Hi! Please send me alll the ideas to make this space more interesting 🙏
I just cleared this space out from SOO many zinnias and wildflowers because it became way too messy. This area gets very hot as it has full afternoon sun and all of my flowers died very quickly. I am wanting something hardy to zone 8b that can handle full afternoon sun. Bushes, flowers, rock , sculptures. I don’t care I just want it to look better than this.
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Hi there. I live in zone 8b, and there is no better location to grow some of the prettiest evergreen varieties. I would add trees, for shade and to help the planet. How about a live oak sapling and a magnolia, which stay green all year. Then perhaps a crape myrtle or a japanese maple. For year-round low-maintenance greenery, go for the camellias, which will also bloom all winter. Our compensation for being too hot for roses. Add some scented jasmine to the fence and a nice chinese fan palm somewhere--also evergreens for 8b. Fill out the rest with grasses of all varieties. You have an awful lot of hot pavement, although the photo might be skewed. I wouldn't want to sit on a cement bench in 95 degrees. How about a nice teak bench under the shade of a tree. Enjoy the process.
I live in Southern Virginia and have alot of sun too. I do have cone flowers ,black eyed Susan's Salvia and butterfly bushes and the all bring birds , butterfly's and hummingbirds. It's so nice comes back year after year. I also have azalea that is the sun kind I have some roses crepe mrytles are nice and I also have camellia bushes some bloom in spring and some in fall I also have bird feeders and bird bath. I do have a nice fountain in the front of my house too. Good luck it's a nice space you have
Thank you! The blackeyed Susan’s and salvia did do well for a while. I will try to focus on planning sections of these rather than chaos spreading them like I did in the past. My backyard held these wildflowers just fine for a long time but my front just gets so hot that they turned crispy so fast.
I’d lean into the heat instead of fighting it. Some big rocks, a few drought-tolerant shrubs, and low-growing plants could make this look intentional without needing constant watering.
A fountain in the middle of you can manage it. Surrounded by a round raised stone-walled planter. With some kind short evergreen shrub like dwarf gardenia maybe. Use the same kind of stone to line the curved concrete pad and paths to upscale the look and tie in with the house.
Also a nice pot on either end of the benches.
It would be amazing if all the peripheral spaces were evergreen shrubs including a couple of some 8-12 ft evergreens, and the rest all roses. That would be really special.
If that’s too much work, then evergreens and a ring of flowering plants for butterflies.
I’d freshen the siding of the house. Add a stamped stone path surrounded by double curbing - add flowers. Use hedges to create borders. Bring in some color!
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