Southern Coastal Home Landscaping, Second Edition: 38 Landscape Designs with 160+ Plants & Flowers for Your Region

Portfolio of Designs

This section presents designs for 19 situations common in home landscapes in the southern coastal region. You’ll find designs to enhance entrances, porches, and patios. There are gardens of colorful perennials and shrubs, as well as structures and plantings to create shady hideaways, dress up nondescript walls, and deal with slopes—all addressing the environmental challenges of the coastal landscape. Large color illustrations show what the designs will look like, and site plans delineate the layout and planting scheme. Texts explain the designs and describe the plants and projects appearing in them. Installed as shown or adapted to meet your site and personal preferences, these designs can make your property more attractive, more useful, and—most important—more enjoyable for you, your family, and your friends.

Southern Hospitality

MAKE A PLEASANT PASSAGE TO YOUR FRONT DOOR

Why wait until a visitor reaches the front door to extend a cordial greeting? An entryway landscape of well-chosen plants and a revamped walkway not only make the short journey a pleasant one, they can also enhance your home’s most public face and help settle it comfortably in its surroundings.

The curved walk in this design extends a helpful Please come this way to visitors, while creating a roomy planting area near the house. The walk bridges a grassy inlet created by the free-flowing lines of the beds. The flowing masses of plants, lawn, and walkway pavement nicely complement the journey to the front door.

Two handsome trees and a skirting of shrubs form a partial screen between the walkway and front door and the street. A striking collection of evergreens transforms the foundation planting near the house into a shrub border. Ground covers edge the walkway with pretty foliage and flowers. A decorative trellis near the driveway softens an empty wall and marks the entry. Bright hummingbird-attracting flowers or colorful autumn foliage covers the trellis year-round, enticing visitors to start their stroll to the front door.

Plants & Projects

Preparing the planting beds and laying the walk are the main tasks in this design. Comprising mostly trees and shrubs, the planting requires only seasonal cleanup and pruning once it’s installed.

AJapanese maple (use 1 plant)

This small deciduous tree will thrive in the shade of the taller birch, providing colorful delicate leaves in the fall and a graceful tracery of branches during the winter months. See Acer palmatum, here.

BRiver birch (use 1)

The multiple trunks of this deciduous tree display colorful biege, tan, or copper-color peeling bark. Leaves are glossy green in summer, turning tan or gold as fall approaches. See Betula nigra, here.

CCross vine (use 1)

This evergreen vine showcases trumpet-shaped flowers of yellow to red-orange in the spring. Cross vine will take the shade of house eaves. Train the young tendrils up the trellis to cover. See Bignonia capreolata, here.

DStella d’Oro’ daylily (use 15)

This cultivar is one of the longest-blooming daylilies, producing golden-yellow flowers from late spring to frost. Even without the glowing flowers, this perennial’s grassy light green foliage contrasts nicely with the nearby lilyturf. See Hemerocallis cvs., here.

EBurford holly (use 1)

This evergreen shrub is easily maintained in a conical form. Its large leaves are a great backdrop for its red winter berries. See Recommended Hollies, Ilex cornuta ‘Burfordii’ here.

F‘Helleri’ Japanese holly (use 10)

This evergreen shrub fills the space under the windows with mounds of small, shiny leaves. See Recommended Hollies, Ilex crenata, here.

GCreeping lilyturf (use 39)

This evergreen perennial makes a grasslike mat of dark-green leaves along the walk. Small spikes of violet, purple, or white flowers appear in summer. See Liriope spicata, here.

H‘Obsession’ heavenly bamboo (use 1)

This beautiful sterile Nandina is upright, compact, has dense growth with brilliant red new foliage, grows 3 to 4 ft. tall and 3 to 4 ft. wide. The superior color lasts through the summer and early fall in mixed to full shade. See Nandina domestica, here.

IVariegated pittosporum (use 7)

This evergreen shrub brings a dressy look and year-round color to the foundation with its rounded mounds of glossy gray-green leaves mottled with white. Creamy white flowers scent the air in early summer. See Pittosporum tobira ‘Variegata’, here.

JWalk

Flagstones of random size and shape are ideal for the curved walk. See here.

KTrellis

This trellis can be assembled in a few hours; it is easily removed in the future to repaint or repair the wall. See here.

VARIATIONS ON A THEME

While they differ in many ways, each of these entryway landscapes looks just right for its house and site.

Neat as a pin, this entry features a brick courtyard, a door-step garden, and a sweeping border lining a flawless lawn.

Lined with ornamental grasses, this design is at once natural and tastefully composed.

A curving stroll garden leads to this front door, its brick path lined with colorful annuals and perennials.

A shady welcome

If your entry is shady—receiving less than six hours of sunlight a day—try this planting scheme, which replaces the sun-loving plants from the previous design with others that prefer the shade. Overall, the emphasis is still on year-round good looks.

Shade brings out the best in many southern plants. In spring, shown here, the planting is awash with flowers. During the summer months, the dogwood and redbud make a lovely covered walkway to the front door, while shrubs, hostas, and ferns provide a cool display of attractive foliage. Much of the foliage carries on right through the winter; then the rain lily announces the summer rains, and the cycle begins anew.

Plants & Projects

AJapanese painted fern (use 12 plants)

The loveliest of ferns, its delicately colored deciduous fronds blend green, silver, and maroon. They also add a lush, rich look beneath the dogwoods. See Recommended Ferns, Athyrium niponicum ‘Pictum’, here.

BLittleleaf boxwood (use 2)

Clipped or pruned to a more natural shape, this evergreen shrub joins the mahonia in framing the entry. The dark green leaves exude a distinct fragrance. See Buxus microphylla, here.

CRedbud (use 1)

Small pink flowers line the branches of this small deciduous tree in early spring. Heart-shaped leaves turn gold in the fall. This fast-growing tree needs little pruning; just remove lower limbs. See Cercis canadensis, here.

DDogwood (use 1)

This is one of the finest small trees; it has white flowers in spring and foliage that turns crimson in fall, when bright red berries ripen. See Cornus florida, here.

E‘Elegans’ hosta (use 11)

The large, blue-gray, textured leaves of this perennial add color to the shade from spring until frost. See Hosta sieboldiana ‘Elegans’, here.

FLeatherleaf mahonia (use 3)

Leathery horizontal leaflets of this upright evergreen shrub make it a standout in the landscape. In early spring, it produces fragrant golden-yellow flowers, followed by showy clusters of blue berries. See Mahonia bealei, here.

G‘Encore’ azalea (use 5 to 11 depending on variety height and width)

These flowers shrubs bloom three times a year in spring, summer, and fall. Over 30 flower colors available. See Recommended Rhododendrons and Azaleas, Rhododendron hybrids, here.

H‘Roseum Elegans’ rhododendron (use 1)

This evergreen shrub features glossy leaves and clusters of pink flowers in late spring. See Recommended Rhododendrons and Azaleas, Rhododendron ‘Roseum Elegans’ here.

IRain lily (use 3)

This delicate-looking but sturdy lily can go dormant in zones 7–8. Evergreen in Zone 9–11, Trumpet-shaped flowers appear 2–3 days after a rain shower in spring and summer. See Recommended bulbs. Zephyranthes, here.

JMondo grass (use 89 sprigs)

The thin, leathery, leaves of this perennial create an attractive edging. See Ophiopogon japonicus, here.

See pp. 18–19 for the following:

KJapanese maple (use 1)

LCross vine (use 1)

MWalk

NTrellis

A Foundation with Flair

FLOWERS AND FOLIAGE DRESS UP A RAISED ENTRY

A home with a raised entry invites down-to-earth foundation plants that anchor the house to its surroundings and hide unattractive concrete-block underpinnings. In the hospitable climate of the South, a durable, low-maintenance planting need not mean the usual lineup of clipped junipers. As this design shows, a foundation planting can be more varied, more colorful, and more fun.

Within the graceful arc of a low boxwood hedge is a balanced arrangement of shrubs in sizes that fit under windows and hide the foundation at the same time. Larger shrubs and a small tree punctuate the planting and contribute to the variety of foliage textures and colors.

The predominantly evergreen foliage looks good year-round, and in spring and early summer, it is a fine backdrop for a lovely floral display. White flowers sparkle on the trees and shrubs, with spiky creeping lily-turf at their feet. Twining up posts or over railings, the Confederate jasmine greets visitors with its deliciously scented creamy flowers.

Plants & Projects

Once established, the plants in this design require little maintenance beyond seasonal cleanup and a yearly pruning. The boxwood hedge will need trimming once or twice a year. Trimming the spent crape myrtle blooms encourages more flowers.

ALittleleaf boxwood (use 32 plants)

A classic sheared evergreen hedge defines the foundation garden; this compact shrub’s small, glossy green leaves give it a fine texture. See Buxus microphylla, here.

B‘Compacta’ Japanese holly (use 1)

Fill the corner next to the stoop with this shrub. It can be shaped into a ball or cone by shearing. See Recommended Hollies, Ilex crenata, here.

CHelleri’ Japanese holly (use 3)

Smaller than ‘Compacta’, this evergreen shrub won’t outgrow its place, making tidy mounds of small, rounded, dull-green leaves. See Recommended Hollies, Ilex crenata, here.

D‘Acoma’ crape myrtle (use 1)

Dense clusters of white crepe-paperlike flowers light up this small tree in late spring. Dark-green deciduous leaves turn bright colors in fall, and peeling bark is attractive in winter. See Lagerstroemia indica, here.

ECreeping lilyturf (use 8)

This evergreen perennial makes a grasslike mat of dark leaves along the pittosporum hedge. Small spikes of violet or white flowers appear in summer. See Liriope spicata, here.

FRuby loropetalum (use 1)

An elegant presence next to the stoop, this evergreen shrub bears lacy dark pink flowers in spring and may bloom sporadically through the summer. For a low-water-use garden, substitute with Feijoa sellowiana, here. See Loropetalum chinense, here.

G‘Little Gem’ magnolia (use 1)

This smaller cousin of the evergreen southern magnolia fits perfectly at the corner of the house. Spring’s fragrant white flowers are followed by large pods of bright red seeds that songbirds love. See Magnolia grandiflora, here.

H‘Obsession’ Heavenly bamboo (use 3)

This beautiful sterile Nandina is upright, compact, has dense growth with brilliant red new foliage, grows 3 to 4 ft. tall and 3 to 4 ft. wide. White flowers in summer with months of red fruit in winter. See Nandina domestica, here.

I‘Flirt’ heavenly bamboo (use 3)

Stunning deep red/burgundy new growth that accentuates the dark evergreen foliage. The superior color lasts through the summer and early fall in mixed to full shade. Staying compact at 1 to 2 ft. high and 1½ to 2 ft. wide. See Nandina domestica, here.

JVariegated pittosporum (use 8)

This evergreen shrub brings year-round color to the foundation with its rounded mounds of glossy gray-green leaves mottled with white. Creamy white flowers scent the air in early summer. See Pittosporum tobira ‘Variegata’, here.

KConfederate jasmine (use 2)

On summer evenings you can enjoy the fragrance of this evergreen vine’s flowers. See Trachelospermum jasminoides, here.

Setting for a shady porch

Porch sitting, one of summer’s favorite pastimes, can be made even more pleasurable with this planting. Like the previous design, this one combines deciduous and evergreen plants and mixes handsome foliage and pretty flowers to look good in all four seasons. All of the suggested plants will thrive in a shady