Raised garden beds are the most popular way of gardening. Especially in the urban areas. Foundation plants should enhance your home. Make it more welcoming and, at the same time, tie to the surrounding landscape.
When planning to put up these plants, work with the architecture. As well as the overall style of your house.
For instance, your home could be characterized by formal symmetry. A center door with an equal number of windows lined up on either side.
If that is the case, you might consider a design of the frontal plants that has formal elements. These would be either sheared shrubs accenting the entry. Or mirror-image planting on either side of it.
On the other hand, if your home has an informal symmetry. Let’s say cottage-style homes and low-slung cottages. It would look best with frontal plants that are casual with asymmetrical schemes.
In either case, avoid competing elements that detract from the main entrance. Or the house itself. These would include tall plantings that block the view of your home.
You see, the area around the entrance is where your guests experience your landscape close up. Therefore, you should make this area welcoming with an interesting contrast of plant forms, flowers, foliage, color, and textures.
A stretch of bare wall between windows often invites a larger shrub. You could opt for a small tree or even a vine-colored trellis. Around the windows, be sure not to cut off light and air with plants that grow too high.
Tall plantings are suitable if placed at the corners of the house. Not only do they help soften the edges, but they also tie them to the landscape.
Moreover, they give the illusion of extending a small house and making it appear bigger. These middle-sized flowering plants would include dogwood and crape myrtle. They have a loose feel that is suitable for a casual cottage home.
With houses that don’t have a raised foundation to disguise. Or have handsome stonework to be showcased. It may not need more than the entrance and corner plantings.
A bed or ground cover or mulch may be all that is necessary to tie the two areas together. Which will make maintenance and mowing easier.
Having a raised garden right next to the foundation of the house is both good and bad.
First, it could dampen your wall and cause it to absorb moisture. As well as, the roots can grow right into the walls. Hence end up causing cracks or other dangerous safety hazards.
Laying gravel on the area next to the house will improve the area’s drainage. It would sort of act like a French drain.
Hence no stagnant water might cause dampening of the wall. Get a bucket and cut the bottom out. This will enable the roots of the plants to grow through the soil and anchor deep.
Thus, eliminating the worry of roots growing into the walls. Ensure there is gravel surrounding the bucket. Which should have various holes around it for aeration and drainage.
Use some fabric membrane to keep the soil in place. So, it doesn’t move around towards the side of the wall. As well as stop weeds from coming up.
Begin by backfilling with gravel, then put the membrane on top. Followed by more gravel. Then fill the buckets with soil and compost. And your plants are good to go.
When looking for the type of wood to use. Go for the untreated wood. This includes pine or redwood or cider. The weather is well. as well as last a long time.
The pressure-treated wood or any wood treated with chemicals might leach into the soil. Then the roots get to absorb them hence ending up in the plants. Which might be harmful in the long run.
If you are in the northern hemisphere, ensure your garden is facing south. This will ensure the plants get plenty of sun throughout the day.
If you build your raised garden in the north direction. It would be like creating a shade garden. Hence having to plant accordingly. Always monitor your space first to see how the sun plays around.
Another thing to consider is your irrigation process for the garden. Invest in the type of soil you are planning to use.
Since we feed the plants with nutrients through the soil. It should consist of good drainage, nutrition, and water retention. Compost also comes in handy with nutrition.
Mulching is very important. It is the organic covering for the top of your soil. It acts as a protective layer from the sun’s harmful rays.
As well as keep water in the soil without straws or wood chips.
Have a workable spacing between your beds. Leave about two feet in between for easy movement. While watering or weeding your garden.
The width of the garden should give room for reaching over the other side. Without straining.
When planting, think about the eventuality of the plant. This is how it will turn out once it’s fully grown.
Have your low growers upfront while the mid growers are in the middle. Then the long growers at the back. This way, you will avoid unnecessary shading.
With raised gardens, the theme is to ensure you are consistently growing the soil. Therefore, during winter or times when you are not planting.
Cover the soil with compost or mulch. They will enrich the soil gradually over time. You just want to ensure that you prepare and care for the soil. Instead of leaving it bare.
Label each and every plant that you are growing. This will enable you to know when the plant is ready. As well as how long it should take to produce fruit. This would apply to fruits such as tomatoes and peas.
Raised gardens are good due to providing good drainage for your plants. The plants also get plenty of new nutrients.
The reason is you are bringing in new soil. With raised gardens, you can either use walls or wood.
Moreover, they can be any size you would desire. Provided they are not so wide, you must step on the soil while tending to the growing plants.
Compacted roots in plants are the key reason plants fail to thrive. You want to keep the soil nice and lose all through the season.
The Versa wall has a beautiful texture with a charcoal color. Adding on to the aesthetic of the garden. Straightaway it gives you height.
They are also easy to put up. Begin by laying a foundation of sand and cement. Of which should be well leveled out.
These walls lock into each other. For extra strength, backfill the blocks with free-draining aggregate. Use geo fabric to keep the soil in place while allowing water to drain.
Begin by marking out the area you want the garden to be. You could use string or garden paint.
Dig out the grass, if any, in that area. Because the grass can grow through the garden bed. Hence become a nuisance to the growing plants.
Villa boards are a great, cheap, and easy way of separating the garden soil from the wall of the house. The soil being in contact with the wall will cause rotting. Especially if it is made of wood or palettes.
Use screws instead of nails to join the woods for a raised garden. The nails can easily pop out at the joints and cause injury.
The general rule of thumb when measuring how far plants should be from the house. It is to calculate at least half of the plant’s final width and then add a foot.
For example, if a shrub is expected to grow up to 40 feet wide. You would want it at least 20 feet from your home plus a foot.
The windows around your exterior will also need to be washed. Therefore, leave at least 3 feet from the plants to the wall.
Another thing to consider is drainage. Since when it rains, water slides off the edge of your roof. Having bushes and plants directly below it could destroy them. As well as erode the soil.
However, with the proper drainage system. For example, gutters, French drains, or pebbles allow water to sip through. You can plant it close to the house. The climbers can come in very handy.
Not all plants can be safe to plant near the house foundation. For example, tree roots are known to cause damage.
Even though it depends on the type of tree you plant, most of them are known to have aggressive roots. Which can make the foundation of the house weak.
If the tree’s roots are not attacking the foundation of the house. They will be all up in your plumbing system. These roots can tear through and destroy the plumbing parts underneath your home structure.
Moreover, tall trees can even damage the roof of your house. The twigs and leaves can start to accumulate on your roof over time. Which can cause roof sliding. Or they can seep into the gutters and cause blockage.
Harsh weather conditions can cause the plants near the house to fall through a window. How dangerous would that be?
Plants within 5-10 feet of the foundation of your house should be drought tolerant. Opt for shrubs that don’t go very high when grown.
For example, juniper or boxwood. These shrubs should have at least a 3-foot space between them and the house. To have ample circulation of air.
The evergreen shrubs are also good for foundation plantings. They should be placed at a minimum of 5 feet from the house because of their size.
Keep in mind that part of finding an up-to-the-mark foundation plant. Includes one that will thrive in the shade too.
It is a general rule that large plants are not appropriate to be planted next to the house’s foundation.
Always study the nature of the plant beforehand. This will give you a rough idea of how far you should go from the house.
The amount of spacing from the foundation of the house to the raised garden will also depend on the plants. They all mature and develop differently in terms of shape and size.
Proper spacing allows for the full development of your plants without crowding each other.
Good air circulation is good for both your horticulture and home. The space prevents moisture build-up that can lead to mold and damaging dampness. Moreover, insects like termites and carpenter ants get access to your home.
Ornamental grasses are good screening plants. Which provides a good desired volume. However, when starting them out, they must be positioned in two checkerboard rows with space between each plant.
Planting low-growing evergreen shrubs where the furthest mature edge will be between 12-18 inches. They are known to provide insulation from the cold winter winds. As well as cool down the house during summer.
The traditional advice on layering a landscape is to have the smallest plants in front and the tallest ones closest to the house.
This is so you can see the progression of the plants. However, this is not the case with foundational plants. Because the taller the plant, the further it needs to be positioned from the house.
Therefore, opt to begin with a wonderful line of evergreens from the house’s foundation. Then add volume with one to three dramatic plants.
Although this depends on the amount of space available. You want to be able to appreciate the great structure of these specimen plants.
In conclusion, the right evergreens give a foundation planting year-round structure. On the other hand, incorporating deciduous shrubs and perennials provides ornamental value throughout the year.
Choose plants with different bloom times from early spring to late summer. With colorful fall foliage and fruits during winter.