The Golden State: Where & How to Live, Secure, Visit, Enjoy and Thrive in California
Small Home Landscaping
The flagged path at the entrance of the attractive home, below, is too prominent. It should be softened. The patches made by a few little circular flower beds have no effect on the path and only tend to cut up the lawn without adding anything of value. The path needs a flower border on each side, the border being edged with alyssum or even petunias for the summer. Growing irregularly, they would tumble onto the path, reduce its width and give a charming approach. In spring it could be filled with tulips, hyacinths or similar flowering bulbs, with an edging of pinks whose mat-like foliage would spread onto the flags. Two rounded Globe arborvitae should be set, one on each side just where the flagging starts from the sidewalk. With actual space two feet wide, the overflow would give a foliage depth of over three feet on each side.
Should one desire to have the edge along the path trim rather than irregular, any of the more compact annuals could be used, like dwarf ageratum. A band of pachysandra could be used and trimmed with the shears if winter interest is desired.
A flowering tree off the left corner would screen out the sights behind and give better scale to the house.
Though little more than five or six years old this weeping willow, at right, already has a spread of nearly twenty feet. It will eventually spread over a sixty-foot area. Both hedges will be covered and the tree branches will reach over into the next property. Lack of sunlight and root competition will weaken the hedges.
A better tree would be the white weeping birch. It would be more ornamental all year round. Red maple or sugar maple, pin oak or honey locust would provide a site for seats in the shade.
The leaves and flowers of this wisteria are all at the top; the lower part of the house is bare. By cutting one of the woody stems a few feet from the base, new shoots would be forced out. These could be trained up and across the space under the top windows.
