Does Your Landscape Need a Facelift?

I love Motown. Aretha Franklin is one of my favorites, but my desire to hear soulful songs does not end there. Diana Ross and the Supremes, Four Tops, the Temptations……they are all classic in my opinion. My love of music from the 60’s and 70’s does not carry over to landscapes of the same era. The popular look of boxed off evergreen shrubs in straight lines died years ago, but we still see the same look in our neighborhoods today. Perfectly sheared cubes and spheres have their place in the garden or in certain landscape situations, but in front of our homes they look “old school” and boring. It is time to shake up our foundation plantings! To accomplish this, we need to use different plants, shapes, colors, and more curves!

For years gardeners have used boxwood and Japanese hollies along the foundations of their homes. These have been popular plants because they are evergreen, can mature to heights that remain under windows, and are fairly easily sheared into different shapes and sizes. The problem is that they have become incredible generic. It seems like many foundation plantings look the same with a single row of sheared shrubs and nothing else. One way to avoid this look is by using different plants. The idea of using an evergreen shrub that matures to around four feet in height is fine, but there are plants other than boxwood and Japanese holly that can fit the bill.

I used a Japanese privet cultivar called ‘Suwanee River’ for the background of my foundation planting (Ligustrum japonicum ‘Suwanee River’). ‘Suwannee River’ is an evergreen shrub that will reach about 5-6’ in height and width. My plants have been in the ground for three years and are about three feet by three feet in size. They are currently about the size that I would like for them to stay, so I will hand prune them to keep them in check. Note that I said hand prune. Shearing these plants will result in the same old formal linear shapes that I want to avoid. By hand pruning, the plants are allowed to grow their own way, and have more of an informal look.

Many people have started using another type of holly called ‘Carissa’ holly (Ilex cornuta ‘Carissa’), pictured above. ‘Carissa’ is a great little evergreen shrub that is different from Japanese hollies in texture and natural form. The leaves of ‘Carissa’ are much larger than those of the Japanese hollies, providing a coarse texture to the garden. The plant itself maintains a nice tight mound shape, rarely requiring pruning. Given the correct lighting, plants such as encore azaleas and gardenias (pictured left) can also be utilized as backdrop plants in foundation plantings. Both azaleas and gardenias are quite variable in size depending on the specific cultivar used, ranging from a couple of feet in height, to over six feet. Gardenias and azaleas would also add color to the landscape through their flowering ability.




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