Native Woodland Border and Pond in Ellicott City
We developed a design sketch for this client. Their wish was to have some sort of transition from their lawn into the unorganized woodland area- a way to delineate the two areas in the yard and transition from a maintained area to an unmaintained area. They wanted low maintenance, shade tolerant natives and a water feature that they can see from their window and hear from their deck. Adding a water feature is a great way to attract birds and pollinators and wildlife in general. The challenges on this site are selecting plants that the deer won’t eat (they never read the ‘deer resistant lists’) that will tolerate shade conditions. This border was designed as a mix of styles between horticultural massing and randomized plantings to look more naturalized. We also wanted to add some different textures and colors into this mostly shade garden bed.
We helped with some drainage issues by installing pond cobble under the deck, adding a flagstone landing to help avoid stepping into mud at the bottom of the steps and buried the downspout to reroute the water further into the lawn.
Here are the plants we selected for the woodland border:
Viburnum prunifolium- nice spring flower and fall berries
Kalmia latifolia ‘Olympic Fire’- Nice summer flowers
Pieris japonica ‘Mountain Fire’ (not native but deer resistant and shade tolerant)
Little Henry’s sweetspire- pretty fall foliage, nice early summer flower
Mt Airy fothergilla- pretty fall foliage, nice early summer flower
Coastal leucothoe- nice evergreen foliage, maroon and purple fall colors
Henry’s Garnet sweetspire- nice fall foliage and early summer flower
‘Fanal’ astilbe- not native but deer resistant and shade tolerant- summer colorful flower for shade
Sweet Kate spiderwort- light green foliage, interested foliage texture, nice purple summer flower
Iris versicolor- spring flower, tolerates deer and shade
Christmas fern- nice foliage texture, evergreen, tolerates deer
‘Gold leaf’ Bleeding Heart- nice foliage color and great early spring color with flowers
Hellebore- winter color and evergreen foliage with interesting texture/
Euphorbia ‘Ascott rainbow’- non native but deer resistant and interesting foliage texture and color
Phlox divaricata ‘Blue Moon’- nice spring bloomer, deer resistant
Interested in a new landscape? Need help with ideas or help implementing your ideas- we can help!