Another way to envision yard transformation alternatives

Dear Yardener,

Is your Yardenality “Blooming Romantic” or “A Walk in the Park”? Based on our subscriber survey, chances are (60%) it’s one or the other, split about evenly among you. In my response to this week’s question, I’ll show how your Yardenality guides plant choice and arrangement.

Zoe and I so appreciate those of you who answered our recent polls! Your responses guide our content — as well as future offerings (more on that next time:)

Wishing you happiness in the holidays,

Heather

P.S. In case you missed it, you can identify your Yardenality in ​Design Shortcut for a Backyard Makeover: Yardenalities™ 2.0.​

P.P.S. Hit “Reply” to ask me a question about transforming your yard — and attach pics, please.

Dear Avant Gardener, The 30-foot fence that separates us from an elementary school blew down in Hurricane Helene. We’re talking with the school about building a new fence, but we’d like some help with this hill. Many folks plant Leyland cypress to create a privacy wall, which seems just okay to us. We’d love to stagger some plantings at the top of the hill to screen out the school. Obviously we can’t block out everything. As for the rest of the hill we’re thinking about tearing everything out and planting groups of grasses. Secondly, the south-facing border in front of our house is ratty. It’s about 15 feet and slopes downward. Help! — Anna, Asheville, NC

A Walk in the Park! I’m referring both to your Yardenality — cue the “staggered plantings” – and the ease of accomplishing your goal. All it takes is time or money — haha. But it’s true. Because the key to avoiding the ratty look in your front yard, as well as to screening the school next door, is lots and lots of mature plants.

For example, another Asheville homeowner planted 3,000 perennial plugs to transform their front yard. 3,000! And it looked fabulous in only three months. Starting with seeds instead of plugs, the same transformation would cost much less and take two or three years. Check out “Wow!” to see the results and link to detailed plant recommendations worth considering for your front yard. In the meantime, consider grouping your existing plants together; for example, consolidate all the clumping grasses in front of the fence with the shrubs in front of the house.

Your desired hedge calls for dense evergreens to screen the school and give you a sense of privacy year-round. Leyland cypress fits the bill and grows an astounding three to five feet a year, but it’s a sterile hybrid of two western North American trees, so probably won’t do much for the insects and other residents of your ecosystem. A better choice for your privacy hedge would be similarly fast-growing ​American Pillar arborvitae​, a cultivar of Thuja occidentalis, native as close as western Virginia. (Brodie eastern red cedar, which grows three feet per year, is a good substitute where deer are a problem.)

Just for fun, I played with Adobe to see how effectively a 20-foot single-species hedge would screen the school. What do you think?

The good news is that a 20-foot hedge almost completely screens the school, whereas the eight-foot maximum allowable fence would not. But the test revealed — in addition to my poor Adobe skills — how oppressive the towering single-species hedge feels at the top of the hill. (Imagine the full species arborvitae, about twice the height!)

Such hedges can work well in a level yard, containing the riotous flowers in a “Blooming Romantic” gardens and lending structure to restrained “Courtyard Chic” ones. They even work as a contrasting backdrop to a “Prairie Modern” style. However, I imagine when you call a Leyland cypress hedge “just okay,” you want a softer, more pastoral look — what I call “A Walk in the Park.” So I tried another mockup, staggering three each of four evergreens native to North Carolina.

Better, but only marginally. And although these species all make great, prunable privacy hedges — mixed or single species — most are only moderate growers, meaning one to two feet per year. While you’re aching to obliterate the school and get some privacy, that can feel very slow indeed.

At this point, I thought a better option might be to replace the fence and plant some more open, colorful deciduous trees. There are many options native to North Carolina, so I just picked a couple of favorite spring-blooming species and repeated them three times. (Notice how I’m using a minimum of three of each species? It’s called the Rule of Three and I’m not aware of any science behind it. It just works.)

Even better, right? But the fence is a little foreboding and moderate and slow-growing trees like these will take a long time to get full enough to screen the school effectively. In addition, fences are expensive. Maybe you could get the school to pay for the staggered evergreen hedge, instead, and then plant deciduous trees in front of them, like this...

Now, we’re talking! However, unless you can afford to buy 18 large trees, this vision is going to take a long time to become reality. So I tried one last option: mixing the deciduous small trees with the fast-growing single species hedge, either arborvitae or eastern red cedar.

Voila! I like this! How about you?

As for the bank, you risk erosion if you remove all the vegetation. Perhaps seed or plant into it instead.

Happy hedging!

— The Avant Gardener

Why, How, Wow!

Why?

I can almost guarantee your yard can be improved by adding more trees and shrubs around the perimeter. If you have a fence, arranging trees and shrubs in front of it will blur the edges of your property, making it feel bigger rather than smaller. If you don’t have a fence, trees and shrubs will provide a sense of enclosure — the very essence of the word “garden.”

The etymology of the word gardening refers to enclosure: it is from Middle English gardin, from Anglo-French gardin, jardin, of Germanic origin; akin to Old High German gard, gart, an enclosure or compound… The words yard, court, and Latin hortus (meaning "garden," hence horticulture and orchard), are cognates — all referring to an enclosed space. — ​Wikipedia​

This early concept of garden as enclosure is supported by recent research at Cal Poly Pomona’s Lyle Center for Regenerative Studies: The No. 1 most important element of a restorative landscape is “security,” defined as “encapsulating while revealing the immediate surroundings.”

We sometimes assume — in interiors as well as gardens — that openness will make a space feel more comfortable. But it’s often the reverse. You can see that the small garden area below is packed with elements — a fountain, a path, a table and chairs, and lots of lush vegetation — and it looks like a delightful, cocooning place to sit. In contrast, typical American suburban yards, with big swaths of lawn open to the street and neighbors, leave people feeling uncomfortably exposed and often go unused.

How

Whether it’s a line of one species or a more naturalistic, staggered mix of species, the larger (and more expensive) the shrubs or trees you plant, the sooner they will be tall enough to screen a view or give you privacy. This summer, I got tired of waiting for my blueberry shrubs to screen our driveway and replaced them with seven foot shrub-form witch hazels (Hamamelis virginiana), moving the blueberries where they could take their sweet time. It cost a fortune, but I am thrilled with my instant hedge.

And do not make the common mistake of planting hedges — or any plants — too far apart. This is a hard habit to break. Fast Growing Trees advises planting American Pillar arborvitae three-feet apart, which is only 75% of their mature diameter. Watch their video illustrating​ three-year growth​. (As always, try to source plants locally; unfortunately, native plants can still be difficult to find. Bypass the traditional local nursery, as well as big box stores, and search out the largest native plant specialist in your region.)

In England, where “hedgerows” parcel out the countryside, I saw “whips” — two to three foot single-stem shrubs — planted just 18 inches apart. You can create a hedge more quickly this way if you can only afford young plants; it's especially appropriate for spreading/suckering shrubs. (Here’s a video of an English gardener ​planting a hedge this way​.)

Wow!

Searching for front yard transformations, I found this gorgeous example from the North Carolina Native Plant Society. As I mentioned, the homeowner planted 3,000 plugs. They subsequently added another 1,000.

In addition to lots of plants, creating a path underscores the intentionality of this design. I strongly advise our students to create a path around their entire house, if possible. The contrast of light stone against green and brown is effective here, but leaving turf grass is an easy, excellent — and too often ignored — way to make a path.

For specific plants and other details, see the full ​lawn-to-meadow presentation​.

(I am remiss in forgetting to prompt you more often to join and participate in your local native plant societies; find yours via the ​USDA’s list.​)

Encouraging Ecological News

The recent birth of two endangered black-footed ferrets is good news for conservationists, as well as for homeowners plagued by gophers and prairie dogs. Their mother was cloned from genetic material from a female that died in 1988 without descendents. Her ability to breed adds much-needed genetic diversity to the small population of ferrets – and brings new hope for other endangered species.

The ferrets, which have been described as wiry, weasel-like and cute, once ranged throughout the North American Great Plains wherever they could find prairie dogs, on which they relied for food, specialists say. They have been reintroduced into parts of their former dwelling places in Wyoming, South Dakota, Montana and Arizona, according to animal research and conservation officials. — ​Washington Post​

The tiny population of black-footed ferrets will not soon bring relief to gardeners plagued by gophers. In the meantime, see my article, ​Why Managing Gophers Wisely Matters.