![]() It is in the foundation areas that our urge to clip and trim can be given free rein. ![]() A formal garden, with its clipped bushes and geometrical layout is really just an extension of this further away from the buildings, and mostly formal gardens do look best when they are attached to a building, rather than sitting out among natural plantings. We can think of foundation planting as a transition zone, and the plants in it should be neat and dense, often evergreen, and reflect the geometry of our buildings. Our houses will not stick out as obstructions (no matter how beautiful the architecture is), but instead look like they belong in the wider world, which we all have a right to feel. By doing this our minds will be more at ease, and we will feel more comfortable in our gardens. The secret is to use plants with denser, more ‘formal’ shapes for the bulk of what we put around the house, keeping informal and more casual shapes for further away, so that we have a sense that architecture surrenders to Nature (as it should) once we move away from what we humans have made. The Purpose of Foundation Plantingīecause of this uncomfortable fit between a house and the plants around it – already there or yet to be planted – we need to choose the plants and style of this transition area carefully, which will lead us naturally from architecture to nature, from geometry to naturalness, and from what we make to what nature makes. Those very necessary engineering features only emphasize how ‘alien’ those straight lines and rectangular structures are when placed among trees and rounded shrubs. There are often also units like air-con, or meter systems against wall, which look ugly. Your damp-course is above the soil level, and often homes are built on a low mound, to allow for basement windows, and to keep your house ‘high and dry’ above the surrounding soil. Those foundations are necessarily visible. It is both the ‘foundation’ of your garden design, and it goes around the foundations of your home. The foundation planting in your garden is the plants you put around the house, close to the walls, under the windows, and beside the doors. Wise words that are the basis of our approach to laying out any garden, and they sum up exactly what foundation planting is all about. A famous garden designer called Russell Page once said that close to a house the structures and plants should reflect the formal geometry of the home, and further away they should reflect the natural geometry of Nature. ![]() The function of the foundation planting you do is to solve that problem. Those two things – the irregular forms of Nature and the strict geometry of architecture – don’t fit together very well. Your home is all about straight lines, with perhaps rounded arches and circles added. Trees and plants come in every shape, but straight lines and perfect geometry is not a feature of natural things. In a few words, foundation planting is the plants you put immediately around your home, but why is it important, and why are some plants better suited for it than others? Why Do You Need Foundation Planting?įirst, consider your home standing on its lot – big or small. So let’s talk about this, and look at the features of plants you can choose for this important task. Experienced gardeners will know exactly what we are talking about, but new gardeners may be a little mystified. Specific epithet means of Virginia.In the extended plant descriptions and advice which are a unique feature of The Tree Center website – and a great resource for our customers – we often describe a plant as being ‘suitable for foundation planting’. ![]() ![]() Genus name comes from the Latin name for the juniper. Berry-like cones are attractive to many birds. Female trees produce round, gray to blackish-green berry-like cones (1/4” diameter) that ripen in fall the first year. This is a dioecious species (separate male and female trees). Cultivars of this species often retain better foliage color in winter. Heartwood is reddish-brown and aromatic, and is commonly used for cedar chests. Gray to reddish-brown bark exfoliates in thin shreddy strips on mature trees. It is a broadly conical, sometimes columnar, dense, evergreen conifer with horizontal branching that typically grows to 30-65’ tall. Juniperus virginiana, commonly called Eastern red cedar, is native to Missouri where it typically occurs on limestone bluffs and glades, wood margins, fields, pastures and fence rows throughout the state except for the southeastern lowlands (Steyermark). ![]()
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