To have your home looking and feeling completely, your decor and design can’t just stop at your four walls. Expanding into the exterior of your home is a great way to not only boost the curb appeal of your property, but to create an overall environment and experience that you love.
To help you see how this can be done on your property, here are three tips for landscaping close to the foundation of your home.
Choose The Right Plants Around Windows
Whether you have a large yard or basically no yard at all, your home is going to have space around the foundation where you can put your creativity to good use and make something beautiful. However, you don’t want whatever landscape design you employ to conflict with the use of your home.
With this in mind, Christopher J. Cohan, a contributor to This Old House, recommends that you take care when deciding what plants or other accessories you’ll place in front of the windows of your home. Ideally, you don’t want to choose anything that will grow too tall or too wide so that you can’t see out the window or allow the light to shine through. For this reason, choosing something that has more ground cover or that you can trim to stay below your sight line is ideal here.
Consider The Root Systems
For landscaping close to your home, one of the biggest factors you should consider when choosing which plants or trees to put on your property is how their root systems grow.
According to Amelia Allonsy, a contributor to SFGate.com, if you plant a tree or other plants that have a large root system when they get larger, planting them too close to your home could mess with your foundation or plumbing. Additionally, having a large rooted tree can also attract insects and other pests to make their home too close to your home, which could wind up with them entering your property.
For Close Plants, Make Them Drought Tolerant
Another thing you’ll want to consider when choosing what to use in the landscaping right near the foundation of your home is how much water those plants might need.
Ideally, Nikki Tilley, a contributor to Gardening Know How, shares that any plants that are within 5 to 10 feet of your house should be drought tolerant. This will allow you to not have to water them as much, since having a large amount of water near the foundation of your home could cause damage to it that you won’t want to have to repair.
If you’re wanting to do something more with the landscaping that’s right near the foundation of your home, consider using the tips mentioned above as you make your game plan.
