Over the years, A South Charlotte homeowner (and beekeeper) had added various shrubs and flowers to their beds with varying degrees of success. They came to us looking to redo their front garden beds to add a sense of cohesion / intention to the plantings while being friendly to pollinators. Other requests included adding a sense of verticality to the left of the garage and keeping some of their elephant ears. The front yard was mostly west facing, but received full sun from mid day. Design challenges included poor drainage/wet conditions in the right front foundation bed and a Bermuda grass lawn (need to keep it out of beds).

To add cohesiveness, we used dwarf inkberry shrubs as the foundation shrubs centered on the bay windows. The dwarf inkberry grows up to 3-4’ x 3-4’ which will reduce the need for pruning. Additionally, as it grows natively in swampy areas, it will have no issues with the semi-poor drainage. Moving out, we added a range of low growing (<2.5’) perennials in front of the inkberries and interplanted them with 2 varieties of sedge to provide texture and act as a green mulch / weed suppressant. In the right foundation bed, which had the drainage issue, we used plants (swamp hibiscus, swamp milkweed, southern blue flag iris and virginia sweetspire) that can do well in both wet and average conditions.

For the front mailbox, we started by removing the weed barrier, which will improve the soil in the bed (better oxygen exchange and mixing of organic material) and installed 14” deep metal edging to prevent Bermuda roots moving in from the lawn. We then added a top dressing of compost and framed the mailbox with 2 Pink Muhly grass surrounded by Purple Coneflowers, Golden Fleece Dwarf Goldenrod, Purple Dome Dwarf Aster and Moonbeam Theadleaf Coreopsis.

To add verticality next to the garage, we used an evergreen Carolina Jessamine vine, which will grow on a trellis to be built by the homeowner, who is a skilled woodworker.