Evergreen shrubs which can hedge nicely... any ideas?
Posted: Sat Apr 28, 2012 10:03 pm
Hey all. I live in Zone 7 and I just finished a building a porch and retaining walls in the front yard, creating a large planting area against my house. It's roughly 8x20, with some areas which are roughly 3' deep in front of the porch.
In the large area I wanted to have shrubs and stuff so I don't have a full 160sq.ft. of flowers. Also, I want to give some coverage to the foundation because it's pretty unsightly. So, with that said, I'm thinking about doing two levels of shrubs; one taller to the back (4-5') and one smaller up front (2.5-3'), with a total depth of about 4-5'. What I want to do is get some pretty full, dense coverage. For the back row I'm looking at some Boxwoods or Emerald Gaiety (although I haven't seen any great pictures of larger Em. Gaiety hedges being shaped nicely)... and for the front row I'm thinking about the 'Fire Power' Nandina, to give some color in the spring and fall. I do have a small child (16mo.) and I read that Nandina are poisonous if eaten... and kids eat everything, so that is a negative point for the Nandina.
I feel kinda limited as my trip to the nursery didn't give a ton of options... just a bunch of shrubs in tiny pots, but without knowing what they look like in maturity, it's hard to know which shrubs would look well together with.
:[ So hard to decide and most of the 'search for plant' websites don't work very well... or maybe I haven't found (or paid for) the good ones.
Do you guys have any ideas or suggestions? Do you think I'm going overkill? I don't live in a mansion and my wife says, "No one else has that much in front of their houses." To that, I say, "Well, we have a bunch of block with dirt... we need to do something with it." Here's a couple pictures of my house sans plants... [url=https://imgur.com/a/pcKjP#0]https://imgur.com/a/pcKjP#0[/url]
If you think there's something that would look good, I'm all ears... erm, eyes. Thanks in advance!
In the large area I wanted to have shrubs and stuff so I don't have a full 160sq.ft. of flowers. Also, I want to give some coverage to the foundation because it's pretty unsightly. So, with that said, I'm thinking about doing two levels of shrubs; one taller to the back (4-5') and one smaller up front (2.5-3'), with a total depth of about 4-5'. What I want to do is get some pretty full, dense coverage. For the back row I'm looking at some Boxwoods or Emerald Gaiety (although I haven't seen any great pictures of larger Em. Gaiety hedges being shaped nicely)... and for the front row I'm thinking about the 'Fire Power' Nandina, to give some color in the spring and fall. I do have a small child (16mo.) and I read that Nandina are poisonous if eaten... and kids eat everything, so that is a negative point for the Nandina.
I feel kinda limited as my trip to the nursery didn't give a ton of options... just a bunch of shrubs in tiny pots, but without knowing what they look like in maturity, it's hard to know which shrubs would look well together with.
:[ So hard to decide and most of the 'search for plant' websites don't work very well... or maybe I haven't found (or paid for) the good ones.
Do you guys have any ideas or suggestions? Do you think I'm going overkill? I don't live in a mansion and my wife says, "No one else has that much in front of their houses." To that, I say, "Well, we have a bunch of block with dirt... we need to do something with it." Here's a couple pictures of my house sans plants... [url=https://imgur.com/a/pcKjP#0]https://imgur.com/a/pcKjP#0[/url]
If you think there's something that would look good, I'm all ears... erm, eyes. Thanks in advance!