Enhancing curb appeal with low-maintenance plants

A pet peeve of mine is seeing homes where the things they plant cover the front of the house or the entry. When we take the "mandatory front photo" for listing a home, if you can't see it because it's hidden behind large plants or trees, the listing doesn't get as much traction. Here is a great example of a home like this.

Planting taller things around the corners of the home or edges of the property frames a home better. It feels showcased instead of covered up. It also lets natural LIGHT into the house.

My neighbor previously lived on a large piece of property. She was completely burned out on yard work and maintenance. She bought the home because of its small yard, but over the years the shrubs in the front flower bed became unruly. Worse, because they were a flowering shrub, they were messy once the blooms were spent and she had no desire to pick them all up as they dropped. I made her a deal: If she paid for my purchases, I would do the work for free and replace her front flower bed plants with lower maintenance options and rehome the ones that I pulled out.

Before her plants were rehomed, her flower bed was messy and unkempt. The plants were the original shrubs the builder put in ten years earlier.

I visited Portland Nursery and consulted with the staff about our wish list.

1. Lighting conditions: morning sun and afternoon shade

2. NO maintenance plants

3. Dwarf or low-growing plants so they don't ever block the front of the porch

This is what it looked like before I dug out and rehomed her plants. (Note this is a panorama shot which is why the roofline looks broken. It's actually not in real life!)

The new replacements are: Orange Sedge along the front and Purple Leaf Hebe along the back. Flanking the walkway, in front of the two columns, I planted a Cham T. Red Star which is a showy dwarf conifer that grows a max height of 5' tall but only 2' wide so it will stay skinny and follow the columns vertically. Not only is this combination of plants low maintenance, it also attracts butterflies, bees and hummingbirds too. The plants in the back row will grow taller topping out at 2-3' high, whereas the plants in the front will only be 12" tall. This will make the porch feel more comfortable with a low line of plants creating its front boundary.

Here is how it looked in the winter... and a Spring version is forthcoming when the weather turns and I get some plants in those pots!

Next let's discuss your exposed flower bed space.

My favorite ground cover is Speedwell Sunshine ((Veronica Repens)), which requires virtually no effort and is low-growing with tiny yellow flowers. It spreads (although it's not invasive) and eventually covers the ground, preventing weed growth. It's a natural look that gives insects or tiny animals a place to shelter and hide.

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