in the lawn, you would want to remove its lower branches as it grows and keep a nice single trunk all the way to the bottom of the finished canopy. (Instead of letting it branch helter-skelter and become an ugly trunk.) I like the idea of some evergreens to screen the side of the house to the left and help place a limit on your yard. (That is, if you have room for them. It's kind of hard to tell.) The rest is tidying up and simplifying the foundation planting. Right now, there are too many odds and ends one-offs doing their own thing. It needs some cohesion. Also, I'd eliminate the plantings at the near side of the walk and bring the lawn all the way to the walk. The plants there are like a barricade and they don't help the entrance to seem inviting. I can't say what the individual shrubs in the illustration are. They are whatever that grows there that would best do that. I think the little tree at the left corner of the house is an overgrown shrub ... like beautybush or something. Below the largest bank of windows, the depth of bed will determine to some extent what shrub will fit there. The groundcover near the AC needs to come up to the bottom of the two windows, but not higher. The rest are perennials. At the steps could be annuals or perennials. All the details you will work out in a measured plan view (looking straight down from above.) With a small tree added to the right side:...See MoreYardvaark
7 years agoCanadian~gardener
7 years agoPKponder TX Z7B
7 years agoCanadian~gardener
7 years agoNHBabs z4b-5a NH
7 years agolast modified: 7 years agosamarnn
7 years agoemmarene9
7 years agoBrandy Smith
7 years agoCanadian~gardener
7 years agoBrandy Smith
7 years agoCanadian~gardener
7 years ago
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Kim in PL (SoCal zone 10/Sunset 24)