Weekend Gardener

If you have ample property on one or both sides of your house, extend the corner plantings so as to improve appearances even more. You might call this “adding living architecture” to the house in order to make it look lower and wider. With geometric figures and illusions created by horizontal lines breaking vertical lines. We want our homes to look low and wide because that gives a feeling of stability. Hence, as a general rule, the more we avoid sharply pointed plants the more attractive our planting will be. Tall, columnar plants and those of sharply conical form are properly used in foundation plantings only when the house has tall narrow windows and doors and sharp pointed gables. It is also desirable that if you use them, some of the plants native to the area be of the same character. Plants can become rather incongruous in different surroundings.