Give your boring side yard a makeover
It ’s easy to forget about side yards , those catchy strips of kingdom between the star sign and belongings line like the one you see above . For many of us , these skinny spaces are challenging to landscape . It ’s tantalizing to habituate them merely as passage or an area to quash wholly , where garbage and recycling bins are stowed and compost is piled out of sight . But they can be turned into a pleasant way to pass from the front chiliad to the back like this one in zone 5 Wisconsin .
Informal pathway
What was once a straight grassy path between well - mulch beds becomes all the more pleasant and rewarding with the addition of a flagstone pathway that snakes through layer line with true shrubs , annuals and perennial . Laying flagstone in concrete is costly and difficult . alternatively , lay out the path beforehand with a hose in order of magnitude to get a ocular sensation of how it will look and install it chintzily and easy on a crushed rock and guts bottom like you see here .
Pathway plant companions
Cheerful yellow zinnias and blue salvia , fragrant white calamint and good old ‘ Autumn Joy’sedumescort you along this route . But it ’s the hard - working shrubs that extend the weight of both bed : panicleand liquid hydrangea leading to Double Knock Out ® roses and dwarf panicle hydrangea . After all , is n’t the journey more important than the finish ?
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Meet the low-maintenance plants in this side yard garden
Invincibelle ® Spirit smooth hydrangea ( Hydrangea arborescens )
This hardy adaptable native shrub is the first - ever pink smooth hydrangea , develop loads of snowball - shape bloom from early summertime to frost . Dark pinkish buds open up bright pink , fading to diffuse pink and in the end to green .
TypeShrubBloomsPink blossom in former summer to frostLightFull sun to part shadeSize3 to 4 ft . tall and wideHardinessCold hardy in USDA zones 3 to 9
Double Knock Out ® rose ( Rosahybrid )
This is a truly care - innocent rose that will bloom from other summer until Robert Frost . It boasts excellent ohmic resistance to pests as well as blackspot and downy mildew diseases , and it look dear as a down hedging or as part of a mix with other shrubs and perennial . There ’s no need to cut off spent blossoms because this is a self - pick rose .
TypeShrubBloomsFragrant magenta - red double blossom from other summertime through fallLightFull sunSize3 to 4 foot . tall and wideHardinessCold intrepid in USDA zones 5 to 11
Salvia ( Salvia splendens )
These flush powerhouses provide uniform color from spring until frost . Sold as an annual , these tender salvia are pretty drought - liberal . However , some additional pee during the hot part of summer will help them stay look their best .
TypeTender perennial ( usually uprise as an annual)BloomsRed , cream , bloodless , pink , burgundy or deep empurpled blooms in spring to fallLightFull sunSize10 to 30 in . tall , 8 to 18 in . wideHardinessCold hardy in USDA zones 9 to 11
Profusion ™ Yellow zinnia ( Zinniahybrid )
For a front - of - the - border pa of colour , nothing beats this breakthrough series of lustrous and showy zinnias . With twenty-five percent - size flowers that cover the shaggy-haired plants all season long , this is one of the best and look great massed in a bed , such as lining a front foundation or add people of colour along a pathway .
TypeAnnualBloomsYellow prime from bound to fallLightFull sunSize12 to 18 in . tall and wide
‘ Autumn Joy ’ marvelous sedum ( Sedumhybrid )
A covered stadium of dusky pink bud that get on to rusty red flowers allow for an enticing meal for bee and butterfly stroke belatedly in the season . After a hard frost kills plants , the dry out stems provide wintertime interest . Cut them off in early spring to make way for raw growth .
TypePerennialBloomsDusky pink to corrode red in later summer to fallLightFull sunSize18 to 24 in . marvelous and wideHardinessCold dauntless in USDA zones 3 to 9
Calamint ( Calamintha genus Nepeta )
Mounds of gray - green foliage that ’s slighty fragrant when crushed are covered with white and sometimes lavender bloom all season . Bees love it .
TypePerennialBloomsWhite blossom in summer to fallLightFull sunSize12 to 18 in . grandiloquent and wideHardinessCold hardy in USDA zones 5 to 7
