When planting next to your house, it is not a good idea to plant large trees whose roots will infiltrate the foundations. Plan your garden carefully with big trees away from the house, and small shrubs and garden beds for plants near the house. You will want to maintain color and different textures close to your house, and planting a garden next to your house takes some planning and thought.
Plant Hydrangeas Right Next to Your House
The Hydrangea is often leaning right against the house by the end of autumn, and because it grows quickly, this is the best time to prune it. Learn more about hydrangeas in this post.
The Hydrangea is deciduous, tough, and blooms annually usually for a long period of time. Some are very cold tolerant, so purchase several different varieties to establish your Hydrangeas to bloom from February to November. The big leafed variety is really hardy, and when the season finishes in November it is time to prune them back ready to start again in February. Some live for 50 years with very little care and depending on acid or alkaline soil they usually flower in blues or pink colors. However, with a basic understanding of PH levels of the soil, (acidity), you can change the soil PH to get the color that you want. If you go to the garden shop and tell them that you only want blue Hydrangeas they will sell you Manutec 600 G Hydrangea Blue Fertilizer to keep your Hydrangeas blue all the time. Yes, they are safe to be right up against the house.
Winter
To take you through the winter months, create consistency of balance of various plants with different features. Choose evergreen foliage and some red berries to make a great winter display, and sometimes provide food for the birds. Acanthus are very hardy, and even an Oak Leaf Hydrangea. You won’t want to be working in the garden constantly so stick to the hardy plants with shallow roots. You also want neat smaller shrubs that won’t spread too far, but at the same time will allow you to avoid seasonal bald spots. To learn more about how to prepare your garden for winter, check out our post here.
What Can Be Planted Next to the Houses Foundation?
Your roofline can affect plantings close to the house, For example, a roof with deep eaves will shelter the garden and plants under it. You may need to choose some drought-tolerant foundation evergreens, and the best foundation plants are low-growing evergreen shrubs, that will look great when the visitors pull up at your door. Small conifers are extremely hardy, evergreen, and if you want to use one as ground cover they are really useful in keeping your garden green all the year. The right plants around your house’s foundations, help to bring the outside in often making your home much more attractive. The birdlife will come and eat insects and worms, so have a small water feature or birdbath in the middle of the lawn to provide water for the birds. Boxwood Shrubs (paid link) are low-growing and compact and make perfect shrubs for around your foundation and are easy to trim and don’t grow higher than 1-1.2 m. They like well-drained soil and are drought tolerant.
- Boxwood Winter Gem is round in shape with glossy green leaves that keep their color all year.
- Green Beauty Boxwood is a good low foundation shrub.
- Boxwood Green Pillow, low growing dense green shrub, looks like a pin cushion and grows to 30 cm.
- Buxus Green Gem, grows in a little green mound, is very dense, and is a good hedging plant.
You could also try some Japanese Yews suitable for foundation planting, as they are small low growing with green pointy needle-like leaves. If you have full sun in the front of your house the Japanese Yew will thrive there. There is also an English Yew, a low-growing ornamental plant with spreading growth, and this one grows a bit higher between 2-4 feet, so it would probably come up to the window sill of your house. Sometimes getting your plantings right is trial and error, and if you put an unsuitable shrub in, you can always move it later to another position in the garden.
Can You Build A Raised Garden Bed Next to the House Foundation?
Yes, as long as it is 4 inches from the bottom of the siding leaving some concrete foundations. When you raise the garden bed you do so by sloping it away from the house. If you are building a plant bed follow these steps.
- use moist but not wet soil
- turn the soil over to a depth of about 2 inches
- Add compost working it into the bed.
- Cover the bed with thick mulch
- Keep weeds away.
Raising the garden bed is a good idea, as it can hide some minor imperfections, but you will need to monitor it. Learn more about using raised garden beds here.
Instead of raised beds, many people now garden in corrugated iron tubs, if you are going to do this keep them at the back of the house, as they don’t enhance the streetscape.
Once your raised garden beds grow they will give a lovely integrated look to all your plantings, but you will need to monitor your foundations and check for the following.
- Make sure that water is not pooling near the foundations
- If you see water lying about slope the garden away further so the water moves away.
- Clean and check your gutters for leaves regularly to avoid gutter overflow.
- Have an annual Pest Inspection conducted on your home.
- Trim back any trees that may be overhanging your house.
Have some pretty welcoming plants on either side of your front steps, try Dianthus plumarius, or in a warmer climate white or blue plumbago, this will need annual pruning.
Can I plant a garden next to my house? It would actually be a crime not to, as the garden is what brings your house alive, and makes a house a home. However, there are a few rules to follow, and once you master them you will end up with the best garden in the street.
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