Thursday, August 25, 2011

Landscaping Decisions

The landscaping on the front of our house seems to have been a problem for most owners of our house.  In collecting photos, I found that it seems to run in a 20-30 year cycle.  There will be a photo with nicely manicured shrubs, followed years later by the same shrubs overgrown and dwarfing their allotted area, followed by a photo with nothing in front of the house.  (You can see some of this cycle in THIS POST, which follows the evolution of our house through photos.)

Currently, we are in the 'nothing' phase.  Our house is very symmetrical, and this is the one area of our property where I feel I should stick with a traditional landscaping plan.  The grade in our front yard drops off about three feet toward each side of the house, further complicating landscaping decisions.  We had brick and stone planters built in 2007 to help visually level the area and to keep whatever we plant in better scale with the facade of the house.



This part of the property is the only area where I feel the need to conform to a more conventional design.  To me, old houses need boxwood and that's what I had my heart set on.  After researching various types of boxwood, from traditional English boxwood, to American boxwood, to some of the more modern cultivars ... and I settled on Green Mountain boxwood.  It resembles American box, without the perskickety nature.  It is tolerant of a wide variety of conditions and is resistant to many of the boxwood pests.



I loaded Daniel up yesterday, and he and I headed to Roxbury Mills nursery in downtown Fredericksburg to buy our bushes.  They had eight beautiful ones in stock, and eight is exactly what we need, and I didn't want to let them slip away.  We paid for them, and put SOLD tags on them, and I will pick them up in a few weeks once the hot summer weather is behind us and planting conditions moderate a bit.  (The pots in the front of the house in the first photo are there to try out spacing to decide where the bushes should be planted.)

This is one more step toward making the front of our house a feature, instead of a work-in-progress.  It's about time.

16 comments:

  1. I have 500 Green Mountain boxwood in my Zone 5 parterre and they seem to be doing well!
    Your house is breathtakingly beautiful, my friend!

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  2. Boxwood is the perfect choice! I even love the smell of boxwood, although some people don't care for it. I have boxwood in front of my house too. My daughter went to grad school at UVA and there is boxwood everywhere, espeially at Monticello. The smell immediately transports me back there.

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  3. You certainly have the 'know how' to make things look the way they should. Takes me YEARS just to decide which bush to buy for heaven sakes.

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  4. I think they will be lovely! We have boxwoods in horrible condition in front of our house and I want them pulled out and something else there. I think they are really old and have not been taken care of correctly so it's time for them to depart. We have been here two years and hopefully this winter can do some more work in the front yard. It is always a work in progress!

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  5. I like boxwoods too! I can't wait to see them planted! How's the porch coming?

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  6. The boxwood will set off your home so nicely...it will be just perfect! I am so glad there was only minimal damage and all is well with the earthquake!
    Rene

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  7. I like the respect you have for your house and which is reflected in this planting scheme.

    It will be beautiful, I'm sure.

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  8. I love boxwood also. I have several of the Green Mountain in our back landscaping and I love them. They are what will go in front of my "in progress" front when we finish the our front porch.

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  9. I think you are doing the perfect touches to the home~ to make it traditional~ boxwood is a terrific pick~ Your home is so pretty~ love the character of it~~
    smiles
    Teresa

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  10. Agree with the boxwood...I have several Green Mountain as well. But I've found that you can't let snow sit on them...breaks out the centers and you lose the form.

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  11. They are going to be beautiful, the first time I saw your house, and those beds, I said Boxwoods, perfect, perfect choice!!!

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  12. Gosh, your house is gorgeous no matter what you decide to plant!

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  13. When I saw the pic, I immediately thought of boxwood, and your choice will be perfect! Of course, you must have a rose somewhere! Perhaps you could add a climbing rose on the corner. :)

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  14. My parents both loved boxwood, too bad Mr. Tide doesn't feel the same way! I think they will look perfect in front of your house.

    I hope you survived the big storm tonight...yikes, it was bad here!

    Kat :)

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  15. I think you chose the perfect bushes, Connie. They're going to look spectacular there. They'll be pretty all covered with snow, too...but we won't talk about that yet. :) I adore your house, too. Just beautiful!

    xoox laurie

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  16. How wonderful that you have those photos from the past. Old houses must change, I guess, according to their owners' tastes and devotion. Yours is not the original, but at least it's still standing. The beautiful mansion (divided into apartments) that I grew up in is long gone in the 60's urban renewal. So sad. My sister has obtained beautiful photos of it from the Historical Society of the town. My childhood memory did not do it justice.

    Your bushes are beautiful. I like the shape of them. Will you be keeping that shape?

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