Enhancing Your Landscape with Evergreen Foundation Plants
In the world of landscaping, there's a key player that often takes a back seat but plays a crucial role in the overall design – the foundation plantings.
These evergreen heroes are the unsung champions of a well-balanced and visually appealing landscape. Let's explore the art of using evergreen foundation plants to elevate the aesthetics, structure, and year-round appeal of your outdoor space.
What Is a Foundation Shrub?
Evergreen foundation plants are a category of landscaping plants characterized by their year-round green foliage, which remains vibrant and verdant throughout all seasons.
These plants are typically strategically planted near the foundation of homes, buildings, or other structures, serving aesthetic and practical purposes. Their lush and enduring foliage provides a consistent backdrop for the landscape, enhancing the visual appeal of the property in all seasons.
Evergreen foundation plants are valued for their ability to maintain their greenery, offer structural definition to the landscape, ensure privacy, and require relatively low maintenance compared to deciduous plants. They play a fundamental role in framing and beautifying outdoor spaces, serving as the foundational elements of well-designed landscapes.
Structure and Symmetry: The Art of Design
Imagine your home as a canvas and evergreen foundation plants as the brushstrokes that frame it.
Evergreen foundation plants play a pivotal role in framing your home and enhancing its architectural features. They create a seamless transition between the natural landscape and man-made structures, softening the edges and integrating your house into its surroundings.
Tall evergreens like Arborvitae or Juniper can be strategically placed at corners to anchor the structure, while lower-growing varieties like Boxwood or Euonymus can outline walkways and entryways. By framing your home with these enduring plants, you establish a sense of permanence and elegance that boosts curb appeal.
Privacy, Peace, and Security
Evergreen foundation plants offer more than just aesthetic benefits; they also provide practical advantages. Privacy is a prized feature in any home, and evergreen foundation plants can act as natural barriers that shield your outdoor space from prying eyes.
Dense and verdant, they create a green wall that offers seclusion, making your backyard or patio a tranquil oasis. Additionally, these plants can contribute to home security by limiting visibility from the street, deterring potential intruders, and enhancing your family's peace of mind.
Low Maintenance Beauty: Enjoying the Outdoors, Not Just Working on Them
Gardening enthusiasts and landscape novices alike will appreciate the low maintenance requirements of evergreen foundation plants.
Unlike deciduous trees and shrubs that shed their leaves in the fall, evergreens keep their foliage year-round. This means no raking, seasonal pruning, and barren branches to contend with. By incorporating these low-maintenance beauties into your landscape design, you can spend more time enjoying your outdoor space and less time working on it.
In conclusion, evergreen foundation plants are like the reliable background actors that steal the show in your landscape. They offer year-round greenery, enhance the structure of your home, provide privacy and security, and do it all with minimal maintenance.
So, when planning your landscaping project, don't underestimate the power of these timeless and versatile plants. By selecting the right evergreen varieties and placing them strategically, you'll create a landscape that's not only beautiful but also enduring.
Top 10 Best-Selling Evergreen Foundation Shrubs
Boxwood (Buxus spp.): Boxwoods are classic evergreen shrubs known for their dense, compact growth and small, glossy leaves. They offer a formal and timeless appearance and are easy to shape into hedges or topiaries.
Yew (Taxus spp.): Yews are versatile evergreens with dark green needles. They tolerate pruning well and can be shaped into various forms, including columns and cones. Yews are also deer resistant.
Arborvitae (Thuja spp.): Arborvitaes can be tall, columnar evergreens that provide excellent screening and privacy. There are also varieties that are considered shrubs and are perfect low-maintenance options for under windows or around porches or decks. They have scale-like leaves and come in various colors and sizes suitable for different landscape needs.
Rhododendron (Rhododendron spp.): Rhododendrons are broadleaf evergreens known for their spectacular spring blooms. They offer vibrant flowers and glossy, dark green foliage, making them great for foundation plantings. Rhododendrons are slow-growing and are excellent low-maintenance options for busy homeowners.
Azaleas: Azaleas are prized for their elegant flowers that appear in late spring. They have glossy, dark green leaves and are available in a myriad of colors. Azaleas thrive in partial shade to full sun, adding year-round interest to your home.
Japanese Holly (Ilex crenata): Japanese hollies are compact evergreen shrubs with small, evergreen leaves. They are easy to shape and maintain, making them popular for formal hedges and foundation plantings. They resemble boxwoods and can be used as a substitute in areas where boxwoods don't thrive.
Pieris (Pieris japonica): Also known as Andromeda shrubs, Pieris offers clusters of bell-shaped flowers in spring. Its new growth is often red or bronze, adding extra visual appeal.
Dwarf Alberta Spruce (Picea glauca 'Conica'): This slow-growing conifer forms a neat, conical shape and is well-suited for smaller spaces. It's an excellent choice for adding height to foundation plantings or framing entryways.
Dwarf Nandina (Nandina domestica): Nandina shrubs feature delicate, lacy foliage that changes color throughout the year, from bright green in spring and summer to red and orange in the fall and winter.
Inkberry Holly (Ilex glabra): Inkberry holly is a native evergreen shrub with glossy, dark green leaves. It produces small black berries in the fall and is valued for its low-maintenance nature.
These evergreen foundation plants not only provide year-round greenery but also contribute to the overall beauty and structure of your landscape. Consider factors like sunlight, soil type, and space requirements when selecting the best plants for your specific landscaping needs.
Shop Foundation Shrubs Online Today
No landscape is complete without foundation shrubs. Luckily here at Garden Goods Direct, we have a wide range of foundation shrubs available for shipment directly to your front door!