A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion Landscape trials and triumphs Newbie needs help - what should I plant? Front walk of Ranch

Hi All,

I could use some advice. Have lived here 2 years, and dislike the landscaping, but not sure what to do with it. I know very little about gardening. I like the idea of it, but not sure I have the time needed to be any good. Anyhow, the last several days/nights, I started looking a catalogs and websites to figure out which plants would work and I am now very overwhelmed and confused, and not any closer to knowing what to do.

This all started this year when my father-in-law gave me a bunch of wildflower seeds to plant. I'm thinking of planting them in the front near the lamp post. Unless they grow and look good, this will be temporary. But that got me thinking again about what to do on each side of the walk & in front of the house, and even along the side.

I love flowers, but am not good at caring for them. So would need plants that don't have to be watered all the time, minimal maintenance. The house faces west, and all areas receive lots of sun. I'm in southwest PA - zone 6. I'm willing to learn how to prune, or whatever is needed - but really don't want to spend a lot of time on it. Am not fond of any of the bushes there now. In front is small boxwood and azaleas (the twigs), and the side more azaleas (I think they're dead). Don't know what the green ones are along the house. Kind of like them because they're evergreen - nice for winter.

I would so appreciate some help & advice. I know I'm asking for a lot. I'm almost ready to give up before I even started. Thank you so much.
Below are pics: (I hope I inserted them correctly)
http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8AZuWbJk4cuX-g
http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8AZuWbJk4cuWEF
http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8AZuWbJk4cuWEU

Thanks Joclyn. You have given me plenty of choices of low maintenance plants that fit the area. I like the ideas.

Do you think I should keep, remove, or relocate the current bushes? I'm not fond of any of them. Should I enlarge the bed area at the left of the house and make it curvy instead of rectangular against the house to accommodate the bushes you've recommended? Or do away with it all together?

I was thinking maybe I should do away with the bed (in the foreground) with the little dwarf boxwoods. And just have plants on the right side of the walkway against the house (under the windows, to the right of the door). What do you think?

Also, I notice that most landscaping has lots of mulched areas with just a few plants here and there. Is that the way I should plant the flowers? A clump here and there, the rest of the area just mulch? And then I look at some of the pictures the gardeners on this site post and they have pretty plants but are leaf to leaf almost. Guess I should find a book on Plants/landscaping for Dummies.

Even though I'm still a bit confused, thank you for your input and providing a list with plants that will work for me, and for explaining what to do with them as far as cutting back and/or deadheading. That's good information I need to know.

it's up to you if you do the style where it's a few small groupings of plants and lots of mulch or if it's more 'cottage' style - which is lots of things mixed in all together and close together. the former is more formal looking and the latter more relaxed.

for such a small and defined space, i think a relaxed approach works best. the small groupings would be dwarfed by the house and the area would look like it's unfinished/missing something.

when you see those small groupings with lots of mulch in a large open area, they provide interest and 'punch' and break up the expanse. it wouldn't seem like such a small thing would be a benefit in a large area - it works, though!

personally, i don't like boxwood. azalea has it's place, although i'm not too fond of them either. so, i'd say remove all the boxwood and most of the azalea. you could move all the boxwood to one location - say at the edge of your property. they DO make a nice living fence if they're planted close enough to each other - as they get larger, they end up growing into each other and you end up with a solid hedge. i'm thinking ahead...why pay to have a fence put in when you have the makings of one already?

they're still small enough to transplant easily and they wouldn't require too much maintenance at this point, either. just some light trimming to keep a basic shape until they're large enough to need proper shaping to make a hedge (which will be quite a few years yet).

the way the brickwork is done differently on either side of the front door creates a little problem. i'd normally say keep an azalea on either side of the doorway - they'd be good anchors for you. and i'd suggest to allow them to grow taller - to just at/above the top of the lighter bricks. since one side is higher than the other, if you did that, the difference would be accentuated. you'll want to minimize the difference. also, if you do the smaller groupings with lots of mulch, that would accentuate the height difference and would make the area look more uneven than it does now (which isn't all that bad, btw).

so, leave the azaleas to the left of the doorway and allow the two in the back to grow as tall as the top of the lighter brickwork (maybe a little taller)and allow them to grow into each other, too. the one that's in front of the other two should be about 8 inches shorter and just a tad less wide than the one behind it. that will give a dense break when looking at the house from the street. it's a visual trick that will make the height difference of the brickwork less obvious.

it's such a pretty entryway - i love the color and the etched glass is beautiful! the boxwood that's in the bed right in front of the pathway definitely has to go! in that section, right in front of the doorway, i'd put something that doesn't get any taller than that boxwood is now. actually something that is a little lower than that. you want that doorway to be admired, not covered over! i'd also put two small white planters right below each of the sidelights and put some kind of low/viney, flowering annual in them - that will add to highlighting the door.

the tree i'd move to the far left of the house as it's almost grown out of the space it's in by the stairs and will have to be removed. you can put it on the outer corner - either remove the azalea and put the tree in it's place or leave the azalea and put the tree to the left/just behind it, off the corner of the house. either way would work visually. the tallness of the tree would balance out the porch on the other end of the house.

i almost want to say put all the azalea in that bed to the left of the door (with the tree at the far left at the end of the house). allowing them to grow taller would definitely hide the difference in the brickwork. that would be too much azalea though.

they're so pretty when in flower - they just don't last long enough and then you're left with plain green all summer. that's why i don't like them all that much. even with other flowers planted in front to provide color over the summer, they need regular trimming, so it's just not worth it to have that many - especially if you need to mind something in front of them to get in there to do trimming every week. even more so not worth it since you did say you don't really like them anyway. i'd just keep the three by the door and maybe one other at the end or by the steps to the porch. the others you can put elsewhere in the yard maybe.

you could put one azalea where the tree is now - just allow it to get kind of tall - no more than up to the level of the railing on the porch, though. and you can allow it to get a bit wide so that it just about fills in the space between the railing and the house wall. you could also put a lilac there or a butterfly bush in that spot, too. with the azalea by the door, having another one there, by the other door, would flow well.

with regard to the bed in front of the walkway, the more i look at your pics, the more i think you can let that area go back to grass. just leave the area around the lampost as a flowerbed.

can you still get the same things used for the retaining walls that are already there near the steps?

i'd take that little retaining wall as your start point and build on it and curve it around down to the wall that's right at the edge of the driveway. you'd be making the area a little smaller than it is now. which would be fine - it's a little large and uneven at the moment anyway.

definitely put in a clematis to climb up around the lamppost! they like full sun for their flowers...they like their roots kept a bit cool, so, you'd have to have other things planted to keep the sun off the roots. a mix of coneflower and daylily would do a good job there.

what is below the porch by the driveway? are all those bushes azalea? are those the ones you think are dead? the largest one does look like it is. maybe move the extra bushes from the front to that spot to replace the dead ones? trying to save spending too much money all at once. you can always make changes next year or the year after.

k. that's enough for now. i can't think anymore! :)

Thanks! I have a lot to digest and think about now. You are so right about that tree. It's so obvious now that you've pointed it out, but I never even thought about moving it. Getting rid of it, yes, but moving it to the left of the house is much better. I like the planters by the door idea as well. And moving the boxwoods from the front and just letting grass go to the walkway seems easy enough - and is even better if it looks good too.

I don't know about using the boxwoods as a hedge elsewhere - I think they may be as tall as they get. They're dwarf, and haven't grown any in the two years that I've been here. Maybe my neighbors will want them, or maybe I can put them along the driveway with the azalea bushes. The larger bushes closest to the house front (under windows on right, and a couple on left) are not azaleas, they are some type of evergreen. Their stems/branches get very thick and they can get tall and gangly looking if not trimmed back. My neighbors have some that are much bigger as a hedge against their house, but I don't care for the look. Maybe because they are older and very woody.

I will do some thinking/digesting on the rest of what you've offered. I think I'd like to try the lilac and butterfly bushes. What do you think about lavender? Doesn't it also look and smell like lilac? That question probably shows how little I know/understand. I'd love to have a rose bush. I saw one advertised (rose knockout) - says it blooms from April until frost and is very easy to grow and disease resistant. Grows 4-5 feet. I'm thinking maybe I could put it to the right of the stairs.

Hopefully this weekend I'll have time to play around a little with everything. If you think of anything else, let me know. Thanks for all your help and ideas!

I was hoping by now to have new pictures to share... with the tree and some of the bushes moved, but I'm moving slower than anticipated.

Would love to hear more of your suggestions... bring them on:) I have recently realized that the front of the house which I thought received full sun all day, only receives it from about 1 to 6 then is shaded somewhat from 2 trees. And the house shades it in the morning. The area by the steps and lamppost does receive full sun the majority of the day.

So do I still look for plants (for the left side of house and in front under the overhang) for full sun or is this considered part shade? I was thinking partial shade meant in the shade with some sun coming through, but perhaps is means shade with 4 hours or so of full sun? Not sure. The house faces west.

I'm thinking of putting the wild flowers on the right side of the house along the drive way - that faces south - so is definitely full sun all day. And I saw some Dianthus flowers at the store, and really liked them, so thinking of putting them in the area near the lamp post. I also saw the rose bush I had been thinking of, but, ouch! big thorns! Don't think so.

Thanks for your ideas.