Hi UBC Friends, I am in the process of replacing a couple of shrubs directly in front of my house. I live in a ranch style house located in Massachusetts, USA. The shrubs I am going to be removing are an extremly large Boxwood and a overgrown Dwarf Alberta Spruce. I was wondering is someone would be able to suggest a replacement srub or tree? I have attached an image showing what the setup looks like (not to scale). Any help or suggestions would be much appreciated. When viewing the image, I thought of moving the holly on the far right to the huge Boxwood location. May be able to put a tree in place of the holly to make it look proportional. Thanks Qman
I looked at a cheat sheet I found at the following website to check on the difference between proportion and symmetry: http://www.hortcourses.com/techniques/landscaping.aspx. Perhaps you meant balance rather than proportion? Design is terribly difficult for me, but my first guess would be to move the azalea on the right next to the azalea on the left and add still one more there. Azaleas are in bloom here, but I wonder if this can still be accomplished there before bloom. Apparently Massachusetts is composed of areas, which fall in USDA zones 5-7. Is the fact that the left side is now composed completely of deciduous material important in design? It seems that the fact that the façade is symmetric does not dictate symmetry in beds before it, but rather the style, whether the garden is formal or informal, would be the deciding factor? Taller trees on the far left moving to shorter shrubs by the stairs does not invite placement of a taller tree on the far right? By the existing plants, it seems that this site gets sun for most of the day. Since I am partial to maples, I would be inclined to try to add a Japanese maple, but the fact that the spruce and boxwood are overgrown suggests a tight space here? Would a red Acer, Cotinus, or Cercis work on the right? As an aside, this is the second time that I have seen this type of customized drawing, so I was wondering if one needs a program for this or is it available for free on the internet?
Hi Laurie: Thanks for the info... Balance would be correct with an informal look preferred. I am located in Zone 6. The site gets sun pretty much most of the day. Space is a consideration here. The whole mulch bed is about 50 feet in length X 5 feet in width. The boxwood has an estimated 5-foot diameter; the spruce has an approx diameter of 3 feet and is 6 feet tall. I will look into your suggestions for the right. As for the drawing... I posted one about 2 weeks ago which looked similar. I use Adobe Illustrator to quickly draw the plan. You may be able to download a trial version. Thanks Qman
Hi Gman, You might find these sites about foundation plantings helpful. See the last question at this first site. http://www.carrollgardens.com/eNewsletter/2005/01/050120-lib.asp http://www.taunton.com/finegardening/pages/g00003.asp http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/MG086 http://www.picturetrail.com/gallery/view?username=landscapedesignbylee Newt
