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makingitourhome_gw

Looking for landscaping ideas - clueless

makingitourhome
10 years ago

Good afternoon everyone,

Next spring, my husband and I are looking to tackle our largest house-related project to-date: we are having our crumbling, decrepit landing ripped out and having new stairs, a new path, and new landscaping put in. I am going to be totally up front about this: I do not have a green thumb! I really do not know much at all about plants, and so, I am coming here because frankly, I don't even know where to start!

What I can tell you about our home: We live in upstate NY. Our soil is high-clay, but the drainage seems decent as we get little-to-no flooding/pooling in the yard. Our house sits on top of a little hill, with another hill behind it. The front of the house, where the plants will go, faces southwest, and it gets FULL SUN (I put that in capitals, because there is literally almost no shade all day. Our front door, which will also be replaced during this project, gets very hot in the summer.)

I am looking for plants that are ideally:
- Easy to care for
- A mix of evergreen and blooms
- In keeping with a New England/Cape Cod feel (I am from MA and our house is a Cape Code style)
- Won't get too tall: these plants will be placed in front of our front windows

Some of the plants I like the look of (but aren't sure of how well they would work in our situation) are hostas, boxwoods, hydrangeas, and ornamental kale.

Thank you in advance for any and all advice/feedback. I really don't have a clue about this stuff :)

I am attaching a picture of our house in the hopes that it might give you a better idea of what might work visually

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