Home Landscape Design

HOW TO USE PLANTS AROUND THE FRONT OF THE HOUSE
Donald J. Bushey

ROBERT BURNS may not have been thinking about landscaping when he wrote the often quoted lines, "0 wad some power the giftie gie us to see oursel as ithers see us" but the phrase can well be applied to the way our property looks to our neighbors and to the passerby.

The phase o£ home landscaping de­scribed here, the planting done near to the house foundation, is of great impor­tance because it may make or break the appearance of the home as it is seen from the street. Yet, it is often done with little understanding of the problems in­volved; disappointing results are all too common.

The directions given here are strictly for the amateur who is going to do his own designing and his own work. Em­phasis is given to plantings that will be in keeping `with a variety of one-story to two-story houses.

There will always be differences of opinion as to the kinds of plants to be used. Some prefer narrow-leaved ever­greens, some want flowering shrubs, and still others use a combination of the two. Narrow-leaved evergreens will provide green color through the year with some variation in the different varieties. Flow­ering shrubs will have bare stems in win­ter, some of which are very colorful, but will give an informal effect, as well as life and color to the planting during the summer. Broad-leaved evergreens, where they may be grown successfully, will be green throughout the year and give some flower color in spring. With these facts in mind each home owner should use the plants of his choice.

The best appearance of any particular house when the plantings are mature is subject to individual differences of opin­ion; what one person likes another dis­approves. Some persons feel that few plants, if any, should be placed near the house. There is merit to this idea, par­ticularly if the house is architecturally well designed and is in a setting of spa­cious tree-shaded lawns or if the house has large wall areas of glass. Other persons hold the view that many shrubs are needed, particularly around a house not well designed, which may need masses of plants to screen the imperfections. For most situations, a compromise between the two extremes may be best.

Pit the Planting to Style of House
Probably there is better reason for more planting around the base of a house having a high foundation wall exposed above the soil line than there is around a house with low foundation walls. A large-growing shade tree placed 15 to 20 feet from the corner of a house mini­mizes rather effectively the high appear­ance of a house that is narrow and up­right. Plants with a horizontal branch­ing habit help, as do structural devices such as window boxes, window blinds,

Author photos
Figure 1. A one-story house with little of the foundation showing can be effectively planted with just a few plants. Plants at corners may grow to the eaves

Figure 2. A balanced planting is appropriate for both a one-story and a two-story house. The corner plants in this case extend to the second story window sills and two-tone painting. Horizontal lines reduce the apparent height, •while narrow, upright plant forms increase the visual height.

Regardless of the kinds of plants to be selected, they should all be chosen and planted in positions where they will not be too large for the area when they ma­ture. Most home owners can get agree­able results by working with enlarged photographs, beginning with a picture of the front of the house and then views of the other sides. Drawings, made to scale, of each elevation of the house can be used with equal effectiveness. In either case, place a piece of tracing paper over the photograph or drawing and, with a soft pencil or crayon, block in the various foliage masses you think will look best.

In general, the foliage masses described here will be best for the houses illustrated in figures 1 and 2 and modifications of the same ideas can be used for different situations. Sketch these foliage masses in as they are described in the following paragraphs. They will form the main framework for your plantings.

Usually it is best to have low-growing shrubs at the sides of the doorway, somewhat symmetrically spaced (Figures 1 and 2). All entrance plantings, however, need not be symmetrical. If there is an un­broken, large wall space at one side of the door, a tree-form shrub or a vine (Figure 3) might fill that space and pro­vide an attractive variation from the more usual design.

The plants to be used at the corners of

Figure 3. A trained vine or a shrub, pruned to an informal shape, is good for a large, unbroken wall space to the right of the front door

Figure 4. Only low plants should be used at corners where there are windows the house usually should be tall-growing types, unless there are windows there. The corner planting for a one-story house may be of shrubs that will grow about as high as the eaves (Figure 1)—a little above or a little below would be satisfac­tory. For a two-story house the corner planting may reach the second floor win­dow sills, a little more or less (Figure 2). In either ease, if there are windows near the corner, tall-growing plants should not be used in front of them (Figure 4). Sometimes small-growing trees, those that will grow 15 feet high or a little more, are planted effectively at a house corner, usually at a somewhat greater distance from the house than the shrubs (Figure 5).

In the case of a split-level house, tallergrowing shrubs or small trees may be used at the high corners and the low corners may be treated as is suggested for a one-story house.

What planting is done along wall spaces will be governed largely by the length of that wall and the location of the door, windows, and wall spaces. Unin­terrupted wall spaces, several feet wide, between a door and a window or between two windows, may need a foliage mass somewhat higher than the window sill (Fig­ure 6). Sometimes a small-growing tree is planted beside a window to provide shade, to block the view from the street into the room, or for some less obvious reason, such as variety from the more usual de­sign (Figure 7). If either of these plant­ings is located somewhat to one side of

Figure 6. Above. A shrub of medium size when mature is in proper scale to plant in front of a large wall space between windows

Figure 5. Left. A small-growing tree will effectively supplement a low-growing shrub at the corner of a house

the wall space, it will usually be more in­teresting than one set exactly in the mid­dle. Also, the length and height of each wall space will be the clue for the kind and number of plants to be used. A large wall space usually will require more plants and taller-growing ones.

In situations where a driveway or side­walk near the side of the building leaves a planting space too narrow for shrubs, ground covers can be used to fill the area, and height can be obtained by using a vine or an espaliered tree or shrub. A twining vine or an espaliered plant may be used near a wall of wood construction and a clinging vine on a masonry wall, including a chimney.

Any planting done below windows should be of material that will grow less than the window sill in height. If the house is low, with little foundation wall showing above the soil line, the grass might extend to the foundation wall, a low ground cover might be used, or shrubs of a mature size that will not shade the window excessively or block the distant view from the room inside.

In general, comparing the planting to be done near a one-story house and a two-story house, both with symmetrically spaced door and windows and with only low foundation walls exposed above the soil line, the planting across the front of each could be very much the same in mature effect. The corner plantings for a two-story house would be taller-growing material than that for a one-story house. (Figures 1 and 2). If, however, these same two houses had high foundation walls showing above the soil line the plants to be used across the front of the house might better be chosen from a group that would grow a little taller— about the height of the window sill.

Following these simple directions pre­pare two or three sketches of each side of the house—front, sides, and back— and for the wall plantings. This will give you an opportunity to choose the one which appears most pleasing to you.

Planting Under Eaves

Planting under wide, overhanging eaves presents something of a problem but not

Figure 7. A small-size tree will shade a large window in summer, also help break the view from the street into the house a serious one. Many of the plants used will be planted beyond the overhang of all except very wide eaves and many will even grow satisfactorily without getting direct sunlight, so the choice of plants for such situations is quite varied. Of greatest importance is an adequate sup­ply of moisture. Preparing the planting soil with large amounts of organic ma­terial such as peat, keeping a mulch un­der the plants throughout the year, and watering the soil with a hose before it becomes dry will keep the plants growing thriftily. Organic material and mulch will conserve moisture, and only infre­quent watering will be necessary.

When the sketch you select is com­pleted with the foliage masses blocked in, you can measure on the wall of the house the actual size you want each plant to be at maturity. Many nursery catalogues give the mature height of each plant and other data. Plant lists obtained from other sources, such as your State College of Agriculture or a botanic garden, often arrange the plants in size groups. Select the plants you know and like, or if you do not know many varieties, go tc a nurs­ery to see plants that may interest you. Visit with experienced friends who have planted their properties with a variety of material, and ask their advice. Learn all you can about plants—their charac­teristics such as color of flower or fruit, autumn foliage color, as well as mature size.

Consider Plant Color

Be careful about selecting plants with bright flower or foliage color. Use colors that will harmonize with the color of the house. The yellow flowers of forsythia and Harison's Yellow rose are not so effective near a house painted yellow as they are near a white house, but they will repeat satisfactorily the color of yellow

trim. It is inappropriate to use the red rugosa rose or the magenta flowered An­thony Waterer spirea near a house paint­ed red or near one constructed of red brick, but shrubs with white or yellow flowers are excellent against brick. High­ly colored plants, red and yellow leaved varieties, those with variegated foliage, or bright-colored flowers should be used with great restraint. They will attract undue attention to themselves and detract from the rest of the scene.

It is customary for nurseries to have available several sizes of each variety they grow. In general, a shrub 3 to 4 feet high will cost more than a l½- to 2-foot shrub of the same variety because of the longer time and more labor re­quired to produce it. Because the larger plant gives a more nearly immediate ef­fect, some home owners are willing to pay more for it. However, in a few years the smaller size will produce the same effect as the larger one. Probably most home owners buy medium-sized plants, as they produce a reasonably good appearance when they are planted, have a good root system, stand transplanting well, and are moderate in cost.

When very small sizes are used, the new planting appears sparse and inade­quate, but if the plants purchased are proportional in size to their mature character the general effect of the new planting will be suggestive of their ap­pearance after several years' growth. I£ only a limited number of mature or semi-mature shrubs is to be used, preference should be given to those planted near the front part of the house so a good ap­pearance from the street is evident im­mediately.

Proper spacing (often several feet apart) of small-size shrubs exaggerates the sparse appearance of the planting, but the final results will be well worth the waiting. If they are spaced close to­gether for quick effect, they will soon crowd each other, become misshappen, and have to be removed. Then the plant­ing must be done all over again with the lesson of proper spacing learned the hard way. Some of the crowded plants in the original planting, if they are not too badly damaged, may be left where they are, giving them more room by removing the nearby poorer ones. Or they may be used elsewhere on the property. To mini­mize the initial sparse effect of a proper­ly spaced planting, annuals or ground covers may be used in the open spaces, between the permanent plants. As the longer-lasting plants gain in size, the amount of space left for annuals becomes more and more limited until they are eliminated by the maturing shrubs ana evergreens.

Spacing the Plants

Twining vines and clinging vines are usually listed in nursery catalogues ac­cording to their age and a two- or three-year-old plant is a good size to order. They should be planted as close as possi­ble to the wall they are to grow against, one vine being enough for a small trellis. Those to be grown on a long fence should be planted 10 to 15 feet apart. Clinging vines are appropriately used on a mason­ry wall, one for a small wall, and a spacing of 15 or 25 feet apart for a large wall. Seldom should a wall be complete­ly covered with vines as a lacy effect is more attractive.

Ground covers such as myrtle and pachysandra are sold as clumps and are
Only low-growing plants, requiring a minimum of pruning, will remain dwarf and so not obscure the window or become out of scale in a raised planter box

Genereux

This planting has been kept simple pur­posely, so as not to detract from the design of the doorway and brick paving pattern. Conical-shaped hollies with English ivy ground cover frame the door; tree is locust
Molly Adams

planted 12 inches apart for a good effect in about a year, 2 feet apart if you are willing to wait 2 or 3 years for them to fill in. Vines and prostrate evergreens usually are planted 3 or 4 feet apart. Vines are bought by age and prostrate evergreens by the measured spread of their branches. Some spreading peren­nials such as cottage pink and golden-tuft are planted from 2 to 3 feet apart.

Low-growing shrubs from l½ to 3 feet high when full grown usually are classi­fied in nursery catalogues by the height of the plant when they are purchased but some may be classified by the spread of the branches. Most people buy plants about half their mature size. These should usually be planted l½ to 2 feet from the foundation wall and from 3 to 4 feet apart. Wider spacing is recommended for the more horizontal branching types.

Practically all shrubs that mature from 4 to 5 feet high should be set about 2 feet from a wall and about 4 feet apart, while those that grow from 6 to 8 feet high are planted 3 feet from a wall and 5 feet apart. A few plants in each of these size groups are distinctly upright in growth. These should be set about 6 inches closer to a wall and 1 foot closer together while the wider spreading ones should be set about 6 inches farther from the wall and 1 foot farther apart. Still larger shrubs, those that grow from 8 to 15 feet high, should be set from 4 to 5 feet from the wall and 6 to 8 feet apart. The 4- to 5-foot shrubs and the 5- to 6-foot shrubs usually are purchased about one-half ma­ture size while those that grow from 8 to 15 feet high might be purchased some­what less than one-half their mature size.

Small trees that mature 15 to 30 feet high may be purchased from 5 to 10 feet high, depending upon the desire for an immediate effect. For normal-shaped plants they should be spaced from 10 to 15 feet apart.

Large-growing shade trees should be of good size when they are planted as it is not worth while planting a little whip 2 or 3 feet high. Trees l½ to 2 inches in diameter and 10 to 15 feet high, are good sizes to plant; those 4 to 6 inches in diameter will give a fair amount of shade the first season and will not be excessively expensive. Larger trees are available at a cost proportional to their size. However, shade trees are not a part of this story. Spring or fall, when the plants are dormant, is the usual planting season for shrubs. This seasonal planting is still done by most gardeners but the nursery business has progressed and modernized, following research done by the industry and at plant experiment sta­tions. Nurseries now grow plants in a variety of containers from tin cans to heavy paper pots. The plants are kept in a thrifty growing condition the year around and it is not unusual for a home owner to buy a plant in full leaf and in flower, take it home and plant it. Such plants may require some extra care after planting, such as extra watering, but there is satisfaction in seeing them show their full landscape potential at once.

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