Designing landscape beds is a labor of love, involving much more effort than seeing a fun plant in a local nursery and placing it in the ground. One has to understand the goal of the landscape – looking for a lot of maintenance? color for just one season or all four? Our client was clear with her intentions; she asked us to create beautiful but low-maintenance landscape beds for a rental property she owned. We were tasked with saving the existing plants as we could, while adding complementary varieties to round out the freshened look. The project began with a plant inventory and orientation assessment; from there we created a plan.

The existing landscape was overgrown and not visually exciting. Some plants were too overgrown to stay, and others needed to be relocated. For the first of the front yard landscape beds, we brought in sandstone boulders (rocks require zero maintenance!) adding a pop of yellow which complemented the color of the home. We then rearranged some of the current plantings, allowing an existing Japanese maple to truly shine.  We planted Astilbe and Catmint to offer seasonal flowers and an airy look, as well as Coral Bells to provide year-round interest with their orange/peach colored foliage. We then rearranged the existing variegated Euonymus, to bring additional texture and evergreen interest. Finally, we left the iris tubers in the ground for a lovely spring awakening.

The other side of the front entrance included existing Boxwood hedges, Hydrangea and Magnolia which all looked great. We added Catmint and Russian Sage to the mix to blend with the updated design. Finally, we added a Globe Blue Spruce to draw the eye while walking up the front walkway.

The driveway wraps around the house and provided shade landscape beds, so we contributed to her Hosta collection while adding Painted Fern and Coral Bells. Catmint to hug the ground and add flowering color.

The backyard already had some unique features – a bubbling rock water feature and a patio. Unfortunately, the landscape beds were overgrown with Back-Eyed Susan; we removed them since they tend to take over and therefore would not support our client’s low-maintenance goal. A few existing shrubs were kept including, Yew, Hydrangea and Boxwood. Yarrow and Sedum were then added since they are very low maintenance, drought-resistant and beautiful. We added in a few boulders back here as well. Catmint was then wrapped around the perimeter of the landscape bed to create a lush border and to soften the large expanse of driveway.

The existing patio had a large landscape bed with a spruce tree, to which we added some plants to freshen up the space.

Finally, at the back of property we added two landscape beds at the corners of the fence, adding visual interest to what used to be a sea of grass. We created a tiered effect by bringing in existing plants (Euonymus and Liriope) from the front yard and adding new Hydrangea.

The start of a new landscape design does take more than the low maintenance plan our client was looking for. Plants that have been relocated or newly installed need plenty of water to establish well. Fortunately, we completed this project in the fall, providing the plants with a good base to take advantage of our wet springs. Once the plants have acclimated, her tenants will have little to do to keep the landscape healthy and beautiful.  Looking to spruce up your landscape beds this spring? Send us an email or give us a call at (317) 997-4803