Catch the Eyes of Envious Neighbors With Beautiful Foundation Plantings in the Avon Lake, OH, Area

Your front yard may already be the envy of the neighborhood, but what about your backyard? This outdoor area could also be a golden opportunity to catch the eyes of envious neighbors with beautiful foundation plantings in the Avon Lake, OH, area.

Related: 12 Beautiful Plantings to Add to Your Strongsville and Westlake, OH, Front Entrance for a Pop of Color

What Are Foundation Plantings?

Foundation plantings are designed to enhance the home and provide a beautiful transition between the home and the natural surroundings. Typically, this is more of a concern on the front of the home, but there’s no reason to neglect the backyard-facing side of the home by leaving it bare.

Traditional foundation plantings focused on a series of dense evergreen shrubs planted directly next to the house. With this technique, sometimes these shrubs often grow much taller than expected and end up blocking windows. Or, they’re sheared into shapes that don’t resemble anything natural, with no hint of softness. Rows of dark green shrubs could have a dull effect if they are not properly planned and arranged.

With the expertise of your landscape contractor and a well-thought-out landscape design, here’s how to make the most of your backyard foundation plantings:

Work With Your Home

If your home features a formal, symmetrical design, consider plantings arranged in a somewhat formal design (but not so formal as to be stiff). For example, symmetrical shrubs at either side of the back door can bring color to the space. But again, shy away from evergreen shrubs and go for something more vivacious such as rose bushes. If your home is more casual, you could consider asymmetrical plantings.

Achieve Balance in the Landscape Design

Whether your home is formal or casual, think about balance. Balance doesn’t necessarily mean mirror-image symmetry. It could mean visually balancing a dense, dark spruce tree with several small fruit trees surrounded by ground covers. Or it could mean balancing a large lawn with several rock garden “islands.” When you think about a home that is closely ringed by evergreen shrubs, you see that there is no balance: There’s just a home, and a lawn. Balance can also mean choosing plants that complement the home, not smother it. For example, tall spruce trees next to a bungalow-style home end up making the home look like a child’s playhouse. The balance happens in the transitional space with a layered approach of tall, medium, and short plants; wide, medium, and narrow plants; and dense, medium, and open plants.

Everything in Its Place

You typically would want to avoid elements that don’t belong. For example, some new home builders may feature a large boulder in the front yard as a focal point. Sure, it’s a natural element, but where did it come from? A solitary boulder may not look like it belongs when it is surrounded by a lawn.

Again think about the transitional spaces between prominent elements like boulders and the surrounding landscape. What can be done with the space immediately adjacent to the boulder? Take the same approach with your home’s foundation plantings—a layered approach that gradually transitions from larger, denser, taller elements in the back to ultimately the lawn in the foreground.

Elsewhere, you could have taller trees planted around the corners of the home to soften the look. Fill in bare stretches of walls between windows with a small tree, larger shrub, or a trellis covered in climbing roses.

And finally, consider bloom times. Stagger bloom times for a constant riot of color in your landscape.

Related: Take a Look at 5 Ways a Retaining Wall Can Be Multipurpose in Avon Lake and Bay Village, OH