What native bushes should you plant next to your home’s foundation in Northeast Ohio?
A reader asks how to swap out the boring for the beneficial in this gardening mainstay. A recent article about replacing forsythia for spicebush prompted reader Jay in Lakewood, Ohio, to ask about what native shrubs or small trees are okay to plant near a house near the foundation. This type of garden bed along a building is known as a foundation planting, a type of gardening known as foundation planting. Traditional foundation plantings were designed to hide the ugly interface between the basement or foundation and the rest of the house. Local experts in landscaping with native plants, John Barber, Amy Goletz, Eddie Lagucki, and Dave Tomashefski, also suggested extending the bed away from the house to reduce maintenance and root damage issues. These recommendations were shared by local experts, including John Barber from Friends of Heights Parks and Friends of Lower Lake, Amy Gletz from Avonlea Gardens and Inn in Chardon, Eddie Lucki from Red Oak Camp, Eddie TomasheFSki from Red Oaks Camp, and Meadow City Nursery from Meadow City.
Veröffentlicht : vor 10 Monaten durch Susan Brownstein, sbrownstein, Susan Brownstein | [email protected] in Lifestyle
CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A recent article about forsaking forsythia for spicebush prompted this question from reader Jay in Lakewood: “What, if any, native shrubs or small trees are okay to plant near a house?”
Jay said, “Along the side of my house, there’s a number of non-native shrubs I’d like to replace with native ones as well (one of them was a monster forsythia I removed last year)…I don’t want anything that’d negatively impact my house’s foundation and am having a dickens of a time trying to find answers online.”
Jay provided some helpful photos and important site details, including that the narrow garden bed is “dry, mostly shady, clay, runs east-west, and is fairly well protected from the wind.”
This type of garden bed along a building is known as a foundation planting.
Traditional foundation plantings were designed to hide the ugly interface between the basement or foundation and the rest of the house and elements like vents and utility boxes.
A typical foundation planting when a subdivision is newly constructed consists of a few evergreens, like a yew, interspersed with a flowering shrub or two, such as rhododendrons and azaleas, and perhaps a tall grass like maiden grass (Miscanthus sinensis). To provide instant appeal at a new house, the foundation plants are placed to look good now, and over the next several decades, inevitably outgrow the space and become an ongoing chore to constantly cut back.
A more modern approach to foundation planting considers the ultimate plant size and the role of the plants in the transition from the building to the natural environment. Many homes, like Jay’s, have an attractive basement so the role of the plants to “hide” the house is less critical.
I shared Jay’s question with a few local experts in landscaping with native plants, including John Barber from Friends of Heights Parks and Friends of Lower Lake, Amy Goletz of Avonlea Gardens and Inn in Chardon; Eddie Lagucki, Director of Horticulture at Red Oak Camp; and Dave Tomashefski, education specialist at Meadow City Nursery and they had the following thoughts.
The first piece of advice was to extend the bed away from the house. A rule of thumb is to check the full-grown diameter of the plant and ensure there will be 18 inches between the mature plant size and the house. This placement will solve several problems: maintenance of the house and plant itself will be easier, the risk of any root damage will be lessened, and more sun will reach the plant. Barber adds, “We’ve had luck piling deep wood chips between house and shrubbery to keep weeds down - but don’t stack them up against the foundation.” Similarly, I recently put down hardware cloth and gravel along the edge of my house to keep the chipmunks from digging under the foundation.
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Gro-Lo fragrant sumac (Rhus aromatica). Barber suggests that a row of this plant is “readily available and pretty well-behaved.” As the name suggests, this cultivar grows to about three feet tall with glossy green foliage that turns red in fall. The leaves smell like lemons when crushed, and perhaps because of the scent, deer leave it alone.
Virginia sweetspire (Itea virginica). According to Goletz, this native shrub “grows four to five feet tall, but there are cultivars that top out at 2 and 3 feet” if window placement or other considerations call for something shorter. The white blooms, which Goletz points out would “pop” against Jay’s blue house, provide “nectar to insects and then seeds for the birds, and dense branching provides nesting habitat. It has gorgeous fall color to rival that of the non-native burning bush.” And yes, it is deer resistant.
Carolina allspice (Calycanthus floridus) is another fragrant and therefore deer-resistant shrub tolerates a wide range of soils, including clay. Goletz advises, “It’s on the taller side and can grow to six to nine feet, but it’s six to nine feet of gorgeousness!” She also says that its “Strappy, maroon flowers are very attractive.”
Witch hazel (Hamamelis virginiania). Because of the dry shade, Tomashefski immediately suggested witch hazel, an understory shrub that does not require as much water as spicebush. The pale yellow foliage would look magnificent against the blue house in the fall. Witch hazel is also on the tall side but has a slender habit like a small tree and is a relatively slow grower.
Lagucki added several suggestions for a foundation planting that receives more sun, including Northern spicebush (Lindera benzoin), redtwig dogwood (Cornus sericea), serviceberry (Amelanchier species), eastern ninebark (Physocarpus opulifolius), and inkberry (Ilex glabra). Redtwig dogwood and ninebark both provide winter interest with their showy bark, and inkberry is an evergreen in the holly family. Hydrangea arborescens, which Goletz says “is the only hydrangea native to Ohio,” would be a fine choice as well but is not deer resistant. Tomasheski thinks a viburnum could do well, but cautions that with the potential threat of viburnum leaf beetle, blackhaw viburnum (Viburnum prunifolium) would be the best choice. Northern bayberry is another suggestion from both Tomashefski and Barber, but care must be taken to ensure the plant is the native Myrica pensylvanica and not one of the many bayberries from other continents.
With two or three of these plants, say a combination of sweetspire and witch hazel fronted by a low mound of Gro-low sumac, Jay’s foundation planting would have white flowers in spring for pollinators, lush green leaves in the summer for bird habitat, and gorgeous red and yellow autumn foliage. Instead of merely hiding a house foundation, this planting would become the foundation of a native habitat.
Thanks to Jay in Lakewood for the question and to Barber, Goletz, Lagucki, and Tomashefski for the advice. If you have gardening questions, email me at [email protected].