7 Foundation Planting Design Ideas to Upgrade Your Home

Foundation plantings tie the home to its surroundings, bridging the natural and built environments. The two go hand-in-hand for a space that flows with balance and smooth transitions. The foundation frames the home and lays the groundwork for the rest of the garden.

Often, foundation designs blend structural plants like evergreens (the bulk of the display) with looser, flowering shrubs as next in line. Perennials and annuals also accent with color and interesting foliage.

Take cues from your home’s style to inform the design. Whether streamlined and minimal or densely planted, incorporating elements of successful arrangements upgrades the appeal and creates an inviting tableau. 

Foundation Basics

Account for proportion to make sure the landscape “fits” the home. Preserve architectural features and views without covering them with large, house-eating specimens. 

A garden bed of six to eight feet or more is a good depth. Consider curved lines for an organic emphasis. Plan for maturity to give plants plenty of room to grow and to keep them from swallowing windows or entire beds. Add upright growers to soften bare corners and blank walls.

Incorporate the foundation into the greater surroundings by pulling beds into the yard and repeating specimens and color schemes. Draw from natural elements that reflect your area (native rocks, natural paving materials, and incorporating native plants and their cultivars).

Classic Hydrangea and Boxwood

Hydrangeas and boxwoods are a dynamic duo. The evergreens anchor the arrangement while hydrangeas add big, blooming color and lush foliage. The overall aesthetic is simple abundance and not overly formal. Hydrangeas are loose, while boxwoods tighten and tidy the border.

When the hydrangeas drop their leaves in autumn, the boxwoods hold down the fort. Low-growing options, pictured here, help buffer bare earth in quiet seasons. Hydrangea branches are interesting even in winter, sometimes with peeling bark or lasting dried petals.

Favorite boxwood varieties include ‘Green Mountain’ and ‘Green Velvet.’ ‘Green Mountain’ forms a natural pyramidal shape and grows to five feet. Prune it for formality, or let it be with its easy conical form. These vigorous hybrids hold their fresh green color throughout winter. For a mounding boxwood, look to ‘Green Velvet.’

Reliable and hardy white-flowered hydrangeas to pair with boxwood (really, any!) with interesting fall color for multiple seasons of interest include ‘Incrediball®’ and ‘Seaside Serenade® Bar Harbor.’

‘Incrediball®’ is a smooth hydrangea with massive snowball blooms in bright white that transition to mossy green. The giant blooms appear in early to mid-summer for up to two months and persist on the sturdy stems for added interest.

‘Seaside Serenade® Bar Harbor’ is a compact selection with characteristic dome-shaped mophead blooms. With loads of creamy white and green flowers, the shrubs overflow in borders but retain a full, leafy form that reaches three to four feet tall and wide. 

Waterwise Grasses

Water is a primary consideration for many growing areas these days, and flowy grasses step in as drought-tolerant ornamentals. Hardy stock and soft plumes add interest nearly year-round, even in dormancy.

Play off ornamental grasses with structural evergreens. Dot them with low-growing perennials with exciting foliage or flowers, like the mounding artemisia pictured here. Leave grasses standing in the fall rather than cutting them back; their blades and dried seedheads are fantastic in the frost. They also provide food for foraging songbirds, and habitat for overwintering insects.

Native ornamental grasses and their cultivars also suit their growing areas with little extra resources and are non-invasive. Switchgrass is a top performer with enough heft to support a foundation arrangement.

The blades of ‘Cheyenne Sky’ begin blue-green and transition to wine red in early summer, with plumes to match. ‘Northwind’ is one of the most vertical varieties, with fine olive-green blades. Leaves turn yellow and tawny in the fall for lasting appeal.

Hosta Brigade

With the right sun exposure, hostas make beautiful border specimens. Line the bed for a billowy, lush look from late spring through fall. Incorporate evergreens for punctuation and to carry the display when the perennials are dormant.

Hostas bring sculptural leaves that offer textural contrast and visual interest. Blue-green, emerald, and variegated foliage make them a versatile choice for grouped plantings. In early summer, tall bloom scapes in lavender or white float above the mounding leaves and attract hummingbirds.

Hostas prefers partial to full shade garden locations. Morning sun benefits bright or variegated varieties to retain color and vibrance.

Evergreen Partners

In moderate climates, zones 7 and higher, gardenia and distylium make a winning combination with hostas. Gardenia’s signature sweet fragrance drifts from white blossoms that pop against dark green, glossy leaves. Distylium has blue-green foliage on graceful, scaffolding stems. New growth emerges in copper, red, and purple, depending on the variety.

Dwarf conifers are also a good fit for hosta combinations. Dward false-cypress, with thread-like, feathery foliage, has a loose, unstructured, openly pyramidal habit. Their unique texture, mounding forms, and blue, chartreuse, or gold leaves provide high contrast.

‘Blue Point’ juniper has a columnar shape with blue needles and creates a focal point. ‘Blue Point’ is a classic Christmas tree shape with tidy, upright stems.

Juniper varieties also include low-growing, mounding, and spreading forms for infill at the foundation. Look for ‘Blue Star’ and ‘Angelica’’ for smaller evergreen compliments.

Narrow Border

This example situates the planted border between the home and a paved walkway. Many of us have small bands to work with, whether street side, due to hardscape features, or the position of the home. The key is to make the most of the area with strategic selections for a full, but not squeezed, look. Columnar, upright evergreens would add verticality to this composition among lower-growing mixed evergreens and perennials.

This format works well with background boxwoods (or boxwood alternatives) and a line of daylilies following the gentle curve. The fine blades soften the concrete edge. Balancing beds opposite the foundation draw the display beyond its narrow boundaries.

The perennial choice of daylilies brings long-lasting color during the summer and are most impactful in a mass. Each flower lasts only a day or two, with another ready to take its place. For a tidy appearance, deadhead spent blooms. These are tough, low-maintenance bloomers.

Agapanthus would be a match as well, with broad, strappy leaves. Tall stems hold globed clusters of tubular flowers, usually in blue-purple or white.

Architectural Plants and Pots

This minimal layout embraces the waterwise while highlighting sculptural specimens and incorporating containers. The simple features compliment the crisp white home and its distinct lines. 

Sculptural Agave

To match the peaked roof and nestle the home, a tall, columnar evergreen on the right corner would work. Juniperus virginiana ‘Taylor’ or ‘Skyrocket’ top out at 10 to 15 feet with deep green needles and a narrow, pyramidal form.

Agave has broad, structural leaves in silver and blue-green with sharp spines along margins and tips. Variegated varieties have gold and ivory stripes among shades of green in different striations. A handsome component, agave are also major focal points (just be sure to clip the little, spiny tips near walkways).

Using Containers

Containers are mobile architecture that enliven small and large spaces alike. Use potted arrangements to feature color, fragrance, and form – all adding seasonal dynamism with the ability to change. Consider container placement, accenting the entrance, or creating focal points to draw the eye.

Storybook Cottage

This aesthetic achieves the romantic in a small configuration with loads of climbing roses. Full, leafy greens balance the blooms. A shaped hedge also separates the home and garden from the driveway.

Climbing Roses

Climbing roses add dimension by taking the garden upward. The vertical growers bring unique forms, flowers, and fragrance. They brighten corners and soften structures (they even enhance facades, adding charm and drawing the eye).

Climbing roses grow beautifully on trellises, house walls, arbors, pillars, arches, and along fences. However, they don’t twine or vine naturally like other climbing plants; they need support, training, and tying to a sturdy structure. 

‘Cecile Brunner’ is a favorite for its clusters of small, silvery pink flowers and light honey fragrance. The blooms resemble miniature hybrid teas and emerge in abundance in the spring, with flushes through frost.

This is an Earth-KindⓇ rose rigorously tested for improved landscape performance. It requires little irrigation and no spray for pests and diseases. This conscientious, long-lived beauty is also one of the easiest varieties to grow.

‘Iceberg’ is vigorous, with a profusion of trailing white blooms throughout the summer. It fills the season with clusters of medium-sized, semi-double flowers with a light honey perfume. A pale pink center blushes the white blooms, and pollinators flock to them. ‘Iceberg’ thrives with a bit of neglect, tolerant of dappled light and less-than-ideal conditions.

Flowering Bulbs

Bulbs are an easy way to refresh the landscape. You’ll have to wait for the rewards, but the payoff is extensive, and the seasonal transformation is showstopping. Spring-flowering bulbs planted in fall yield weeks of color to bridge the cool and warm season. Don’t be sparing with flowering bulbs. Plant as many as you can for an abundant look, even if your space is small or if growing them in pots (fill them up).

Here, giant ornamental onions add flair and drama. Giant alliums are easy-to-grow perennials with dramatic flower clusters in spring and early summer. Purple, pink, mauve, lavender, and white globes top tall stems. 

‘Globemaster’ is a hallmark of giant ornamental onions and a recipient of the Royal Horticultural Society Award of Garden Merit. The hybrid has showy orbs that measure 10 inches across on stout two to four-foot stems. Deep lavender florets have a silvery sheen and pack the enormous spheres. The umbels are also very long-lasting, with new florets replacing the originals as they fade.

Play With Form

This design uses form and texture to create variation. The layered landscape involves incorporating different heights and habits with tiers of trees, shrubs, and groundcovers (including perennials and annuals). Tidy evergreens structure this display, while deciduous shrubs and perennials add large leaves and blooms for softness and color. Leafy trees – the primary specimens – create a frame and wed the home to its surroundings.

This is one for all-season interest as the deciduous selections transition to autumnal tones. The shapely conifers, both upright and low-growing, do the heavy lifting along with structural, bare branches and trunks.

Specimen Trees

Trees boost property value and provide cooling shade. So they don’t encroach on the house, opt for small to mid-sized, multi-trunk specimens like redbud, Japanese maple, sweet bay magnolia, and serviceberry to anchor foundation plantings for scaled variation.

Eastern redbuds (Cercis canadensis) are small understory trees native to eastern North America. Light pink to magenta flowers open along bare branches in early spring, with a long bloom time before leaves take their place.

New leaves emerge bright green with red tinges and age to a deeper green. In fall, foliage may turn bright yellow for good color. Numerous varieties provide heart-shaped leaves in colors from dark purple to lime green with shades of blush and melon.