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Designer Gave Up on Me

comments (6) August 23rd, 2011 in gallery

Clemkitty Clemkitty, member
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A landscape designer/"friend" offered to help us and told us to rip out the old foundation plants. We did, thinking his plan was ready. Well, he never gave us a plan, and now we have a big, empty space to fill. We are Zone 5, the area is 35 ft long and 6 ft wide, part sun.  

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Comments (6)

ILFarmGrown writes: Here is what I would do... plant some tall evergreens like perhaps an upright holly or some grasses that will give vertical interest even in the winter in the back by the house. Like the post earlier, use retaining blocks on the sides. Also put in a very smaller plants that you will use again on the other side to tie everything together. Now create a bed on the otherside of the walk using some nice grasses and shrub roses, etc. If you are a DIYer and you can do the retaining blocks yourself, you'll probably only have to spend a thousand or so if you get your plants at sell-out time when they are 50% off and such. We've gotten great deals just by being patient and your garden can be about twice the size that it would have been. if you have the money, I'd consider getting rid of the straight sidewalk but you wouldn't have to. IF you are not too high on your foundation, you might even be able to raise the beds enough to just cover over your current concrete sidewalk. Posted: 6:01 pm on November 2nd
CoolGreenGardens writes: I agree that there's not enough space in the planter to do the house justice. Have you considered removing some of the lawn near the house? That's a lot of house and needs more planting mass to balance it.

If you can create a bed with more space from front to back, you can have a lot more fun and drama by layering taller plants behind smaller ones. Just don't over do it -- space the plants based on their mature width, so they can relax and keep their natural form.

As for which plants to use, this Zone 10, Mediterranean climate designer hasn't a clue. Posted: 10:29 am on October 26th
Eluna writes: I would stick to the first proposal, and add some hosta in front of the border to light up that shade ... maybe some silver colored ground cover to hide those stones in front. Or maybe some decorative blue grass if you take hosta with white stripes. Posted: 7:03 pm on October 1st
sone2 writes: Here are some of my favorite shrubs to think about trying in that space, especially if you'd like a fairly low maintenance area: Viburnum carlesii, Dwarf Alberta Spruce, Kerria japonica 'Picta', Chamaecyparis pisifera 'Mops', Lespedeza or Caryopteris for fall flowers, Thuja occidentalis 'Sherwood Frost' because it's slow growing and does well in part shade and has interesting foilage, Juniperis communis 'Gold Cone' and maybe a Spirea japonica 'Mertyann'--Dakota Goldcharm Spirea. All of these are really easy to have in the garden and would fit in that space. Good luck! Posted: 11:36 am on October 1st
Mortrisha writes:

To my eye, the challenge you have here is that the bed isn't big enough to contain plants that will be in scale with the house.

It'd be great if you could plant on the other side of that walk way. A few large/medium evergreens would help a lot. Posted: 6:53 am on September 25th
jimhall918 writes: For shrubs at the back, consider Yew. They are evergreen and grow to about 6-8 ft.
Or to level the appearance of the foundation/basement wall, consider a retaining wall and fill. Posted: 10:25 pm on August 25th
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