Foundation Plantings

My inspirations for our foundation plantings were:

• The front elevation of this house plan, with rocks and small evergreens.
• A planting near our deck at our old house with a mixture of cotoneaster and fountain grass.
• A hedge that I saw once that had layers of shrubs in different foliage colors, in this case green, purple, and yellow.

Hardscape and Overall Design

Hardscape includes a front porch and stairs, a sidewalk to the parking pad, and a side door into the garage. We curved the sidewalk for visual interest and to make it easier to snowblow. (You can’t see the side garage door in the photo below, which was clearly taken very early in the process!)

We also have a downspout in the corner where the house meets the garage, with the sidewalk between it and the yard so we had to resolve that drainage issue. You can also see the side door to the garage in the photo below, which was taken a couple of years after the one above.

We solved the drainage issue by running a pipe under the front porch and bringing it out in the middle front of the porch. We landscaped it with stones and called it our part-time pond, since it only had water in is after a heavy rain. It’s since grown in and is now just a rocky area with groundcover but it still solves the problem. The pond turned out to be both part-time and temporary. Digging out that “pond” resulted in a pile of dirt, so we added some stones and creeping phlox to duplicate a combination at the family cottage that we’ve always liked.

Below is the my original hand-drawn planting plan.

Since this is part of the landscape that we see everyday, year-round, I wanted to make sure it provided four season interest. And I wanted it to be lower maintenance (as always). The original plants included bulbs for spring interest, roses and spirea for flowers during spring and summer, and ornamental grass and cotoneaster for winter interest. For fall I tried to include shrubs that develop fall color. I also plant annuals in two plantings boxes at the base of the steps.

What I Learned

• Forget the estimated size on carpet juniper and cotoneaster. Since new plants will sprout where the branches touch dirt and root, the effective size is endless. Which is why all of the juniper and most of the cotoneaster has been removed. They just crowd out everything around them and I got tired of having to prune them every year.
• The rugosa rose also likes to spread. We removed some suckers and started another bed elsewhere. (Then we got rid of that bed because we couldn’t keep up with the weeds.)
• The mugho pines were too large for the area and gradually succumbed to pests so they’re gone now. 
• Angelina stonecrop is very pretty and spreads widely. We started with a single plant and now it covers multiple square feet. It doesn’t seem to crowd out other plants, which makes it a nice ground cover.
• Black fountain grass can be beautiful but does it like to seed itself! We continue to remove its various offspring and sequester them in their own bed elsewhere in the yard where we can enjoy them. 
• The spirea has spawned so many volunteers that we now have a low hedge at the back of the secret garden. We also put a few around the wellhead.

How It’s Changed Over Time

I finally got fed up with the juniper overtaking the area between the house and the sidewalk and we removed it all. It’s been replaced with extra perennials from elsewhere in the yard. We also put a couple of coreopsis ‘Moonbeam’ in. I love them but have trouble keeping them alive. Since pink is the dominant color (three roses and the spirea) I’ve decided on a pink, yellow, and white color scheme for this area.

Next we removed the juniper and all but one of the cotoneasters on the other side of the sidewalk to expose the decorative rocks and allow room for more interesting plants. I wanted to include something fall blooming, and thought about winterberry to provide some berries for the winter, but decided I didn’t have enough room. I had some perennials from elsewhere in the yard that needed new homes, so I worked as many of those in as I could.

We left an area unplanted so we could include stepping stones so we could cut through to the yard. (We had a way through before but it got overgrown.) We also put a bird feeder there so we can enjoy the birds in the winter and we won’t have to worry about the seeds making a mess of our plants. We’re adding a bird bath too.

We cleared out the bed during the summer, and in fall planted spring bulbs: rock iris on the rocky berm and a mix of daffodils, tulips, and crocus on the flat. We also planted a couple of mums; neither survived the winter but they were pretty in the fall.

The following spring I transplanted four Walkers Low catmint from the perennial garden. That garden was completely redone in a warm (yellow-orange-red) color scheme and the catmint just didn’t fit. Plus the catmint blooms all summer, so I thought it would be great up front. It introduces a new color to the scheme but I think lavender blends well with pink, yellow, and white. I planted sedum Autumn Joy — a plant we have a lot of — in amongst the bulbs while I could see the bulb plants.

The remainder of the plants went in during spring of 2026. Some were existing perennials I transplanted:

• Daylilies originally in the big island [link] that got shaded out. I had three varieties and only wanted the yellow and lavender ones here, so I had to wait a year to see what color they bloomed before moving them to their final homes.
• Purple coneflower originally in the perennial garden, then near the garage.
• Husker Red penstemon, to mirror the penstemon on the other side of the sidewalk.

Others I had to purchase:

• Dianthus Fire Witch, whose colors remind us of hedgehog cactus.
• Gaura, a plant we saw a lot of on a recent trip to New Zealand and liked the looks of.
• Creeping phlox, to fill in the awkward triangle near the parking pad.
• Coreopsis Moonbeam, to mirror those on the other side of the sidewalk.
• Some hens-and-chicks and an iceplant on top of the berm.

I tried to use perennials as much as possible, because planting annuals every year is just so much work. I did plant a few moss rose on top of the berm because we like those flowers but find it difficult to find places to plant them. I wanted some white creeping zinnia for the side of the berm but couldn’t find any. I settled for some white wax begonias.

We’ll let those plants settle in and see if any adjustments need to be made.

Plant Selection

The growing season begins with spring crocus and ends with autumn crocus. I planned the bulbs carefully so there would be different things blooming over a long period of time. I started with a broad mix of bulbs but the tulips and some of the others died out. The daffodils, hyacinth, and crocus have hung in there, except the crocus that got crowded out by the juniper.

I also wanted roses, but not fussy roses. I spent a lot of time researching and shopping for roses and discovered old roses that are grown on their own roots, not grafted, and a local Michigan company that grows these roses on their own roots. (They’ve since closed.)

Here’s the list of plants currently in the foundation area:

• Alchemilla Mollis (Lady’s Mantle)
• Angelina stonecrop
• Berberis thunbergii f. atropurpurea ‘Rose Glow’ (barberry)
• Calamagrostis x acutiflora Karl Foerster (feather reed grass)
• Camassia
• Coreopsis ‘Moonbeam’
• Chrysanthemum Whippoorwill
• Delosperma hybrid P001S ‘Fire Spinner’ (ice plant)
• Dianthus gratianopolitanus ‘Firewitch’
• Echinacea purpurea ‘Magnus’ (purple coneflower)
• Gaura lindheimeri ‘Siskiyou Pink’
• Hellebore
• Hemerocallis ‘Big Smile’ (daylily)
• Hemerocallis ‘Spiritual Corridor’ (daylily)
• Hyacinth
• Iris siberica ‘Butter and Sugar’ (Siberian iris)
• Iris siberica ‘Steve’ (Siberian iris)
• Itea virginica ‘Henry’s Garnet’ (Virginia sweetspire)
• Nepeta ‘Walker’s Low’ (catmint)
• Penstemon digitalis ‘Husker’s Red’
• Phlox subulata ‘Amazing Grace’ (creeping phlox)
• Phlox subulata (pink and blue creeping phlox)
• Rosa ‘Bonica’ (rose)
• Rosa rugosa ‘Frau Dagmar’ Hartopp (rugosa rose)
• Rosa ‘Louise Odier’ (rose)
• Sedum ‘Autumn Joy’
• Sedum ‘John Creech’
• Spirea x bumalda ‘Goldflame’
• Syringa x presontiae ‘Donald Wyman’ (Hybrid lilac)
• Sempervivum ‘Mount Usher’ (hens and chicks)
• Viburnum x Juddi (Judd viburnum)
• Picea abies ‘Nidiformis’ (bird’s nest spruce)
• Vinca minor