Hi all,
I am a new homeowner and new member to this forum. I am in the process of re-doing our front yard garden (which was a wild mess) and I am a total gardening newbie. My strategy is to use some low-maintenance shrubs and plants. I don't need to have the most beautiful garden, I just want something that isn’t embarrassing I'm hoping some of the experienced gardeners on here can critique my gardening plan and potentially offer some suggestions.
I live in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada and my gardening zone is 4b (I believe), and our front yard is partial sun. Here are some pics (since we began ripping stuff out of the existing beds) of the house as it is & a map of the dimensions:
And here is my plan:
- Remove the small island and make it plain grass
- Change the shape of the foundation bed into a sweeping “teardrop†shape
- Plant as follows:
PLAN A:
OR
PLAN B:
Some thoughts/questions:
- I like the idea of having two small spruce treets flanking our door, because in winter time it would be pretty to put christmas lights on them… but I'm not sure how it will look throughout the rest of the year… thoughts?
- Is it weird to mix two evergreens? (cedar and spruce)?
- Which of these two plans will look best?
- Would you suggest any changes? If so, what (must be extremely low maintenance)?
All feedback is appreciated! Thanks!
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- Greener Thumb
- Posts: 1216
- Joined: Sat Jul 18, 2015 1:10 pm
- Location: Zone 8A Western Washington State
Looks nice. Since you have a slope, you could create a saturation zone at the bottom of the slope. Use stones or bricks as mini retaining walls to pool the water. Driest soil conditions at the top of the slope - moisture loving zone at the bottom of the slope with hardscaping (mini-wall about 3 bricks high) to block the water from running off as fast as it would otherwise.