A cement base sidewalk is one of the most common materials used today. This is a simple design giving you some ideas and suggestions on a sidewalk that is on the left or right side of your driveway, or entrance to your home. This particular design can be tailored with a variety of different evergreen and deciduous shrubs. This landscape project can be accomplished with a good plan in place. Think of your own home now and if your sidewalk is situated on the left or ride side of your house. Many homes today will have it on one side or the other.

The illustration below is a cement sidewalk facing the left side going towards the driveway. If you noticed, I extended the right hand side of the bed to come completely around the sidewalk. This is a wonderful defined garden look, and an excellent curb side appeal. This style of design also allows you the option of choosing a variety of plants and the possibility of a theme color garden.

1. Fern Spray
2. Blue Owl Juniper
3. Loropetalum, Chinese Pizazz
4. Hinoki Cypress - on either side and a Mop Cypress in the middle
5. Blue Star Juniper
6. Loropetalum
7. Blue Owl Juniper
8. Mop Cypress- variegated
9. Annual or perennial flowers

The first step like any other landscape project, is develop an overall plan. I recommend to my clients if they are doing their own project, is to create a defined area around the cement sidewalk by taking a hose or landscape chalk. One suggestion is to follow the natural contour of you property. You can snake the bed or create a defined shape. You can also create a formal look with a straight border following the sidewalk. In some situations like the sample above, the left side of the house already has a defined bed from the foundation out to the sidewalk. You can balance out the entire area by planting the same plants on both sides along the foundation.

Think about the color tones in your brick, stone, vinyl siding, or paint. Can you take some of these tones and enhance these colors through different plants? You don't have to be an expert with colors or different shades. Do you have any existing trees that provide color? Use some of the tones of your leaves or flowers from your trees and plant shrubs in this bed along the cement sidewalk with the same or complimentary colors. Lets say the outside of your house has some purple, gray and maybe ruby tones. Create a look that will highlight these tones such as some evergreen shrubs along the foundation. Of course your choice of shrubs will be determine in what climate zone you live in. Here are a couple of examples of evergreen shrubs you could use throughout this design.

These two shrubs will give you the blue and gray tones. In the Juniper page of the gallery of plants section, there are brief descriptions of these two plants and other Junipers. Add a little purple, green and pink colors by planting a few Loropetalums around the cement sidewalk. There are many other plants you could think about doing in this area. Consider a variety of different variegated or ornamental shrubs. There are both evergreen and deciduous ornamental plants. Remember if you decide on a deciduous plant, create some evergreens around the deciduous specimen so you don't have a dead space during the colder months.

A nice plant for a taller area, possibly along the foundation is the Golden Glove Or Degroots Arborvitae. This would be a good shrub on either side of the end of the beds along the foundation. I wanted to give you another suggestion. The Degroots can be topped to keep under control.

There are a few tips you should remember when planning this style of garden around your sidewalk. Don't plant too close to the foundation, at least two to three feet apart. Make sure you know the maturity of each plant when placing them. Your larger plants always go in the back. You progress your way forward with medium to the smallest shrubs near the front. A great evergreen dwarf shrub to consider planting near the front of the bed is a Hinoki Cypress.

Another option is to consider adding some annual or perennial flowers throughout the bed, or in a mass planting such as numbers five or nine in the drawing above. This is a great simple design to show off your own personality as well as creating an area in your front yard that you can enjoy and be proud of. If you are thinking about doing a project around your cement walkway and need some further suggestions, feel free to contact me and I would be happy to help you.