When You Need to Consider Your Landscaping Plan

At Abrigo and Amy Dutton Home, we’re all about landscaping plans. There is a solid reason why you need to consider landscaping at the beginning of the design process for its simple, cohesive beauty. You deserve the landscaping to reflect the same care and attention since you work hard through your entire project to create something true to you in function, flow, and design. While we have all seen a house without any foundation plantings (a little naked), the house needs some “clothes.”  So the question is, when do you start the landscape plan? 

The answer begins with excavation. The underlying question is how you will enter and exit the home from all exits. The pathways should be biomorphic in shape and natural in materials. 

There should be a drip edge around the house of gravel and an overhang depth plus 6”, which creates a solution for the rainwater and garden pressing up against the house. Plus, the plants have somewhere to grow in a deeply mulched garden.

Layering plantings is the fun part of the design. Mix it up for interest and movement between texture, color, and height. Winter plants can include grasses (they will be brown but still interesting), junipers, azaleas, and rhododendrons. Be sure to have plenty of these to avoid creating that “naked” foundation. Tip: Evergreens can create a winter garden, so keep track of how many you plant! 

Annuals are a beautiful addition to color and texture. These can be planted as early as late May, and remember to replant Mums for the fall! Long and short, as they are excavating, come up with a plan for where you want your foundation plantings, the deck or patio, and how to enter and exit from the house.