New home, blank slate! Please help!

7 years ago

We are ready to landscape but not sure where to start. We love evergreens and huge planters on or near the porch. We are planning to add black shutters and possibly a few flower boxes? The sloping side leads to a side walk out basement. I've also included a picture of side as well. Any advice or suggestions would be greatly appreciated Thank you!

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Shannah Reynolds
Original Author
7 years ago
last modified: 7 years ago
Here is a more recent picture of the front and side walkout...would love to hide the propane tank!
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Yardvaark
7 years ago
"We are ready to landscape but not sure where to start."

In all cases, before you begin any work or preparation for it (such as shopping for plant material) start with a physical measured-to-scale PLAN on paper. Even if you get inspiration on this forum, you still need to convert whatever ideas appeal to you into a PLAN. With a plan you can make sure that your ideas will work and you can also use it to calculate material quantities. You can either draw the plan yourself or hire a landscape designer to draw it for you. Of course, they will want to be instrumental in helping to shape the yard design since that's their job. They won't want to be just a draftsman. If you draw the plan you can get opinions from forum members on your work at any point along the way, in order to know that you are on the right path. Of course, there are lots of varying opinions here so you'll need to be savvy enough to sort out the advice that works for you.

The solution I recommend is not a solid screen of shrubs surrounding the house, but placing them at windows (like a window box) and with trees framing the house, seasonal color flanking the entrance, some perennial masses between shrubs and groundcover filling in and connecting everything together. Beds that surround the outside of a sidewalk are limited, but especially not in front of an entrance.

Before planting the side of the house with the walkout entrance, consider if you would want a larger area of flat ground for future use. If so, a series of retaining walls would be useful to you.
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Keep in mind that, even though you've shown us some pictures, we can't know what happens on your property outside of those pictures. There's nothing wrong with questions that prod exploration of alternative solutions. I cannot tell you how many times people have come here saying more or less to the effect of: "Here's the problem and here's how we intend to solve it .... but that creates a problem. What do we do?" Many times this involves telling said person that they are headed in the wrong direction to begin with. So please understand why people might make suggestions of alternative solutions, or question where you're headed. I'll remind you again, Brodyt, that you not only need the new pictures, but you'll need to be working the walkway problem out in plan view. The sooner you draw the base plan (existing house and porch footprint and drive) to scale, the sooner you can work toward a solution. The way I would approach this is by first roughing out some proposed beds, in order to know that the walk will allow for them. Then you can route the walk around them. One question that you'll need to answer, Brodyt, is at what point you'll want to tie the walk to the drive. I've pointed out that it can be somewhat awkward for the walk to dump directly into a car if one is parked just outside the garage. Most walks terminate very close to the garage door. But this has the negative effect of destroying the planting bed. Nevertheless, it's a decision the homeowner needs to make. Personally, I prefer to take the walk toward the end, or last third, of the car so that if one is heading in that direction, they are not forced to walk in the skinny space between the side of the parked car and the lawn. If there are objects (plants) to walk around, it doesn't feel unreasonable to walk to that location.
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Those pictures work. As I've mentioned previously, I would definitely do a return leg on the retaining wall, such that the grade no longer created an open end, inviting washing and erosion from behind the wall. Exactly how the layout goes would be something to figure out in plan view. From the front angle it doesn't looks as much like it's necessary to add a separate second wall above the first. An on site evaluation could determine just what's needed, but I wouldn't be adding retaining walls unless they were necessary. While it's commonplace as all get out, I consider it a shame when a nice house has a majorly underwhelming entrance area. Here, the steps are undersized. They ought to be at least as wide as the doorway assembly including the side lights. They would be dramatically upgraded if they were flanked by a blocky pair of cheekwalls that correlated with the column configuration. That necessitates widening the walk as it approaches the steps. But I think all the fuss and bother is worth it for elevating the entrance status and creating a dramatically more inviting one. In my planting scheme I'm suggesting only two shrubs (one per window), two small trees, the rest being perennials, with annuals flanking the steps, and groundcover linking everything up. If you wanted to busy up the planting scheme a little there's generally room for a little of that without making a mess of things, but subdividing and adding more is something that you'd figure out on a PLAN. I can only draw so much before too many things become covered up. I would imagine there is a high likelihood that two street trees (and maybe one at the left side of the drive if there's room) would be useful, but that would be determined from a picture taken at a distance that shows everything from the curb and back.
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Shannah Reynolds
Original Author
7 years ago
last modified: 7 years ago
Thank you so much! What do you think about using arborvitae to flank the corners and front porch? I love the two larger trees on both sides of the house! We are zone 6b, do you have any recommendations for trees?
PRO
Yardvaark
7 years ago
"What do you think about using arborvitae to flank the corners and front porch?" That it is a bad idea based not on good design principles, but on nothing more than copying. What seems to be a little known fact is that corners of houses are one of their interesting parts ... just like doors, windows, trim, cornices, pediments, etc. It is generally not a good idea to cover or conceal interesting things.

New home, blank slate! Please help!

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Shannah Reynolds
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New home, blank slate! Please help!

Comments (4)

Shannah ReynoldsOriginal Author

Yardvaark

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Shannah ReynoldsOriginal Author

Yardvaark

COMPANY

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GET HELP

CONNECT WITH US

Shannah Reynolds
Original Author

Shannah Reynolds
Original Author