Utility Garden

Eye-Catching Appeal

Utility Garden

Explore and experience this enchanting garden that features low maintenance plants with appealing color, form, and texture. This eye-catching garden demonstrates creative ways to address functional and environmental issues and provides an interesting green buffer zone to soften the harshness of the house wall and the utilities' access points. The garden also offers many aesthetic pleasures and provides food, shelter, and water to attract and support wildlife.

Do you have an unsightly area around your home? Consider these creative solutions to address similar functional and environmental challenges.

Growing Conditions

The location of this garden on the North-facing wall of the Penn State Extension Offices in the Lewis' house presents many functional and environmental challenges:

Heavy foot traffic to access utilities
Dragging of an oil hose for oil deliveries
An unsightly electrical panel
Water, cable, and phone lines
Water run-off from the drain spout and pavement
Partial to heavy shade
Sparse soil over a rocky bed

Description

A paperbark maple tree, which anchors the garden, has been pruned to allow more light penetration. A gray dogwood shrub camouflages the electrical panel. A red dogwood shrub located along the back visually breaks up the large expanse of blank house wall.

The field stone path provides attractive and functional utility access. The drain spout is buried for its protection and to improve visual appeal. Evergreen Lenten Rose lines the front and side of the stone path. This plant is sturdy and flexible enough to withstand the weight of snow plowed onto the garden perimeter. The garden also features a variety of colorful perennials, ground covers, and interesting ferns.

Garden enhancements include:

A trellis adorned with household tropical plants in the summer and decorative wreaths with bird suet and berries in the winter
Bird house and bird bath
Custom plant signage using the art form, Zentangle

The garden is comprised of over 30 varieties of plants:

81% are deer tolerant
75% are native plants
62% tend to naturalize or form a mass that protects wildlife.

Background

Rejuvenation of the garden to address the functional and environmental challenges began in 2013. Perennials infested with goutweed and bindweed were removed and then replanted after the weeds were eradicated. The fieldstone pathway was laid and the drainpipe was buried. In 2014, the trellis was added to give dimension to the house's foundation. In 2015, plants for fall color and interest were added such as Hummingbird mint, coneflowers, and asparagus.