How To Plan a Foundation Landscaping Design

OK Klass.....

I think I may have written about this last year....

I can't remember.....

So, if I did, and you remember, just skip this post and wait for the next one!!!!!

As I wrote a few days ago, I am going to go over the basics of planning a foundation planting.

I like it when the plants start low and increase in height towards the back of the bed.

The plantings I ripped out were all the same height.

I started with white flowering rhododendrons in the back row.

Next height down I installed white, dark pink and light pink roses.

The ones I used were Knock Out roses. As one of my readers pointed out, they tend to be idiot proof.

(My brother isn't having great luck with his, so I wonder what that says about him?????

He calls them Knocked Up roses.

He's a doctor, and that's his sense of humor........

Since he's my older brother, I blame my sense of humor on him....)

They are an old fashioned type of rose, so they open up to a looser flower than a tea rose.

Since these roses can grow quite large, I hack them back to the main branches every spring, before they start to leaf out, otherwise they would end up taller than the Rhododendrons 

This is the same shot, a few weeks apart.....

As the summer goes on, I need to give them a good pruning every now and then, or they will get too big.

If you plant them somewhere without something behind them that you want to see, you can just let them go to town!!!!!

Mine seem to like a good soaking every other day, as they are doing much better since I put in a drip irrigation system.

Like all roses, they need a certain amount of sun to flourish.

In front of the roses, I have a few perennials, like Autumn Joy, which is a type of sedum that can grow quite large,

 and I never remember that, and don't give it enough room.......  

source

It blooms in the fall, that's why it's call Autumn Joy!!!!!

I found a type that was a pinky purple rather than the more common red.

source

The above pictures of sedum are not from my garden but from the web.

That's because it's not fall yet.....so I can't take any pictures of it in bloom.....

I also planted some purple chrysanthemums, which I have to prune back a couple of times over the summer, so they don't get too leggy.

In front of the perennials I planted hosta plants.

I really love them as an edging along a path. 

There are larger ones along the path away form my steps, and my landscaper found some really small ones to form quarter circles at my entryway.

They frame the small round boxwood topiaries that flank the front.

These are sort of a pain to prune, but I got me one of them there electric charging small hand clippers which make the job much easier.

On both sides of the front door are large mountain laurels that were there originally.

I decided to leave them, and let them grow taller, because I like something higher by the entry.

They get a little taller every year, I am so proud of them!!!! 

I never used to like mountain laurel, but now I think they're gorgeous!

It may be that they just needed the space to fill out.

The flowers are quite spectacular, and bloom after the rhododendrons are finished.

I have three different colors.

There must be a graft on one of the bushes.

So,

that's just some basic info for ya,

hope it was some help, or at least a little entertaining....

on that note

Latah, Gatah