Residence/HoldenRaleighNC/Landscape
From Serozi
Front Yard Plot
By: Thomas Pope
Atlantic Avenue Orchid and Garden Center
Based on the architecture of your house and the layout of the yard, the prevailing landscape style in the Oakwood/Oakdale neighborhoods, and our discussions about your design sensibilities, I attempted to design a plan in a modified, streamlined cottage garden style with an eclectic flair. Generally speaking, that means using dense, informal plantings of diverse but low-maintenance plants. It employs a roughly 50/50 balance between plants grown for their structural or textural qualities with plants grown primarily for splashy seasonal flower color, and tends to rely more on perennials and small to medium-size shrubs rather than large trees or annual bedding flowers. One key element of cottage-style gardens is their use of non-living elements to complement the plants. Trellises, arbors, water features, container plantings, and garden art are some of the features that are commonly found in these gardens, and many of them would be welcome additions to your yard, but in my experience, it's usually best to establish the planting beds and get the key plants installed before attempting to select and place the non-living accents. Besides, selecting something like a fountain or statuary is such a matter of personal style that you'd be better off choosing your own at some point once the framework of the yard is in place. One key non-living item that I did choose to specify, though, is a birdbath that would be a significant structural part of the landscape, and is also a classic feature of small cottage gardens that serves to connect the manmade environment to the wild, natural world, which ultimately is the essence of all of horticulture. You may want to pick your own birdbath as well, although I'd be happy to offer suggestions.
My sketch constitutes a modified cottage garden style, in that it mixes classic, traditional plants with newer, more exotic varieties than would have been found in old-fashioned cottage gardens. Also, for ease of care, I left a lot more open lawn area than most cottage gardens would; while my sketch may look fairly dense and complex, it's actually less intensely planted than many conventional cottage gardens would be. I also placed a higher emphasis on low-maintenance plant selections than would have traditionally been done. Other than the holdover roses, few if any plants on the sketch should require anything more than occasional maintenance. Once in a while, any decent landscape will need some attention to fertilization, mulching, pruning, watering, and especially weed control, but only the roses and the vegetable garden should need to be tended to more than once or twice a year.
As part of this project, I believe that a number of the current plants in the yard need to be transplanted or removed altogether. Sometimes it's hard to bring oneself to dig up a plant that's not unhealthy, but in a situation like this it really is necessary. I would get rid of all the existing azaleas, liriope, daylilies and possibly the hydrangeas, as well as the smaller of the two dogwoods to the left of the driveway and both of the scraggly crapemyrtles struggling to grow in the parkway strip out by the street. All of these plants can be successfully transplanted in the fall or winter, and some might have value elsewhere, but not in the new landscape. The azaleas, for example, could be massed on the right side of the house near the neighbors' carport, and the little dogwood may be used in the back yard somewhere. Some of these plants might also be able to be given away, or they might ultimately be most valuable in a yard waste bag at the curb. While it may seem harsh, this really is an important step in improving your landscape. The reality is that newer varieties of azaleas, liriope, daylilies, and hydrangeas are simply superior to the older ones, and your yard is just too small to take up space with plants that aren't all that great. Every landscape is an ever-evolving entity, so once in a while plants need to be eliminated when they're no longer valuable enough to justify their presence. I did try to preserve as many of the old roses as possible, although many of them will need to be moved. The older rose varieties are not necessarily inferior to newer ones, and they provide welcome color, fragrance, and a unique kind of casual elegance that epitomizes the cottage garden concept, as well as maintaining a connection to the heritage of the yard.
Another important consideration is the fence. I really liked the little picket fence you had been constructing with the reclaimed pickets, and I really liked the placement of the little vegetable garden, but the more I looked at it and thought about it, I just don't think they belong together. If the little bed at the corner of the house where the vegetable plot is was just a little bigger, I think dividing it with a small fence might work, but as it is it's just too small to accommodate such a substantial barrier. The pickets don't really match the balusters on the porch railing, either, which they really should if they're going to be placed so close together. And besides, in keeping with the cottage garden style, there's really no need to separate the vegetables from the ornamentals anyway. It's actually very classic and rustic to have the tomatoes and the eggplants mingling with perennial flowers--it won't do either any harm. So, I would keep the little paver access path, but remove the fence and fence posts. I would use the fence materials instead to define the left side of the property. We spoke briefly about the idea of enclosing the entire yard with low fencing, which would certainly be a traditional cottage garden element, but I don't think that would be appropriate for your yard and would not be worth the expense or the bother. But there's tremendous value in installing a section of fence paralleling the driveway. As it is, the strip along the driveway is poorly defined and transitions awkwardly into the back yard of the house on Bloodworth, and is being overrun with weeds like wiregrass. Adding a fence there would partially enclose your front yard and serve to subtly buffer the neighbors' yard and crete a more intimate feeling in yours. It would also function as a framework for what could be an outstanding planting bed that would contribute significantly to the 'canopy' effect without making it too difficult to open up car doors when parking in the driveway.. When we were talking, you didn't seem clear on exactly where your property line is, but we estimated it at about four feet off the driveway, so that's where I sketched the fence to go. If it had to be adjusted a little closer or farther, that would be okay. Neither of us were clear either on exactly how many linear feet worth of fencing materials you had on hand, but that's okay, too, since the fence doesn't need to be any specific length in order to have the desired effect. I would start it near the birdhouse at the end of the row of cherrylaurels and continue it as far out toward the street as it will reach. The other thing I would do with the fence is to paint it. If you feel that it needs to stay white, that's okay, but I think it would have a much more dramatic and attractive presence if it were painted a subtle but bold darker accent color, like cerulean blue or a dark gray-blue, or even a deep violet. That would make much more of a statement, but still in a way that blends effectively with the plants and other elements around it, and it's an interesting way of putting a modern, original twist on the classic picket fence.
Speaking of your neighbors to the left, one of the specific issues you asked me to address was to do something to screen the view into their yard from the deck on the side of your house and the nearby windows. (Reid: We like the view into the neighbors yard and thier house, but we are asking for plants so our house is not open from the street or if the side lot was ever developed) Unfortunately, I don't believe there's a graceful way of doing that fully effectively in such a narrow four foot wide strip. Building a tall privacy fence or planting huge shrubs there might block the view, but they would be out of proportion with such a small space and look inappropriate way. The best thing you can do on your side of the fence is to partially obscure the view and distract the eye with various attractive foliage shrubs on the ground and a jasmine vine on the deck itself. The real solution, of course, is to plant one or more large shrubs farther away from the driveway on your neighbors' property. I don't know what your relationship with those neighbors is like, but in most situations I've dealt with, if somebody is willing to purchase, plant, and maintain an attractive plant in an otherwise unused corner of their neighbor's yard, the neighbors usually don't mind. So, if you think that's in any way an option, that's what I would do. I would plant a Little Gem dwarf magnolia behind the fence, about eight or ten feet from the driveway and situated so that it provides the optimal screening of your deck. Little Gem is a gorgeous, dense-growing evergreen that will get 15 or 18 feet tall over many years and not quite as wide, with beautiful lustrous dark green leaves and enormous fragrant white flowers all summer. It would be a wonderfully effective screening plant as well as an excellent, specimen-quality ornamental that would be easy to maintain, even if it is technically not on your property.
I hope the sketch I've attached is reasonably easy to read and generally makes sense. At the end of this email is a plant list that corresponds to the item numbers I used to label the plants on the sketch, along with total quantities recommended. One other note about the sketch--you'll notice that the circles or blobs representing plants are often densely arranged to the point of touching or overlapping in many places. That's because I drew them to their mature sizes in most cases, so that's the size they should be in five to ten years. So, in the short term, many areas will look a lot more sparse than they do in the sketches, which can be either good or bad. It does mean, though, that plants have been carefully selected and positioned to not become overgrown any time soon.
It's neither practical nor necessary to detail every plant I've recommended in this email message, but I would like to mention a few highlights. You mentioned your fondness for the distinctively contorted and viciously spiny 'Flying Dragon' poncirus shrub that you saw at our garden center. It's an excellent plant and very appropriate to a yard like yours, and it will make a lovely secondary specimen plant in the new planting bed on the right side of the front yard. The 'Shishi Gashira,' or Lion's Head Japanese maple to the right of the front walk is another unusual but distinctive and gorgeous small specimen plant. It's unlike most Japanese maples, in that it has ruffled, crinkly leaves and a stiff, upright growth habit. It grows very slowly and is really more of a shrub than a tree. Here's a picture:
http://www.graybarn.com/Top10_Pages/lions_head_maple.jpg
Another small but dramatic plant used as a specimen is the 'Gold Rush' edgeworthia along the front walk. It's a shoulder-high, multi-stemmed shrub with big, lush, exotic, blue-green leaves in the summer. In the late fall, the leaves fall off to reveal bold, thick, knobby branches with shiny, mahogany brown bark. At the end of each branch is a fuzzy, silvery white cluster of flower buds the size of a ping-pong ball. In mid- to late winter, January or February, the flowers at the outher edges of the cluster begin opening up into bright golden-yellow, tubular flowers with a powerfully heady, sweet, daphne-like fragrance. Since they only open a few at a time, the entire flowering progression can often last for more than two months, with the air in the vicinity perfumed on warm afternoons throughout early spring. Here are some pictures:
http://www.lapegia.com/images/edgeworthia-chrysantha1.jpg
http://www.worldplants.com/pics/edgeworthia.jpg
I feel the right side of the driveway needs one more tree-like element to provide a vertical massing element and to contribute to the canopy effect. Obviously, it can't be anything that grows too large, too fast, or too dense in a fairly small, tight space. I would use a Japanese snowbell, a small ornamental tree with a lovely spreading, arching growth form. It has fine-textured, small leaves and smooth gray bark, and makes a spectacular flowering show in April and May. Each branch is coated with hangng, inch-wide white bell-shaped flowers with a subtle but appealing fragrance. The overall effect is that of a cdrift of pure white snow flecked with green, and it's really showy, but in an understated, elegant way. It's particularly lovely when the branches get large enough that they overhang an open space, like the driveway or a portion of the deck, and one can experience walking underneath the tree and looking up into its cloud of white flowers dangling down towards you. Very nice. Here's a picture:
http://www.robsplants.com/images/portrait/StyraxJaponicus070529.jpg
Finally, we talked about getting a couple of trees established in the back yard in anticipation of future construction there. I think it would be an excellent idea, as they would provide a lot of ornamental value, as well as helping to simultaneously screen, shade, and define the space in the back yard. In particular, I would plant two trees: a smaller, ornamental flowering tree on the right side, fifteen feet or so out from the back wall, and a larger-growing shade tree near the back left corner, partly behind the garage in the vicinity of the huge dog fennel weed we talked about that day. The flowering tree is an easy choice: I would plant an 'Okame' cherry, a tidy, compact, fine-textured small tree with beautiful peeling park, excellent orange fall color, and spectacular pink flowers in early spring, often as early as Valentine's Day. It's also much tougher and hardier than many other flowering cherries, and its combination of beauty and hardiness have led to it becoming one of the most widely used small trees in recent years. It's used abundantly around both the Cameron Village shopping center and the new North Hills shopping center. Here's a picture:
http://www.uah.edu/admin/Fac/images/okamefl.jpg
The bigger shade tree to the left is a more difficult decision. There area number of excellent trees that could be used there, and I'm sure you'd be happy with any of them. Overall, I think I would choose the Dawn Redwood, an unusual deciduous conifer from China with soft bright green needles that turn rusty-orange in the fall before dropping. Despite its delicate appearance, it's actually extremely tough and durable, and it grows very quickly upward, although it doesn't spread out nearly as fast. It would be a good size, shape, and texture for the back yard, providing light, filtered shade and subtle, low-key screening (i.e. not a wall of Leyland cypresses). Here are some pictures:
http://www.msknursery.com/images/plants/metasequoia-glyptostroboides.jpg
If the Dawn Redwood doesn't appeal to you, let me know, as there are other good options, too
Plants and Quantities
- Autumn Encore Azalea (4)
- Plum Pudding Heuchera (9)
- Chinese Mahonia (2)
- new Endless Summer Hydrangea or transplanted existing hydrangea (1)
- Bay Laurel (1)
- Japanese Anemone (1)
- Needle Palm (1)
- Six Hills Giant Catmint (2)
- William L. Hunt Sasanqua Camellia (1)
- Sundown Coneflower (Echinacea) (3)
- Powis Castle Artemisia (1)
- transplanted existing rose
- Becky Shasta Daisy (3)
- Black Dragon Cryptomeria (1)
- Snow Queen Oakleaf Hydrangea (1)
- Confederate Jasmine (1)
- Red-Berried Sweetbox (3)
- Mount Airy Fothergilla (1)
- Japanese Snowbell (1)
- Charity Mahonia (1)
- Dwarf Burford Holly (1)
- Fernspray Cypress (1)
- Russian Sage (1)
- Firewitch Dianthus (2)
- Mexican Bush Sage (1)
- Homestead Purple Verbena (3)
- Little Joe Pyeweed (1)
- Globosa Nana Cryptomeria (1)
- Rose Glow Barberry (1)
- Pink Parasols Spirea (1)
- Blue Point Juniper (1)
- Frostproof Gardenia (1)
- Westmont Arborvitae (1)
- Early Sunrise Coreopsis (3)
- Tom Thumb Cotoneaster (4)
- Red Volunteer Daylily (3)
- Bright Edge Yucca (1)
- Gold Bar Miscanthus Grass (1)
- Tricolor St. Johnswort (1)
- Gold Rush Edgeworthia (1)
- Kaleidoscope Abelia (1)
- Shrubby Yewpine (1)
- New Zealand Sedge (5)
- Guacamole Hosta (1)
- Shishi Gashira Japanese Maple (1)
- Soft Touch Japanese Holly (5)
- Hardy Plumbago (2)
- Autumn Princess Encore Azalea (1)
- August Beauty Gardenia (1)
- Daruma Loropetalum (2)
- Variegated Liriope (17)
- Neon Flash Spirea (1)
- Flying Dragon Poncirus (1)
- Prostrate Rosemary (2)
- Karley Rose Pennisetum Grass (1)
- Mystic Spires Blue Salvia (3) also, Dawn Redwood (1), Okame Cherry (1), Little Gem Magnolia (1)
