Matt wrote:

We are trying to come up with a plan for planting a bed along a north
facing garage wall along the front of our house. The garage is on the front
of the house (road side), but it is a side entry garage, meaning the garage
door is on the side, not the front facing the street. So now we have this
large plain wall facing the street that guests must walk around to reach the
front of the house from the driveway. There is a sidewalk that runs
parrallel to the wall, leaving a 6' wide (x 26' long) bed. The garage wall
is 24' long, two stories, peaks at the center about 24' above grade. The
wall has two windows, each about 6' in from each end, leaving a 12' space
between the windows. These windows are positioned kind of high, the bottom
of the window is about 5' above grade. It is a big, tall, ugly, plain wall
that needs some plantings to lessen its overpowering visual impact.
My wife feels that we should plant something tall at each end, between
the windows and the ends of the north facing wall, and also something tall
in the 12' space between the windows. And conversely, plant shorter plants
under each window. My wife was thinking about planting Emerald Green
Arborvitaes at each end, between the windows and the wall ends. These will
eventually get 10' to 15' tall and break up the straight edge of this garage
wall She then wanted to plant something shorter like boxwoods or similar
groupings under the windows. Then she wanted something taller between the
windows, but she didn't have anything picked out yet. This taller
tree/shrub would draw attention away from the big flat garage wall behind
it. She then planned to fill in the areas between with various perrenials,
grasses, rocks, etc, maybe a few annuals too.
Due to the fact that this is a north facing wall, and will only get sun
during the morning and evening, and shade during mid-day, the plants need to
be somewhat shade tolerant. What do you gardening experts think? Any plant
or grouping suggestions that would work well here? This is our first
gardening project and could really use some good suggestions.
thanks,
Matt





What zone are you in? Your description sounds just like my garage
arrangement. We've got red barberries under the windows. Not only do
they provide good color, they deter anyone from trying to climb into the
windows which is important when you have windows so far from the main
part of the house.

Good luck,
Laura B.