I woke up this morning thinking about our bedroom door. As I’m working on our bedroom, I’ll obviously need to get that door finished as well. That means building steps outside the door so that the door is actually usable. And then I started thinking about exactly how I want the landscaping to look. We’re in October now, and according to what I’ve read online, October through December is a perfect time to plant shrubs in this zone. (We’re in zone 8b.)
I’ve done a few mockups of the door in the past using ChatGPT, but those were just general ideas.
I won’t be pouring concrete steps. I’ll build wood steps to coordinate with the wood front porch. And the top landing will have to be taller to be level with the door opening.
But what I’m really wondering is what to plant in the corner. In that ChatGPT mockup, it put a little cone-shaped evergreen. I love that, but I want something much taller. I’m thinking that it needs to be four to six feet tall. It can’t be something that grows wide since it will be in a corner (not too close to the house, but still in a corner). And this area only gets direct sunlight early in the morning, and then remains shaded the rest of the day.
On our landscaping plan, the landscape designer had suggested an oak leaf hydrangea for that area.
I love oak leaf hydrangeas, but I definitely won’t be able to use one in that area.
That plan was made when there was a window there. Since oak leaf hydrangeas can grow to be 6-10 feet wide, that’s not going to work with a door there. The maximum amount of space I’ll have between the house and the edge of the steps is five feet.
Those four plants that he suggested to the left of the oak leaf hydrangea are Dwarf Burford Hollies.
That’s a beautiful shrub, but the mature width on that one is eight to ten feet, so I don’t think that will work, either.
And then the row of plants in front of those on the landscape plan are Japanese Boxwoods.
That might be my best option. I already know boxwoods grow very well on that side of our house because we have a ton of it on the side of the house. I don’t know if it’s specifically Japanese Boxwood or some other variety, but I’ve never touched it, and it’s thriving. The Japanese Boxwood grows to five to six feet in height, and four to six feet in width, but it can be pruned to keep it smaller.
I’m so out of my element when it comes to plants. If I have an area of expertise, it’s interiors. That’s where I feel comfortable and confident. But once I step outside and start thinking about plants, I feel so unsure of myself. I walk through a nursery and feel overwhelmed and unable to make decisions.
But maybe if I can just take this first step and buy a couple of plants to go around that bedroom door, get them planted, and then keep them alive, it will give me confidence to actually start doing some landscaping around the front of our house. It definitely needs landscaping! We’ve been in our house for 12 years now, and I’ve never planted a single plant anywhere. I really would like to change that, but plants make me very nervous. My track record with keeping plants alive is atrocious.
So if you have any other ideas of what I can use around that door, please let me know! Again, I’m in Zone 8b, and that door only gets direct sunlight in early morning. That corner between the house and where the steps will be is about six feet square. So, plant people, let me know what you think! What will be easy for this non-plant person to keep alive?
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Addicted 2 Decorating is where I share my DIY and decorating journey as I remodel and decorate the 1948 fixer upper that my husband, Matt, and I bought in 2013. Matt has M.S. and is unable to do physical work, so I do the majority of the work on the house by myself. You can learn more about me here.
