A few times across the decades I've designed a garden with existing foundation plantings so wrong from inception, by the builder of course, they had to be removed. Hollies were the culprit, and damaging to foundation, sidewalk, driveway, and monetary damage to the home's value.
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Each time all foundation plantings were removed there was a husband squawking.
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Each time I said, "Trust me."
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Each time, once the plantings were gone, the husbands said, "Why didn't I do this sooner?" They liked seeing how pretty their home was, finally, after living in it for years.
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Huge lesson in this. Removing ugly improves a garden. Ironic, human intuition says, "I'll keep the ugly, better than nothing."
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This, below, is sublime. A delightful narrative in all sorts of directions via the pic.
What the home looked like, below, before foundation plantings were removed. Narrative is rather narrow.
More about this home, the Enos Kellogg Homestead, ca. 1784, here.
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Garden & Be Well, XO Tara
What a beautiful change!
ReplyDeleteWhat a beautiful change!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Tara! We pulled out some scrubby ewes, and transplanted a huge rhododendron (had to cut it back severely, but it looks great now), and a nice mountain laurel that unfortunately didn't survive the move. We also dropped the grade back to its original height. It had built up a lot over 250 years, and lowering it made the fieldstone foundation visible once again and dramatically improved our water issues in the basement!
ReplyDeleteWOW!!!! You are a genius!!!
ReplyDeleteI stumbled across this house a few months ago, while surfing online for old house porch images. I was impressed with the determination of the owners to return their house to the proud place that it once was.
ReplyDeleteThere are few "foundation plantings" I see that work, and everytime I see any, I think of Tara editing them out. Amen!
ReplyDelete