Front Landscape Re-do -- Help!
I know there are lots of very talented and knowledgeable people on these forums - hoping one or some might have some help for me.
Having to start over with shade plants after 25 years. What didn’t die from lack of sun died as a result of the ’21 storm. I'm having design paralysis. My dilemma is to provide evergreen structure along the front of my house so I can fill in with perennials, etc. I just can’t figure out what and where.
Existing Details:
- Zone 7b, West facing, North Texas locale, extreme temps, Shade to Part shade as some areas get about 3-5 hrs starting around 11am
- Alkaline soils; Mostly well drained except for North wall of garage which is just slow to dry out (except when temps are 90+)
- Bur Oaks with downward arching limbs - they need to be pruned
- Yaupon Holly on the south corner at the entrance, but it was planted too deep when it was moved several years ago and does not get enough sun
- Dwarf Burford Holly is at North edge of garage, but it blocks our house number from certain angles
My thought was maybe a Needlepoint (Oakleaf) Holly at the NW outside corner about 6 ft from house; an Oakleaf Hydrangea in the NW inside corner by the garage even though it’s deciduous
Other plants that I would like to possibly incorporate are
David Viburnum
Aralia
Soft Caress or Indigo Flair Mahonia
Aspidistra (Cast Iron plant)
Ferns like Autumn Fern, Wood Fern
Distylium like Cinnamon Girl
I will not plant ligustrum or nandina, and would like to avoid dwarf Yaupon as we had them already for over 20yrs.
Also have no idea what to do with the space around the trees as the bed is just a contiguous form.
I could use y'alls help!
FYI - extreme temps example 06/25/23 100F with heat index 118F. And that's sustained for most of the day. Winter can and often does drop below 32F into single digits and below.
Thanks!
Comments (6)
PROCelery. Visualization, Rendering images
10 months agolast modified: 10 months agoSome option
May be with native plants.
mrsperkyville thanked Celery. Visualization, Rendering imagesRelated Discussions
Need help with front beds landscape design
Comments (9)Thanks for the input so far. Answers to some of your questions: -We have done our best to water. I'm out of town during the week, and DH sometimes is, but when he's home he waters daily. But we had a month plus of >100 temps and the watering only partially offset that. We have had a few rains in the past 2 weeks, and temps are back in the 80s-90s, so things have greened back up a bit and the worst seems to be over. -Those 2 trees are actually quite a ways from the house. There's a circle drive in between them and the front beds/lawn. -The dianthus have been pretty good about coming back each year, though not all of them, so I've replanted to fill in. -Good point about "well cared-for" trumping "filled up and lush." But we've still got sporadic stuff (like 2 surviving petunias) that isn't helping with the overall feel. Last night I went to check out what's available plant-wise since we're getting late in the season and pickings are slimmer. My thoughts: -Transplant dianthus from the back yard to fill in the front beds and make them more of a mass planting like the green stuff Yardvark drew. -Mass mums in the more central area that Yardvark made yellow. -Potentially one or two crape myrtles in the left bed, where the azalea is now and/or in the empty space to the left of the rock. I love crape myrtles. -A tree--or possibly another crape myrtle in the front of the expanded left bed. -There's lots of lantana available. Don't know if there's a good spot for that, or if I should bother this late in the season. Here's a rough draft plan. Feedback welcome. My other concern is what to do to keep the beds looking nice through the winter, since I've mostly got perennials that will die off. Our house is in the top 10% price-wise, and things are moving slow around here, so it wouldn't be a surprise if we're here through then. I'm thinking of getting a couple dwarf alberta spruces to put in urns by the front door. What else can I do to keep the beds from looking completely morose? I personally like the whole "spring back to life from nothing" look, but I am trying to sell a house here. :-)...See MoreRe do front landscaping
Comments (13)It makes it easier to maintain steps if there are cheekwalls, which could be added. But there's always going to be some trimming somewhere. Rarely has a "landscaper" been formally trained in landscape design. Usually, they come to it by happenstance so it's a mixed bag what their skill levels are. Heck, it's a mixed bag among those that have had some formal training. As we see here, there's a lot of disagreement about what constitutes good design. On the flip side, there seem to be a few things that ARE agreed upon. I submit my suggestions saying, as I do here and there, that they are generalized suggestions having to do mostly with layout, plant heights, spreads and the like. Color means nothing other than a way for me to show that one thing is different from the next. The character a plant displays would depend on the actual plant used. I show one thing; maybe there are a half-dozen alternatives for this or that plant. Similarly, its character would be further defined by how one grows and maintains a plant. For example, the shrubs I'm showing below windows look like they could be Hydrangeas. But maybe it's more important in the owner's mind to have something evergreen and they want Yews and are willing to put up with the trimming. Fine. No problem. Regarding wanting "white" flowering this or that ... white's pretty but for my taste it will seem a little washed out with such a light-colored house....See MoreMy 401K landscape re-do
Comments (4)I am assuming that you are having any "hard-scaping" put in - paths, walls/terracing, benches, fences, pergolas, arbors, rocks, etc., as well as running water lines and electrical lines as planned - before you do anything much about making beds or improving the soil? Since these will all require earth-moving, to whatever degree, it's MUCH better to do them before trying to make beds and plant things, only to have to move them for workmen, or to re-improve the soil that is now compacted from machinery, tramping on, etc.! As shown above, a good "background" of hard-scape will look good in the winter with all the leaves off, and not be really be noticeable in the summer, except in little vignettes, like the picket fence at the top, or the rocks at the bottom of the slope. I would (cliche warning) strive for a mix of evergreen and deciduous shrubs, the former including a mix of both conifers and broad-leafed evergreens. The more dwarf conifers will stay in proportion for longer, but if you plant the larger ones anyway, leave enough room for them to get full size, planting around them with perennials or with shrubs you don't mind losing as the "star" grows to fill its allotted space. It is SO easy to succumb to the easily done feeling that things out of 1 or 2-gallon nursery pots won't REALLY get THAT big - "only see how small it is now, I can easily put 2 more plants next to it, there's plenty of room", only to find 3-6 years down the road that they are all growing badly, overshadowed by their neighbors and looking awful! For flowering shrubs, full sun, try lilacs, spireas, forsythia, the Knock-out roses (I prefer the reds, single or double, but..., the pinks are nice too), other shrub roses, Clethra, various dogwoods, Hydrangeas, mountain laurels, viburnums, etc.. Blueberries are another possibility, flowers, fruit, if you get to them before the birds, and fall foliage (and if you have a bad deer problem, never mind...). Taller sun specimens can include service berry, red bud, smoke bush, crab apples, mock orange/Philadelphus, ink berry. Shade includes the azaleas, rhodies, calycanthus (pick one noted for scent), witch hazels, etc. For evergreens, there are almost too many conifers to choose from, but a short, quick selection would have to include dwarf Alberta spruce, if hardy, any of the smaller Hinoki cypress, smaller cedars, yew, junipers, etc. Broadleaf evergreens - hollies, rhodies, kerria, some viburnums, boxwoods, etc. Don't forget the ornamental grasses and carex, sizes ranging from a few inches to more than 8'....See MorePlease Help Landscape our Front Yard
Comments (18)The meadow isn't going to be substantially different from what you currently have. Left totally alone, it will turn back into forest surprisingly fast. Even if you left it for a year, it would fill up with enough woody plants that it would need serious equipment to clear. So it is less a different object, than that your opinion of it changes. Personally, I wouldn't bother trying to preserve the view of the garden by the road. I'd be perfectly willing to deepen or create a shrub border between the road and the lawn, then create a new garden on the other side of that border. That should eat up a fair amount of lawn....See More
mrsperkyville
10 months agolast modified: 10 months agoCelery - Thanks for the visual.. Not sure that I would go with rows of plants, but it does help to see something in place.
Laceyvail - yes, the bottom limbs need to go. That one over the driveway is fairly low when it's laden with leaves - we just kept it for so long because it shaded our west facing garage somewhat.
I do have access to a few fabulous local nurseries and have options for plants. I think I'm just looking for the architecture of the landscaping - meaning something tall in that spot, etc. I really don't know what to do with that 17' long blank wall of my garage. One neighbor put a very large metal art piece on theirs. I used to have Edward Goucher Abelias, but lack of sun, then winter storm ended them.
On the North outside corner (left as your looking at the big picture) there used to be a Yaupon, but it was planted too close to the house, so we took it out. Now I just am not sure what to put in its place. And my porch is 8' deep, so that makes that space almost like a little courtyard. It's the evergreen that I'm struggling with. And I think I'm going to take out that Dwarf Burford - it's just in the wrong spot.
Here's a better pic of that front section by the garage.
laceyvail 6A, WV
10 months ago
PROJSL Landscape Design Build
10 months ago
Lyn Nielson