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Landscape Design Cacti & Succulents Design Dilemma

landscaping ideas-traditional or tropical or both

last month

We've taken out the old, contractor landscaping. Very little is remaining including a sago palm which we have decided to remove after a landscaper mentioned that copperheads like them (apparently due to the smell).

We want things to be NO or LOW maintenance and also detract the deer and snakes as much as possible. We live in zone 9A (SC). I don't mind cleaning beds out about once a year but that's about the extent of what I want to do. I had not planned to put much back but due to drainage issues we feel like we need some plants to help the sand/soil from completely washing away.

We had priced it out but it's too expensive to get anything done professionally. We have done a lot of updates to the interior and there is no way we would get the 20k out of the house if we had the landscaping done professionally.

Here are a few pics of the front. We hate the bed but due to cost it's going to stay. My thoughts are to 1) remove everything and put in pine straw OR 2) put the 3 grasses in one corner and a grouping of something like 5 philodendrons in a group and maybe another group of pincushion flowers. I like the drifts/groupings versus rows.

Similar to the front of the house. Thinking some combination of pincushion flowers, maybe a fountain, spiky grasses. I love the tractor seat plants but again worried about maintenance and it being low to the ground. I also thought about a large agave since those seem to do well in this area.

I had considered traditional looking plants (like boxwood along the front) due to the house style but a lot of people around us use a lot of tropical plants and I like the look because my preference is very modern, simple, clean design.

Any ideas around plants or design is appreciated. The weird area around the front (where the small window is) is very odd and no one in the neighborhood that has this house plan has done anything that makes this area look right and that is where I am really stuck.

I also have this planter that I would love to use (it was used in a previous house) but can't decide where I could put it. I thought about just putting a few grasses on the corner and placing the planter in that area.

You can also see the large drains but they basically have to stay. We got quotes and it was a lot of money to put in french drains and there isn't that much washing in that area.

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Comments (3)

gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
last month
" there is no way we would get the 20k out of the house if we had the landscaping done professionally. "

I doubt that is true. A professionally designed and installed landscape generally increases the value of the property well beyond the cost. And if you don't feel you can comfortably afford the whole package, go with just a master design plan that you can install yourself as time and budget allow. There is usually a very modest cost associated with that. As an aside, I often wonder why folks are reluctant to spend money beautifying the outside to the same degree they would the inside. It is an investment that typically has a very high ROI.

The architectural style of your home does not readily lend itself to a tropical look. It is quite cottagey or country in nature and I think a more traditionally styled landscape would suit it better
apple_pie_order
last month
Are the copperheads a once a week or a once a year problem? Landscaping to make your area inhospitable (no food for them) or to make snakes more visible could be done. My area has rattlesnakes.
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Things to consider: Is this area in full sun? Do you want high-maintenance or low-maintenance plants? Do you spend time out there in the winter? Do you want it to look good year-round? Of course bananas, brugmansias, cannas, elephant ears, gingers are quintessential for adding a tropical flavor, but die back with a hard frost and so dried leaves, stalks will need to be removed annually, but if you're up for that then go for it. Consider incorporating some glossy, broad-leaved evergreen shrubs, small trees, vines or ground covers for good year-round interest. I'd probably stay away from using prickly-leafed hollies or yuccas/agaves near a pool. Windmill palms are good because they don't get so huge as palmettos and pindos. Maybe you could work some Sabal minors in as they stay small -- but you may have lots of small seedlings to contend with. Are Sagos hardy in your area? Indian Hawthorn and Pittosporum are good understory, low-maintenance shrubs. Crinums are nice and have fragrant blooms. You could espallier a loquat along the fence or keep it pruned more upright. Just some ideas
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Some things that I have found that look tropical but withstand the 20's (we never get snow here and the ground doesn't freeze) are Castor Beans (I have Impala, which is burgundy, and Carmencita which is red...the trees can get to 20 feet in one season from SEED and if they freeze to the ground, they usually come back from the root, if they don't come back, just plant more seeds), manihot grahmii (hardy tapioca),weeping Callistemon (bottle brush), fatsia japonica (I have regular green ones and also 2 types of variegated ones) Variegated Cast Iron plants (the striped ones and the spotted ones called Milky Way), variegated Agapanthus, big variegated crinums and crinum procerum (red leaved crinum), Tetrapanax (rice paper plants), Egyptian papyrus (the big one, 10-12 ft tall) and its shorter cousin Umbrella Palm. For palms, we have needle palms, lady palms, pygmy dates and Med Fan palms that are hardy here. Korean Rock Ferns get big and stay green here. Philodendron selloum is a mainstay. Bananas stay up here year round, sometimes they lose the leaves to frost but the trunks stay and just leaf back out. Things that do well here over the growing season (March-Nov/Dec) and go dormant usually with first frost: brugmansia, elephant ears of almost all types, hedychium ginger, costus ginger (green amazonicus, spicatus and curvibracteatus), zingiber gingers, Alpinia zerumbet green and variegated (shell ginger), Alpinia formosana (pinstripe ginger), Kaempheria gingers (peacocks), and Strelitzia (orange and white). I am able to plant ground orchids like Nun's Cap in the ground in protected places under canopy, ditto Monstera deliciosa, and bromeliads (especially Aechmeas, Nidularium, and some Neoregelia.) Variegated ananas (pineapple) is very hardy here.
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Comments (10)
It is 7b/8a NE Atlanta and gets sun till 11:30 and then a couple hours of dappled shade. It faces S/SE. It belongs to my single son who isn't a gardener so this is my project and I live 150 miles away.This will need well behaved material. I'm looking to create a feeling of tropics that fit with the Asian design and also that fits in the neighborhood. Not so much a jungle-I've seen where pines and palms mingle as elevation changes toward a coast. There will be a rock "water fall" that will faces the front door. I've planted a needle palm have cast iron plants from my garden and hellebore to go under the pines. Holly, autumn and Jap painted ferns, big leaf blue and yellow type hostas, carex and coral bells will go there and down the falls area. To the left in front of the first pine is also a needle palm and than another in the middle of the open area. I've got a fatsia to go next to the pine and thinking elephant ears and cannas below the pine/palm, next to the 'pooling' of the falls. I think they will be easier to water together in that area. I plan to put a windmill palm in the corner of the deck and stairs. It's the open area that has me stumped. It needs to be low enough so as not to swallow the house. The needle palm and the sago thats planted to the front corner should be the tallest. The only other things that are a definite are some purple wandering jews. I picked up a couple of the newer endless summer and a gold dust acuba but thinking they should go more in the woods. The problem is I've succumbed to Lowes discount racks of 'last wilt and testament' plants that appear daily. I've been able to cruse a half dozen going back and forth from home every week. This was suppose to be a simple pull up a bunch of ivy and stick a few plants in but nooooo...... just couln't pass up 50 to 75% off and that got my gardening mojo going and I created a monster of a job that needs to get stuff in the ground now that it's in the 90s and little rain.
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Comments (38)
none of what you want is a cheap undertaking! But what the heck! why not call in a landscape designer? show him/her the pics that celery did. tell him you want something like that w/a pathway and designated front yard. what you need is some professional grading. (the people over in Landscape Design/ Garden dilemmas) could help you a lot better w/ideas. Maybe DigDoug will draw something up for you. he is a genius. over by the sunken in portion (which is fine. is it a cement slab? did you know you can paint and stencil that to look like tile? ) I'd get the yard graded so that it's flat and easy to walk around. I'm sure you could have drainage installed. then redo the deck w/some stairs that lead down to the patio. have a spa area, porch w/a swing, some chairs, a kitchen, tv, whatever you need. look into the grading option and landscape design. this is cement slab, painted and stenciled. tons of DIY's online (Royal Design STudio stencils, or Cutting Edge Stencils all have tutorials) you could even do a 'rug' and paint the surrounding slab a solid color
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Dig Doug's Designs
last month
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