Home Improvement & Remodeling Articles
All about Landscape & Patio Fireside & FAQ's about Landscape & Patio Fireside

Foundation Plants

Plants that set close to the foundation of your home are called foundation plants. The plants are of importance because it improves and beautifies the home, as well as relates the home to the landscaping proportions of the grounds. Evergreens are a popular choice for foundation planting not only because they thrive easily, but also because they look good all year long.

If you have not used evergreens before, it can be a mistake to use them for foundation planting. The contrast can be too sharp since the evergreens are likely to look a bit forbidding. There is a wide variety of other flowering shrubs, dwarf fruit trees, roses and other types of plants that will give color to your landscape design in the spring, summer and fall seasons. Japanese maples, floribunda roses and flower quince are just a few of the plants you can use.

It can be tempting to try one of the nurseries evergreen specimens in your foundation planting, however you should avoid this. On the other hand, you can try taller and shorter plant types, use pines or juniper, laurel or rhododendron.

When you begin your planning, drawing to scale the relationship between your home elevation and the types of different shrubs and trees and how they will appear once they reach maturity. Maybe some of the ones you have chosen will be to tall for the home you live in, it may block your windows or make the house appear gloomy inside. In this case, you will want to reconsider your options.

Because your entrance is the most important feature of your homes exterior, you should begin planning with this fact in mind, using shrubs that direct attention towards the front door. The plants in the front of the house are usually round or in a bowl shape in its outline. In some locations, people allow the wall show to the foundation. Put the tall shrubs at the corners of the home.

Play Areas

An area that will be a playground for the children, will be an area where you can keep an eye on them at all times, but it does not need to be unadorned. You can include a paved area for bike riding, skating or other outdoor activities. You can have a sandbox that is sunken or raised, that can be an extension of the wall or fence that can be planted later. Such ideas can include the hollowing out and painting of an old tree stump to use for puppet shows, or using an old row-boat that can be painted and use as decoration when landscaping pool areas for play time, or putting up a later to a tree house or garden wall, all of these ideas will have all the neighborhood kids wanting to hang out at your house.

Service Areas In The Yard

You will want to have your service and drying areas out of sight yet convenient enough in location to the house so they are easily accessible. The service area may include propagation beds, coldframes, a tool shed or a storage shed and if applicable, a compost heap. Hotbeds and coldframes need to be located where they can be protected from the north and northwesterly winds, so be careful not to place them in a damp place unless you have first drained it with a drain tile.

Many people like having a vegetable garden and find it highly enjoyable. The garden should be out of sight on a corner of the property, or screen in with shrubbery, because of the dormant season when there is nothing being grown. But, the area can be decorative addition to your garden, especially if there are grass walkways and beautiful flowers planted around it.