Residential Palmscape

[BeyondTheGarden]

Just moved from the PNW to NC, and Lord willing, I plan to purchase a home within the next month or so, and if numbers run the way I anticipate, I will be able to drop some money on landscaping.  

In stark contrast from my last "jungle garden", the focus this time is "Residential Landscape".  I am trying to get ideas, and looking for pictures of design concepts. 

Please drop some pictures here if you have ideas, themes, groupings of companion plants, borders, feature specimen installs, etc.  They don't need to be zone or region specific.

Here is a home I am considering purchasing, before and after some photoshop.  This is a quick generic idea that I haven't really spent much time developing, just drag and drop to get something on proverbial paper. 

 

Here are a couple other ideas, to get the wheels turning...  Please post more ideas if you have them!  Thank you in advance. 

 

 

[iDesign]

Congratulations on the clean slate! Photoshop is such a useful tool, and you did a great job on your simulation! I also use Photoshop and could make your yard look amazing with all of my favorite tropical plants, but the “zone” of course needs to be considered. Can you list your intended gardening zone, and any plant names you already know you like? There are several members on this forum who can recommend cooler climate plants that could work for your location… everything I would recommend would likely die immediately. ☠️

Design-wise, my initial impression is that you need more color. Palms are awesome but stand out even more when alternated with colorful shrubs (dark purple shrubs are a favorite of mine). I also would avoid repeating palms in a formal way. That also prevents the potential problem of a row of identical plants that were supposed to look the same but grew at different rates. Strive for natural-looking groupings with plants of different heights. 🌴 🌺 🌱

im curious about the continuous lawn between you and your neighbor on the right. Does a single landscaper mow both lawns as a continuous unit? If not, I would be tempted to plant things on the right side border to hide the neighbor house on the right. 🏠

As for the planting beds, I personally prefer large continuous planting beds along the borders over planting “islands” but either can look nice. My favorite “islands” are ones that we’re added to make a “pathway”. Hard to describe, but picture the remaining grassy areas as your “negative space” and see if you can make a “pathway” of some sort with them. Grassy pathways leading to the front door or gate to the backyard can look amazing. 🥰

Hope something in there was helpful!

[aztropic]

1 hour ago, Jesse PNW said:

Just moved from the PNW to NC, and Lord willing, I plan to purchase a home within the next month or so, and if numbers run the way I anticipate, I will be able to drop some money on landscaping.  

In stark contrast from my last "jungle garden", the focus this time is "Residential Landscape".  I am trying to get ideas, and looking for pictures of design concepts. 

Please drop some pictures here if you have ideas, themes, groupings of companion plants, borders, feature specimen installs, etc.  They don't need to be zone or region specific.

Here is a home I am considering purchasing, before and after some photoshop.  This is a quick generic idea that I haven't really spent much time developing, just drag and drop to get something on proverbial paper. 

 

Here are a couple other ideas, to get the wheels turning...  Please post more ideas if you have them!  Thank you in advance. 

 

 

Line both sides of the driveway, and road front with rarer, hardy palms to start! ( Mules,Butia,Tracheys)  Fill interior with marginals and zone pushers. 

 

aztropic

Mesa,Arizona

[Johnny Palmseed]

This is going to be in Fayetteville? I would recommend not going “all in” on palms since you will likely have issues with winter temps. Palms look great in the summer but a few cold fronts in zone 8 will take a toll. The pictures all depict perfect palms but your likely outcome will be quite different. You are free to spend your money however you see fit but you should probably consider using the palms as more of a focal piece in a group of plants that will do well there. That way, if you lose your palm due to the cold you only lose one piece of a bigger grouping. And like @iDesign referenced, you really should avoid planting a line of palms since it would be difficult to maintain the uniform look.

[Merlyn]

When working on a layout, keep in mind the regular maintenance that you'll need to do.  If you are avoiding the "jungle" look then you'll have to mow the grass a lot.  I found that a big island was okay, but small ones were incredibly annoying to mow and edge.  Big arcs are also easy to edge, and avoid any sharp corners or smaller indented corners next to a grassy area.  For example, the photo you posted earlier has a lot of interesting things going on...but would be a royal PITA to edge:

[BeyondTheGarden]

Thank you for the comments everyone.  I'm pretty comfortable with my understanding of what is reliable here.  Sabal palmetto, Butia, Trachycarpus, Chamaerops, Cycas revoluta are the mainstays around town, established specimens are common.   There are other obvious things that would make sense like Sabal minor, Rhapidophyllum, Sabal mexicana, etc.  This just isn't a gardening hot spot though, so the palms here are neglected and forgotten about, not really something to look at and try to emulate.  

I'm really looking for pictures to provide some inspiration, in terms of laying things out.  Developing the big picture, as well as some of the smaller spaces into kind of "garden rooms". Do you do a single specimen tree surrounded by grass or companion plants or boulders?  Palm islands?  Raised beds?  Narrow walkways with fronds in your face?  Bamboo to cover a boring vinyl siding exterior wall?  There are tons of options, they probably all have an appropriate utilization, and sometimes you see something and think, yep, that's cool, I want to do that.  

For large specimen palms, I can get 8-12' Sabal palmettos.  Instant statement palms.  There are smaller "45 gal" Butias that have 20" of trunk or so.  I'll probably be driving a few hours SE to the coast to find some larger inventory.  I only intend to be here for 3-5 years, so I need some instant gratification and don't plan on playing the 5 gallon game for the initial establishment. 

For smaller palms, where people would normally use adonidia or P reclinata in clusters of 3-ish, I would probably use Chamaerops or maybe a triple Trachycarpus.   For green walls, bamboo does a little too well here.  For colorful foliage, unfortunately for us folks that are <zone 9, we don't have a lot of evergreen options.  You can have color in the summer with Cannas, Caladium, Tradescantia, Ensete, etc.  But we can't do colorful cordylines, croton, bromeliads, etc.  That little nuanced stuff is up to me to figure out, I have some things that worked in the PNW and I'll be continuing to experiment.  

In terms of maintenance, there's really only one way I can go, and that's easier than what I had before.  I learned a few things in the 3 years I gardened in Washington.  Here, everything will be easy to run a mower and weedeater right up to.  That wasn't the case in my last place.  

[iDesign]

My favorite inspirational yard, without consideration for Zone is the garden of Dennis Hundscheidt:
https://www.facebook.com/DennisHundscheidtGarden/

What I love about his (relatively small) garden is how he made use of color and variety to make interesting pathways to explore.

With your Zone and time-constraints, here is one possible idea. This one preserves most of the grass (in an easy-to-mow pattern) - with tropicals mainly at the perimeters (to "frame" the house, and help hide the neighbors). Would have three main "specimen" palms + some fast growing tropical plants that work in your zone.

Just one idea.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

[Chester B]

@Jesse PNW, I like your initial design it's a great first draft.  I would probably avoid cactus near the mailbox though!

For year round color, I would think you would be able to help fill out the big stuff, with all the different Nandinas, Loropetalums, Illicum, Abelia, Cleyera, Carex and variegated Euonyomous

Some good shrubs for deciduous color - Barberries and Smoke bushes.

I think fewer islands but bigger in size.  My front yard is along the lines of what @iDesign has suggested, where I only have the one patch of grass, and she is correct it makes dealing with grass so easy.  I hate grass!  It takes me 5 minutes to mow and about as long to edge.  I use my string trimmer and start at one end and make a continuous pass back to my starting point.  Also makes it so much easier for watering, if that is a concern in that climate.

Odd numbers of plants always look best to the eye, unless its a very formal garden where symmetry is the goal.

 

 

 

[SeanK]

Nice Photoshop. Unfortunately, most won't grow in NC which is USDA 8a to 6a (maybe 8b outer banks?).

Your focus should be in ancillary plantings; BLEs that also provide color. Trunking palms will be limited to Sabal palmetto, T.fortunei, C.humilis and B.odorata. The latter 2 may require some protection every 7 to 10 years. 

Best of Luck to you.

[ruskinPalms]

I have had two houses now that I have tried my best to landscape going for a tropical look. The first house, which I don’t have any pictures of other than what you might be able to dig out of old posts on here from the mid 2000s, I went for the full on dense jungle look which had mixed results as it was just maybe a touch colder at my old house compared to where I am now so a lot of damage happened each winter making for a maintenance headache. Both zones where I’ve had houses are technically 9B. I’ve always done more of the island thing because you can get stuff started easier in small islands, like big slow palms etc. and then expand the islands as the garden evolves. My garden is not static and even my best laid plans fail from time to time which has overall made for a more organic, random garden (don’t even think about a stately even height palm row lol) which is more atheistically pleasing in the long run. I do like to preserve some open sky so no full on jungle for me these days.  My islands tend to border the edges of my little property but I don’t put them right in the edge of the properly line because I like to have full access to all sides of my landscape beds. I too have made beds to block the neighbors houses, but still left room to have a 2 or 3 feet of access between the bed and the fence. For my house these are drainage channels too and no way I should mess these channels up as hurricanes don’t play and can dump a ton of rain… anyway, here are some quick pics snapped this evening of my back yard. I’m always thinking about what to do next but I’m trying not to overdo things as it really is nice to see big palms in their full glory without them all being smashed together too much. Sorry for the rambling post lol

[ruskinPalms]

So maybe to explain a little more, I do like the islands over solid landscape beds that border the property. It gives the landscape dimension and depth and can create a layered effect. And think about site lines. I have forested area behind my house which harbors nice pines, oaks, Sabals etc. which are beautiful in their own right and add to the overall effect of my landscape.  Also, you don’t want to block all your air flow with solid walls of plants for a number of reasons (I already mentioned the more important aspect of rain drainage from your property). Having  little airflow windows allows wind through the yard which is good for a number of reasons but the most important may be cold air drainage routes on cold still nights. The cold airs sinks and drains the same way as the rain water. You are in a cold area and if you want to zone push a little  then you don’t want to create windless, cold air pockets in your yard. Don’t worry about wind breaks for advective freezes, they will kill tender stuff with or without a wind break during the bad ones that actually matter. 

[BeyondTheGarden]

OK @ruskinPalms, I have to humble myself to admit that I can't identify this, but what on earth is the giant trunked thing that looks like a peeled Jubaea x Butia?  Gorgeous yard.  Someday I plan on being down in the sunshine state growing a lot of what you've got there.  

Thanks for the photo.  That's what I was really hoping this thread would be about.  

[ZPalms]

25 minutes ago, Jesse PNW said:

OK @ruskinPalms, I have to humble myself to admit that I can't identify this, but what on earth is the giant trunked thing that looks like a peeled Jubaea x Butia?  Gorgeous yard.  Someday I plan on being down in the sunshine state growing a lot of what you've got there.  

Thanks for the photo.  That's what I was really hoping this thread would be about.  

The beautiful majesty palm 😍

[BeyondTheGarden]

If that's what it is, I guess I'm not accustomed to seeing them without mealy bugs and necrosis everywhere....  worst houseplants ever. 

[ZPalms]

Yall would be surprised by what can grow here without much effort. There are sabals, butias, trachys, and even more recently, chamaerops and cycas revoluta. Many of them have been here for years. I have yet to see some of the butias in the area that I've known for years ever defoliate, even last December when the temperature dropped to 8°F.

I think there are some interesting conifers that can grow. I've seen a lot of different interesting ones over time at nurseries. I know of a Colorado blue spruce in Pittsboro, an hour away from town, and there is another in town that's really fat but not tall. You wouldn't know it was a blue spruce if you didn't know; it looks like a big Christmas tree. I have seen at Greenside Up Nursery last winter that they were selling weeping blue spruce. Cunninghamia lanceolata is another that I've seen growing here. I think monkey puzzle trees are possible and interesting, but honestly, probably way too slow.

Edited September 11, 2023 by ZPalms

[BigBilly]

10 hours ago, Jesse PNW said:

Just moved from the PNW to NC, and Lord willing, I plan to purchase a home within the next month or so, and if numbers run the way I anticipate, I will be able to drop some money on landscaping.  

In stark contrast from my last "jungle garden", the focus this time is "Residential Landscape".  I am trying to get ideas, and looking for pictures of design concepts. 

Please drop some pictures here if you have ideas, themes, groupings of companion plants, borders, feature specimen installs, etc.  They don't need to be zone or region specific.

Here is a home I am considering purchasing, before and after some photoshop.  This is a quick generic idea that I haven't really spent much time developing, just drag and drop to get something on proverbial paper. 

 

Here are a couple other ideas, to get the wheels turning...  Please post more ideas if you have them!  Thank you in advance. 

 

 

That looks really good 

[ruskinPalms]

39 minutes ago, Jesse PNW said:

If that's what it is, I guess I'm not accustomed to seeing them without mealy bugs and necrosis everywhere....  worst houseplants ever. 

It is indeed a Majesty palm and yes they are terrible houseplants. It is definitely a great 9B palm when given water and fertilizer and/or rich soil and mulch. They are hardy down to brief 9A temps so a fun and easy to find zone push for a lot of people here in the southeast US and also California.

 

[BeyondTheGarden]

Another tinkershop job.  This is just the big stuff to lay  the overall macro shape of things, no fine details like edging stones or ferns or anything small.  I like sabals in a row, and a pair of CHamaerops on the left and right of an entryway.  Will probably be hard to find any that are already 5' tall or so, however. 

[SeanK]

I suggest you contact GarysNursery.com over in New Bern. It has many years experience growing cold-hardy palms in that area of the state. You will save money over the long term.

[BeyondTheGarden]

Visiting Gary's is on the to-do list once funding processes. I'm glad you drew my attention back to Gary's, I called him to ask about inventory and we talked palms for 15 minutes, very friendly guy and I look forward to going down there.  I don't believe he's on palmtalk is he?  He did mention the IPS.  At one point he said he's been photographing palms in NC for 40 years!