Landscape Design for Sidewalks | Landscaping Designs for Home Gardens

Part of the You Can Learn Landscaping and Gardening series.
By Ken Brown
Editor, YouCanLearnSeries.com
Updated: April 26, 2008

Do you have a sidewalk that runs up to the house from the driveway? Does the sidewalk look bare or is there exposed foundation walls? This little Landscape Design for Sidewalks may be the perfect design you need to beautify your home. It can handle full shade, partial shade or even full sun. You can choose from a couple of different colors to complement the color of your home. Your friends, family and neighbors will compliment you on the beauty these easy to care perennials provide for your home.

Two Easy Care Perennials Add Beauty to Your Home

I have selected 2 wonderful perennials that don't require a lot of care. You only need to water during extremely dry weather. The Bearded Iris is the first to bloom every year. It comes out of the cold hard ground when there is still a chance of frost in the air. Even after it blooms the large leaves can hide home wall structures or adds greenery to the yard.

As the Irises are blooming the Little Princess Spirea is putting out little green sprouts. By early summer these large gorgeous bushes will be in full bloom. The Little Princess Spirea blooms in clumps of white and pink flowers. They don't grow too high, maybe 3 feet and they require very little care. Then in the fall the leaves burst into a beautiful shade of golden red.

Landscape Design Provides Beauty to Your Sidewalk

This design can hide the garage wall as your guests walk to your main entrance. Or, they are perfect as stand alone perennials to enhance the front door to your home. They are so simple to care for that you will be glad every year to enjoy their beauty without having to anguish over the work that is required for other less hardy perennials.

For this side walk landscape design I recommend the following perennials.

Use These Perennials
The Little Princess Spirea is a perfect easy to care for perennial for this sidewalk landscape design.	You can plant four Little Princess Spirea. The Spirea comes in many shapes and sizes. From low shrubs that are easy to maintain like the Little Princess and Goldflame Spirea. The Little Princess Spirea hides the foundation wall in our front yard next to the sidewalk and garage. In our backyard garden area we utilize the mutlticolored Goldflame Spirea to bring us multi-season joy as we sit on our patio. For this landscape design you can choose whichever Spirea best complements the color of your home. The Little Princess Spirea is more pinkish and white. The Goldflame Spirea has flowers with a reddish hue and then in the fall the leaves turn a golden sunset red.
The Bearded Iris comes in a variety of colors and will enhance any landscape design.	Next, you should plant four to six clumps of Bearded Iris. The Bearded Iris is a spring bloomer, that grows up to four feet tall with a spread of as much as two feet. Though the iris blooms in early spring like bulb plants, most grow from rhizome systems. There are some that grow from bulbs. You can get a wide variety of colors: blue, violet, yellow, purple, red, white and pink. Each clump can contain up to 3 plants.

This landscape design for your side walk or entrance to your home is designed for a space of about 12 feet by 3 feet. It doesn't have to take a lot of space. If you need more space add a Spirea and an Iris for every 4 feet you cover. The Spireas will sit along the side walk and the Irises will sit between the Spireas but set back about a foot from the Spirea.

Recommended Flowers for the Side Walk Landscape Design

Perennial	Quantity	Interest	Color
Little Princess Spirea	4	Spring Flowers to Fall leave colors	Pink or White
Bearded Iris	4 - 6	Early Spring	Many Varieties, blue, purple, yellow.

This is an image showing the plot design for the Landscape design for Side Walks with 6 Bearded Irises and 4 Princess Spireas.

This is the plot design for the Landscape Design for Side walks.

This is an image showing the Landscape design for Side Walks with 6 Bearded Irises and 4 Princess Spirea.

This is an image showing the Landscape Design for Side Walks and Home Entrances
Notice the leaves of the Bearded Iris making a crown over the Little Princess Spireas.

Landscaping Your Home with this Simple Landscape Design for Sidewalks

This landscape design will work anywhere in your yard, but I think it is perfect next to a sidewalk or home structure. The Spirea and Bearded Irises are so easy to care for and can hide defects and can endure whatever your children attack them with. Whether it is an errant bicycle, softballs or even basketballs. You won't have to be yelling at the kids all the time to stay out of the shrubbery.

It doesn't require a lot of plants so it shouldn't cost you a lot of money. Pretty much for every 4 feet of space you need one Spirea and 1 or 2 Irises. The Bearded Iris blooms in the spring and adds a level of interest that many people don't appreciate. You can see the insides of the flowers and can provide a great education for the little ones about flower structures. The Spireas add such beauty to a yard. After having Spireas in the front yard for about 4 years and seeing how easy they were to care for, we added another 4 into our backyard.

Give this design a try. I think you will come to enjoy the Landscape Design for Side Walks. It is easy care with just a little watering during dry periods. This design is definitely for the home do it yourselfer. It is easy to implement. The colors will add beauty for many years and you will love yourself for choosing this design.




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Landscape Design for Sidewalks | Landscaping Designs for Home Gardens

Two Easy Care Perennials Add Beauty to Your Home

Landscape Design Provides Beauty to Your Sidewalk

Use These Perennials

Recommended Flowers for the Side Walk Landscape Design

Landscaping Your Home with this Simple Landscape Design for Sidewalks

Great Gifts For Gardeners

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