F aced with an empty front yard foundation space? Here are tips to add pizazz to your public landscape space and happily marry the house to the rest of your property.
1
Determine house style and harmonizing garden theme. Craftsman Bungalow or modern ranch? Use informal style plantings with asymmetrical, but balanced planting plan. Likewise, a Colonial might look best with more formal, matching plantings.
Learn more about style and design for house and garden harmony: 5 Design Principles
2
It's easy to move shrubs around on paper, not so much in the garden. Use a landscaping software or good old pencil and graph paper to make your design. Many nurseries have experts to help draw up the blueprint. Tips on finding the right size shrubs, here.
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3
Note how much sunlight and the direction your front yard faces. This is important when choosing plant material.
4
Make sure you have clearances of the house dripline, pathways, etc. measured and taken into account. It's a common mistake to plant too close to the house, or to a pathway.
Attention to this tip saves many years of having to heavily prune or even the necessity to move overgrown shrubbery.
5
Another common mistake is to space too closely, so check mature widths and heights; fill in with flowers until plants are more established, rather than crowding the permanent shrubs or trees.
6
Give your plants good soil, they are permanent plantings in prime landscape real estate. Dig up the area well, add amendments like humus, bone meal, etc.
7
Fill in any low spots to ensure your foundation plants have good drainage and that moisture moves away from the house.
Tips in Choosing Foundation Shrubs
8
Try to visit a local arboretum to see actual mature size, shape, and look of a shrub. Discovering otherwise overlooked possibilities in a wide range of labeled specimens is another exciting sidebar when walking through an arboretum.
Tree and shrubs in Dawes Arboretum
9
Beware of actual heights and widths for plants that are called "dwarf" or "compact". It may be only relative to the giant size of the original plant, not one that stays small. Example? Burning Bush, or Euonymus alatus 'Compacta' may still grow to about 11 by 11 feet in maturity.
10
Harmonize exterior color and foliage hues, be aware of any flower colors that might look jarring. Azaleas often have very bright magenta or purple tones, which may not match up with a brick home quite the way you'd like.
Add a tree
Small ornamental trees add variety and several seasons of beauty, with many sporting flowers and fruit. They add height to corners or accent to entries without swamping the house. Many choice varieties can be found with fastigiate form or more petite sizes.
