Landscaping along the side of the garage

After finishing the plant bed in the front of the house and turning the downspout into a natural rock river downspout, it was time to finish the landscaping along the garage. I wanted to continue and connect to what I planted in the front corner by the garage door with the natural down spout connecting the two. The existing plant bed was pretty empty already - there was one dead plant that I had to take out and the only other prep work required was needing to clear out all the landscape rock. If you're new here, you can read this blog post to learn about why I prefer mulch over rock.

I wanted these plants along the garage to flow from the front, but not be exactly the same plants since they're not visible together really. I started with a small Blue Spruce Globe right behind the downspout. The blue spruce globe provides a pretty blue color year round.

Blue Spruce Globe

I added ornamental grasses spaced out along the back. The grasses I used in the front of the house were all Karl Reed Forester and I decided to go with a different type here. I found Shenandoah Switch Grass. The grass has green leaves that will get red tips in the spring that darken through summer, and turn in to a burgundy color in the fall. Red and pinkish flowers develop in the summer.

Shenandoah Switch Grass

For middle height I used Sedum that I still had left over after splitting up the big plants from the front yard (check out this blog post to see how to split big perennials like Sedum!). After splitting them, I put them in a large pot just to save them to be able to use in these beds when I was ready. Sedum gives green color in the spring, that turns into a green flower in July, and turns red in the fall. Sedum will provide fall color to the plant bed.

Sedum

In the front of the bed I added my favorite perennial plant: Millennium Garlic. This makes a small grass like clump that starts shooting out flowers in July. At the end of July into August the flower heads turn purple. Animals hate the smell of garlic and don’t ever bother these. This will provide a nice purple color in the summer... and hopefully keep the deer away. (You will have to see the video Kiersten posted on our Instagram account of the deer eating my knockout roses up front! Follow us at instagram.com/foreverhomefix )

Millennium Garlic

I had some space left and went to the local garden center to search for some type of blueish green color that would continue a little blue tone through after the blue spruce globe. I finally found a neat looking plant called Silver Mound Artemisia. This plant looks almost like a silver blue spruce, but feels soft like sedum. It reminded me of something I’d see scuba diving in the Carribean. It matched perfectly with the blue spruce globe. I had to ask the garden center if it was deer and rabbit proof. They looked it up and it was. Bingo! I found the perfect plant for connecting it all together.

Silver Mound Artemisia

I left some space for some early spring blooming plants that I could plant in the late fall. Possibly daffodil bulbs later this fall. But overall, I'm happy with where I've left off and looking forward to seeing this fill in. Once I finished planting, I filled in around the plants with cedar mulch which I like for many reasons, but it adds another layer of color to the landscaping.

Here's the final look with the new plants a couple weeks after planting them with the Garlic and Sedum just barely starting to bloom.

Jake thinks it's a pretty great setting to relax by.

Old (and Dirty) Man Jake Resting in the Shade by the New Plants

Need a lawn fix? Here's what we used:

• Perennials of Varying Height and Structure for your Zone (we're in Zone 5)

• Cedar Mulch

• Garden Shovel*

• Fiskars Multipurpose Garden Knife*

*DISCLAIMER: This post contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, we may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. Thank you for your support!