Landscape Design Help - Zone 5B

6 years ago

I bought my first house back in August 2017, at that point landscaping was the least of my worries. Now with it being spring I want to start making my yard look as nice as the couple across the street. I am also hoping that having yard service will help with the look of the yard in general. I live in Northern Indiana with my house facing north, the front and side yard gets a lot of sun throughout the day during the summer.

I am willing to change just about anything with my yard. In the second picture you can see the dramatic curve is hell to push mow around. There are similar dramatic curves on the side of the house (3rd picture) near the fence.

The previous owners had put in some plants in (hosta and other plants that just didn't look great in full sun) that I am okay with getting rid of. I would probably put bark down in replacement of the stone rocks. We have been thinking of drawing back the flower bed area to go near where the corner of the sidewalk starts to the tree and do a more gentler curve that will work with a push mower. We are thinking of limbing up the spruce at the corner of the the yard due to looking very thin at the bottom or just taking it down all together so that if I were to have a family I can see the kids at the bus stop at the corner or at the park down the street.

Any suggestions or ideas is much appreciated.

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Comments (5)

RNmomof2 zone 5
6 years ago
Cute house! I think getting rid of the rocks will sure help make it easier to plant things. Maybe someone will offer up some ideas.
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Yardvaark
6 years ago

It would give a tidier appearance if you remove the lower limbs from the large tree, clearing the house.

I'm not a fan of raised edging for multiple reasons. The present edging looks difficult to maintain, poorly installed (lumpy & bumpy,) and its layout doesn't fit great, IMO. A properly installed brick or paver mowing strip not only looks good, but facilitates easier maintenance. However, it's obvious why the raised edging exists -- to contain the rock mulch (which I'm also not a fan of because it's somewhat inflexible and hard to undo.) You need to decide if you're keeping it before moving forward. (My planting arrangement suggestions are based on getting rid of it and using groundcover instead.)

Given the size of the tree, the bed below it should be expanded correspondingly. Imagine the tree were a potted plant and the bed below it was the top of the container. Based on the first photo, one could see that the tree looks way oversized for the size of the container. The tree is hard to make smaller, but the bed is easy to expand.

I'm neither a fan of smothering buildings with plants. A single shrub below the window would eventually be enough as long as you have other plantings -- perennials, annuals, groundcover, etc. to balance out the equation. Around the tree could be a mass of tall, flowering perennial (or even a moderate height shrub. Connecting everything together could be groundcover. All of this equals a very low maintenance scape.

Oh, also, I would ditch all the planting that surrounds the walk. It lessens the welcoming quality of entering and makes the walk seem confined. The walk already is too narrow for the house and the entrance opening. If you have in your capabilities, I would revise that (widen) and make it more inviting. Plants there, pinching things off, it not really an asset. Well cared for turf would help the look of everything.
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lol, this is not part of an assignment... and even if it was, I have compiled enough on my own to have more than enough ideas. This is a no-credit, online class that I am taking to learn new things. Just wondering what you've all had success with, I know many of you here are zone 5ers. Some of my ideas are: baptisia, ligularia, goatsbeard, turtlehead, japanese forest grass, angelina sedum, jack frost brunnera, phlox jeanna, new england aster, shade clematis, serviceberry, variegated dogwood, [more variegated foliage ideas?], willows, smokebush, [more dark purple shrub ideas?], evergreens with yellow shades in the fall, flowering small trees, hydrangea (lacecap variety), ninebark... I have MANY other plants I could add to this list but these are the ones that I have a particular fondness of that I do not yet have in my landscape. And I'm well aware not all of these will work together, really all I'm trying to do is get a list of plants I like, then go from there. camp - I appreciate your comments, I don't plan to use everyone's suggestions, this is really just a way for me to get more plant ideas on paper, I will do my own research and see if they would work in my landscape. If they will, I may use them, I may not - depends on how the whole thing looks together in my head. But here's this if it helps: I have 3/4 of an acre with sun/shade all over the map - dark shade, light shade, bright sun, part sun, etc... soil for the most part is clay but I have amended many planting areas with compost and will continue to amend and time goes on... I like a full look, cottage style I guess, informal. I am always in the garden so I don't mind having to trim things, deadhead, water, whatever. I realize my style is a little high maintenance but I am OK with that for now.
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One creating a landscape would never use a silver maple. They are messy, weak, not long lived and don't have spectacular fall color. A sugar maple is all around better (with harvestable wood if you ever get hard up for a new dining table.) :-) in such a wide open space single trees would seem "lost" until canopies got large and trunks got thick. Clusters of trees would be more meaningful. Don't think of it as "one" or "three" trees, but as a large foliage mass held aloft by 3 "columns" as opposed to one. in the large space 3 trees each side would be a stronger, better proportioned statement. I show them in a semi-circle layout but as an alternative you could also arrange in triangular form. To be worked out in plan view. I would drive some highly visible poles or tall sticks in the ground to represent planting locations and drive by them for a few days to see if it needs adjustment
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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.
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A pH of 6.2 to 6.3 should be fine for the things you're interested in planting. Adjusting pH downward by using sulfur is not necessary and is more difficult to achieve then it seems. As for "sheet mulching" producing a "nice clean area", if you think that spreading mulch will prevent weed germination or the sprouting of root pieces left behind, it really won't do this. A better approach would be to leave the bed alone until germination and sprouting have taken place. Then uproot the weeds. If you have the patience, repeat the process a second time. HollyTone is a good product, but does not provide much of anything in the way of organic matter. No idea where you live, but many suppliers of landscaping materials sell mixtures of compost and partially decomposed bark under such names as NutriMulch and others. This is an excellent product for incorporating into a new bed that increases water holding capacity and aeration. If not available, partially decomposed bark used by itself will provide similar benefits. The plants you mention are not gross feeders, but if any show signs of nutritional lack, then's the time to use small amounts of HollyTone. I'd also be cautious about using large-growing hostas and astilbes. These can be rampant growers that have the potential to crowd out other things.
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newbie_homeowner_in
Original Author
6 years ago
Thank you Yardvaark for commenting! I agree with everything you said. Everything was done by previous owners and I just didnt want to deal with it at the time of moving in.

Is there anything you would do with the spruce? It is hard to tell in the picture but it is very thin near the bottom 5 feet from the ground.

I have been planning on removing the rock mulch the best we could and just doing bark.

Do you have any suggestions for the side yard bed?
kitasei
6 years ago
I agree with yard about the foundation planting. You have an exceptionally handsome foundation so don’t hide it.
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Yardvaark
6 years ago
just a quick comment about the spruce .... notice it's natural shape has the bottom limbs being shorter than those above them. Guess what?? ... they're all in too much shade from the limbs above, which will become worse every year. Needles will drop and eventually there will be little foliage. They'll become ugly and you'll want to remove them. The plant is turning into the tree form ... a canopy with a trunk holding it up. Also, as limbs grow longer, they'll be consuming more of the lawn space, and maybe invading the street or sidewalk space. It's pretty much a sure bet that you'll need to accept limbing it up into the tree form later if not sooner.

Along the side bed, you'd probably want to smooth out the bed line. The plants there don't look too bad except for the tree (by the window) that is too close to the house. I'd remove it. Fill in the ground area with groundcover and I think it could look complete.
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Landscape Design Help - Zone 5B

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RNmomof2 zone 5

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Landscape Design Help - Zone 5B

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RNmomof2 zone 5

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