Hello everyone!
I've been a lurker in this forum but I now need your help!
We bought last year and here's a pic of our house when we got it (right semi). I don't have an updated pic but here is what we changed so far:
The roof is now charcoal. We painted the brick red in light grey/brown. Our neighbour also painted the front of their house the same color and changed the roof with us (same color as well) so we now have the two semis that match :D
Forget about the ugly window coverings upstairs and in the porch :) We now have a casement window upstaris with white trim. the neighbours also painted their window trims white (both up and lower windows - yes we have great neighbours! LOL).
Our porch stays so far. We're planning of painting the ugly brown metal trim in white to complete the look. We changed our front door into a black door with a nice patterned glass insert, but we can't notice too much during the day because of the screen door in the porch...
Anyway...
the maple in the front is scheduled to be removed (extremely bad condition). I'm planning to keep the retaining wall in the front but transform the front yard into a rock garden (will get a lot more sun once the tree is gone). I already collected some nice granit rocks from the cottage country for the rock garden. I'm thinking of a lot of lavender plants and then rock garden plants, some blue fescue, and some kind of climber to try to semi-cover the post in front of the tree.
But I'm open to any suggestions :)
Now, my main question is what to plant in the corner of the house. I don't have a pic for that corner but it's basically on the right of this pic. Right now the soil level is about the same height as what's in the front, we have a damaged chain link fence at the corner that is scheduled to be removed tomorrow and we'll have the land re-graded to slope gently towards the sidewalk. So no retaining wall at the corner. However I'd like to plant some taller bushes etc. to keep people & kids from cutting on that corner. We're not planning to put back a fence because of a limited budget (re-grading was necessary, so we'll be regrading in order to avoid the need of a retaining will - financial reasons as well, it's cheaper that way).
I'm not especially looking for a full hedge, but some kind of arrangement that will create a natural barrier around the corner. The only requirement is that it still need to block of people in the winter, so deciduous shrubs are Ok as long as they're woody and will show some structure in the winter.
The corner will be in light shade (we're planning of planting in the spring a service berry to the right of the maple, roughly in the middle of that corner).
Thank you in advance for all your help and suggestions!
:)
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Don't get so excited that you get to complicated.If you are sure on afew of your plans - follow through. With the rest, give it some time. The area is not large...too many...too different - might look cluttered
There are too many suggestions I could make on plant selection. Perhaps go get a book on shrubs that has photos in it to see what it is you like and what you don't like. Whenever I am in the Toronto area I make a point of visiting Humber Nursery because they seem to have just about everything there. This probably isn't the best time to go though as they have probably cleared out a lot of their stock for the season but you could go take a look at what they do have it will be a good start in determining what you like and what you don't.
Your plan on using the Mugho pines is ok except you may have to thin out the Serviceberry to enable them to get more sun. They do get to be about 5 feet tall and wide when full grown but it takes YEARS for them to become mature specimens. Most evergreens are slower to grow than deciduous plants and most people aren't that patient and they overplant and end up with a big mess. I think the dark green Mugo pine with a burgundy leafed berberis would look fantastic, you can also get miniature berberis with a golden leaf too. Berberis aren't invasive, they were just banned from Ontario for many years because of a rust problem, the varieties we can buy now are rust resistant. They may require a little pruning to shape them but nothing drastic. They are thorny so a good barrier.
How you plant them is up to you, for a more naturalistic look inteplant the different types making sure you give them enough space for when they are full grown. That's what I would do. I have also seen different coloured foliage plants grown in rows with the tallest at the back and the lowest at the front and it looked very striking. You can also plant in groups of 3's or 5's to give a real statment but I think that looks too commercial looking and ends up looking like big blobs in a persons garden BUT you can do whatever you want. When you get the plants home, place them where you think they should go while they are still in their pots and step back, walk around the lot to see what it looks like. You will probably have to tweak it a bit until it looks ok but always keep the growing spaces adequate.
Blue fescue is NOT salt tolerant but the Karl Foerster is, it is taller and not blue so looks totally different but it is a grass, If you wanted something lower Pinks are salt tolerant and have a bluish green foliage. The grasses and pinks will need lots of sun though, so be ready to thin out the Serviceberry. I think either the pinks or grasses will be too delicate looking with Mugho pines and berberis though. You could try Miscanthus which is a much taller grass if you have to have a grass but I would rather see something more substantial.
There are lots of resources on the Internet for rock gardens, you can research that this winter for next spring.
Thanks for all your suggestions.
I'm sorry if I was not clear enough. English is not my 1st language and I find it hard to convey exaclty what I want to at times.
There were honeysuckles at the corner before we took the fence down, and there are no pbs with planting bushes as long as we don't block the view for the cars (see below). I double checked the restrictions re: the height; see the info below.
So here is what I'd like to do for that corner:
From the sidewalk inward:
- some groundcover like vinca minor, cerastium, thyme, etc. close to the sidewalk
- a first "row" of smaller bushes (roughly 1.0m - 3 feet - or bushes that can be trimmed to that height without suffering from it) to block the corner but doesn't block the view for traffic. I'm thinking mungo pine because I really like the look and it meets the height requirements. I was thinking about mixing them with Berberis for the nice fall color and I heard that it's pretty resistant bush, but I have no idea whether it would look nice or not. Also, is berberis invasive in ON? I definitely don't want invasive plants.
And if I mix mungo pine and berberis (or other plants), how should I do it? I'm sure I can't alternate 1:1 or it will look terrible. I want something that looks as natural as possible, but I have no clue about the pattern to follow.
- taller plants in the back to screen the view further without completely blocking it, I'm thinking ornemental grasses like purple fountain grass for the color that would be a nice contrast to the pines.
- I have some blue fescue that I could plant between the bushes for additional interest and filling the gaps.
Does someone know whether the blue fescue is salt tolerant?
Finally, although the serviceberry will be planted in the middle, the grasses and bushes will be forward on the street side, and because the corner is south-east I don't expect anything worse than light shade on the area. there's still a good chance that the plants will be in more sun than shade, because the angle of the sun would make it shine on the whole corner without going through the tree canopy (maybe the grasses will be in light shade early n the morning)
Am I clear? Let me know if I'm still confusing you. I apologize for that.
Now, I would really appreciate to hear about your opinions on this design.
BTW I'll be doing a rock garden in the front of the house - soil raised with retaining wall - more than in the corner, I was thinking a rock garden at the corner might not be dense enough to prevent people from walking on it - especially the kids: we have lots in the neighbourhood' I love those big stone boulders but I'm worried that if we use them on the corner the kids will just walk and jump on them - can't really manage to cover them well enough. But by all means let me know if there's a way to do it because I love rock gardens.
is there a program I could use to create mock-ups with my pic?
Thanks!!!
Do you own all the property up to the street? In my municipality, they own the first 18 feet from the street and request we don't plant trees that may interfer with drains underground or plonk heavy rocks above in case they have to come fix something.
The only evergreens that will do ok in a shady situation would be Japanese Yews, the rest need sun in order to grow well and resist disease and insects. So make sure everything you plant there is compatible to that space.
Have a landscape designer come over to give you some suggestions, most give free consultations although the better ones charge for the visit. Sometimes it's easier in person to explain things and better to see what kind of space you have.
I'm a bit confused because initially you were looking for "taller bushes" but in you last post you were "thinking of something low or that can be trimmed low" so if you had specifics that would be helpful too.
don't have any advice for what to plant...but i just thought i would tell you that i think it's great that your neighbour was willing to match the roof and paint the same colours as you...i think it looks great...nothing worse than two semi that look completely different...not saying they have to match...but close to each is so much better
Thank you Inglewood & 3blackcats for you suggestions.
I'd be tempted to use a mix of deciduous and evergreen shrubs at the corner instead of blocking the whole view with evergreens. The maple will go as soon as the city has time to take it down. And yes, we'll be planting a serviceberry towards the corner (to clear the front of the house as suggested).
This morning we had some contractors over and here's an updated pic. The bottom part of the house is painted light grey with a bit of brown in it. Roof is charcoal. We're thinking of planting the serviceberry roughly where the bobcat is :D to anchor the corner and block the straight view from the corner. So I need some ideas as to what to plant in front of the bobcat/serviceberry ;-) (street side). That corner will be regraded to gently slope towards the sidewalk (no wall and no fence).
I was thinking of something low or that can be trimmed low because we can't block the view for the cars at the corners (city restriction). I'd love to have a 4 seasons interest, so maybe some evergreen bushes mixed with other bushes for fall color, etc.
I hope this pic will help. It definitely shows how the house looks like now, and show the corner I'm talking about.
Thanks for your help! I'm just at lost right now...
I can't really tell from the photo but to go along with your Serviceberry, you could go with the flow and do a native type grouping. You could use an amur maple, they have a nice red fall colour and don't grow as big as regular maples so they have a nice sized leaf, you can buy either a single stem or multi stem, they are not too expensive, trouble free and grow to be about 15 feet tall and the multi stemmed ones have that much of a spread too. For something smaller, the variegated dogwoods are nice to brighten up a shady corner plus they have the red coloured twigs in the winter, they will get about a 5 or 6 feet spread to them. Depending on space, I'd plant a multi stemmed amur maple with 3 dogwoods around it, they will all do well in a shady spot being under storey plants, where evergreens typically want sunny locations.
Try and improve the soil by adding some peat moss and manure because it will help retain moisture and get them through our summer dry spells.
Is the city replacing the maple once removed? If they are, have them plant it more to the right of your house. Right now I would assume it hides the front.
Not sure what your budget is but........Here's an idea that would work nice with your brick and some privacy on the corner. In a large kidney shaped bed which you could burm (sp?) up if you like plant 3 blue spruce spaced well enough apart for growth. Depending if you are to live there short term, you can find faster growing evergreens than the blue spruce. In the open spaces between the trees you can plant just about anything (they well have to be removed in years to come due to the growth of the larger trees)
A more inexpensive route is to plant 7-9 cedars. 3 along the front and 6 along the side(in a L shape)They grow fast.