Foundation Shrubs? (Spring: buy, garden, poisonous)

[LJBMom]

Originally Posted by tycobb2522

If you have filtered sunlight and are going to import organic material for the beds as well as raise them, you have the perfect blank canvas. Azaleas are nice, and will do just fine if you provide the requisite organic material. Love the idea of Japanese Maple.

PLEASE do yourself a favor, and don't plant a 'hedge'. Spend the money to have a landscape design done that takes advantage of your home's exterior features and views from the interior. It is amazing what a difference it makes when you have a composition. Landscapes that play on positive and negative space, texture, color and scale are much more interesting than 'hedges'.

Other plants that you might consider are: arelia, aucuba, cleyera, viburnum, gardenia (standard and dwarf), and of course hollies. By the way, I would be very surprised if your existing hollies actually contributed to your foundation problems.

Get Texas Gardening by Neil Sperry, and Plants of the Metroplex by Howard Garrett; both are very good books.

I love the idea of Hydrangeas! They are such beautiful plants

Right now the hollies are in a very ugly hedge all the way across the front of the house and are about 3-4 feet high and cropped straight across. So, the last thing I want is a hedge. I am looking to create a much more interesting look, so combining all these plants will be great.

As for the hollies causing foundation problems, the foundation engineer was telling me that people shouldn't have any shrubs in front of their homes, that they cause more problems than people think. I didn't necessarily feel strongly one way or another about that statement, but I let him go on. He started talking on and on about the root systems/water/soil and my eyes just sort of glazed over and I felt like Charlie Brown listening to his teacher (mwah mwa mwa mwah mwah). All I got out of it was, okay I need to remove these hollies and start all over with some smaller, less invasive plants.

Also thanks for the book names, I will look for those at borders or B&N

Thanks everyone for all the suggestions, now I dont feel so stumped

[tycobb2522]

Keep in mind that most hydrangeas (that I'm familiar with) are deciduous. Also, I'm not going to pretend to be a structural engineer. However, I have read many engineering reports regarding new foundations and repairs, and most engineers actually recommend foundation plantings.

The fibrous root systems of most ornamental shrubs do not pose a threat to foundations, and actually help aerate the soil as well as provide shade around the perimeter. This helps maintain moisture content which minimizes soil expansion/contraction, if you make sure you provide consistent, even watering habits. Soil movement is the leading cause of foundation problems, and north Texas soils are notorious for their expansive qualities.

[LJBMom]

I went out this morning and bought the Plants of the Metroplex by Garrett to start with. I leafed through it and think it would be of good help to me. Thank you for recommending it. What I like about Garrett's book is its straightforward and he even says DO NOT PLANT on certain plants.

One thing I found out among all my researching is that Northhaven Gardens North Haven Gardens, Dallas, TX has a garden coach whom you can make an appointment with to help design your garden/space. She charges $50 and when you are done they give you a $50 gift card to use at their place. Sounds like a bargain to me. They dont require you to buy all of your plants there, so maybe theres a cheaper nursery in town to get a good deal on multiple shrubs. If anyone knows of such a place, I would appreciate any advice on that

[MurphyPl1]

North Haven has a great reputation.

[Grainraiser]

I agree. I love North Haven gardens and they run a A1 operation.

[PlanoGirl]

check out this link..."Outstanding Shrubs for Texas"

Outstanding Shrubs for Texas

We just tore out the ridiculous red-tipped photinias that lined our front house...a guess somehow when they planted them 30 years ago as sweet little 2 foot plants, they didn't realize that they grow to 15+ feet tall!

Anyway, so I am re-landscaping about 75% of the front. We have two shade trees also (one evergreen, one deciduous) and face north. I am loving the japanese aralia (shade-loving)...it's green broad-leafed tropical look contrasts great up against the purple of the chinese fringeflower already there. Also have a hydrangea (endless summer) that seems to be doing well. Also, just planted a Mr. Goldstrike aucuba for a splash of color.

That is fantastic about the North Haven Gardens coach....I wish I had done that before I started...hmm...might still do it!

[LJBMom]

Northhaven sounds like the place then. I know its been around for years, I remember it as a kid but my parents weren't the "planting" type so we never went there.

Plano Girl, I looked up those plants and I like that aralia broadleaf as well. I couldnt find the fringeflower in my book though, is that a perinnial? I would love to also incorporate some forsythia into the beds for some nice spring color. Im definitely going to need the garden coach over at NHG otherwise my front beds are going to be so mishmash!!

I think that red tip photinias look nice on the back side of a fence along an alley, but thats about it. I bet you had a fun time ripping those out!!

[Spree]

>> I couldnt find the fringeflower in my book though, is that a perinnial?<<

If it's what I'm thinking look up loropetalum - it's a pretty evergreen shrub that has great foliage throughout the year and also little deep pink fringy flowers in the spring.

[loves2read]

my husband cut down a row of photinas that we planted along our driveway fence line (on side of the house that faces the street) that were probably 20+ years old--they were clipped to be about 10 ft tall and were really dense but they had developed some type of disease (think cottonrot) that meant they were doomed....
when we had a new fence put in on that side--it was so pretty--we chopped down the photinas--took my husband an entire weekend to just cut them down to the ground level
we paid the yard guys extra to dig out the roots--and it was worth every dollar...

[BichonGirl]

Oleanders are a nice blooming shrub, they grow rather fast and bloom during Spring & summer through the heat. They grow 8-20 feet or you can buy dwarf Oleanders that grow upto 5 feet.
**Neil Sperry guide to Texas Gardening is a great guide book!