Foundation Plantings

Simply put, foundation plantings are those closest to your home. They have an important job – they make your home more welcoming, soften your architecture’s hard edges, and ties together your house to the surrounding landscape of your yard. Unfortunately, many homes underestimate the impact of foundation plantings and leave the job to a few scraggly shrubs or undersized and underwhelming annuals. These poorly chosen foundation plantings just can’t pull off the job.

The place where your house meets the yard begs to be softened by greenery. As a homeowner, your goal should be a pleasing mix of evergreens, shrubs, flowers, and perhaps even grasses.

• Boxwood is a foundation staple. Boxwood can work as both an accent and a hedge. Easy to trim, it can remain compact and low growing. And they will keep your landscaping fresh even in winter when there are no flowers.
• Rhododendron is another favorite foundation plant. An evergreen, they have large clusters of flowers in spring, grow well in the partial shade of a bed near a home, and have attractive leaves. And, rhododendrons are native to the Eastern U.S. woodlands.
• Hydrangea flowers will pick up the slack when your rhododendron blooms are done. They can bloom from the beginning of summer until fall.
• Dwarf Trees such as a weeping Japanese maple or dwarf eastern white pine off to one side where you don’t block your windows add a bit of height to your foundation.
• Perennial flowers such as catnip, lavender, or sunset hyssop are hardy plants and they appeal to butterflies and hummingbirds.

Here’s a good rule of green thumb when choosing foundation plants: aim for 50% evergreens, 25% flowering shrubs, and 25% perennials so your plantings look good all year round. And make sure to slope your beds so the drainage moves water away from your home.

Need a little help? Augustine Nursery is ready to help you pick out your foundation plantings, and even design and plant the beds for you. Since foundation plantings stay in place for years to come, advice on plant proportions, layering, and drainage is important information we’re happy to be a part of. By industry standards, a well landscaped front yard can increase the value of your home by a national average of 11%, so it pays to invest in getting it right.