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Sidewalk Is A Great Area To Create A Defined GardenA sidewalk garden or landscape area can create a wonderful look for your front yard. Designing around this area will also give you a great curb side appeal. There are so many options for you to use in this area of your property. Today, more and more people are wanting low maintenance, evergreen shrubs to accent the front of their homes or other outdoor space. Below is a simple design of two beds. I decided not to do a detail design, as I wanted to give you some basic ideas of different shrubs and flowers that may work for you.
This design is a full, two defined bed area surrounding the center sidewalk, as well as being the focal point in the front yard. The garden or landscape area should be planned at different angles. One thing I do when designing a bed like this, is to get views from every angle. At the street, left and right side, and also by the front door. One of your goals is to be be smart about placement of your shrubs and flowers, so you can view them in as my different directions as possible. Remember, this is an investment, and you want to be able to enjoy as many plants as possible. There are a couple of things to consider when planning a garden project like this one. Remember the
plan, prep, and plant method.
This is a great way to create a sidewalk garden area. Give the area your personality. Along the foundation, think about planting four different solid evergreen shrubs, two on each side. Of course your choice of shrubs will depend on your area you live in. Another consideration is your height around your foundation. Make sure of the maturity of your plants. If you have a porch, plant dwarf of low lying shrubs. Your larger shrubs should be around the foundation, but not too close. You have to think about the maturity of each plant specimen. A couple of of suggestions around the foundation, which I consider numbers one, two, and three, are: The Holmstrup would look nice on either corner. The Chinese Pizazz could be number two, or near the edge of the bed. The Lemon Thread Cypress is in the center, near the foundation. You can begin to plan each side of the sidewalk with different colors and textures of evergreen plants or a combination of deciduous ornamental, with the evergreens. In the
gallery of plants section,
you can see a wide selections of photos of different trees, shrubs and flowers that may be some options for you. There are a couple of pages of different shrubs grouped together that may interest you. Add some Mop Cypress in the middle of the garden or near the front, to keep the variegated look continual throughout the landscape. Take a look at how I positioned each one of the shrubs and see the view you can get if you start with your larger shrubs in back and progress to your shorter shrubs. Another evergreen shrub option to go along with the other shrubs above, is an Indian Hawthorn. The Hawthorn is a great shrub for year around, with white or pink flowers in the springtime, and dark blue to purple berries in fall and early winter. Work your way throughout the bed using some flowering shrubs that will accent your shutters or other outdoor features. Adding a bench in the bed creates a nice area for you to relax and enjoy. This design can also be done in the
tropics, and you can incorporate many plants around your sidewalk.
The Mandevilla, Ginger, Hibiscus as well as incorporating a few small palm trees will work wonders for this sidewalk design. An option near the front of your landscape area is to put some annual or perennial flowers. Any of these flowers will accent the colors of the shrubs above. This is just a couple of examples of shrubs and flowers that you can do with a center sidewalk design. Your main goal is to create this area with other outdoor colors, and make sure you plan the entire project first. Of course you can do the two smaller beds to fit your house and property. There is also another option of design a bed around a left or right sidewalk. I will be sharing this design with you in the near future. |
