Any homeowner will know that a home is only as strong as its foundation. The same is true about your landscaping. While you may be most excited to fill your yard with beautiful flowers and showy ornamentals—those blooms are often more short-lived, and they’ll need supporting characters to really shine. Foundation plants—like trees, shrubs, grasses, and ground covers—create the basis for your landscape design and help to frame your home and integrate it in its surrounding environment. Keep reading for foundation plants that will help your yard look lush and bountiful—and, in turn, increase your home’s curb appeal.
1. Boxwood
Boxwoods make for an ideal foundation shrub. They’re hardy, classic, and you can shape them to your liking. Boxwoods make for a great border along the exterior of your home, and they create a solid, dense backdrop for other plants and flowers.
2. Azalea
Azaleas are a very popular flowering shrub—and for good reason. They’re known for their bright and full blooms, which come in a variety of colors, and they are sure to assist with your curb appeal when planted in your front yard. Azaleas start blooming in the spring and some varieties bloom again in the summer and fall.
3. Spirea
If you’re looking for an easy-to-grow foundation plant, spirea is a great pick. They’re fast growers, they have little to no issues with pests or diseases, and the flowers have a long bloom time.
4. Salvia
If you aren’t familiar with salvia, you may mistake it for lavender at first glance—and you wouldn’t be far off, as both are members of the mint family. Salvia will bring a bright pop of color to your landscape with their long-lasting blooms, and they attract hummingbirds, butterflies, and bees, making them a great addition to pollinator-friendly gardens.
5. Fescue
Fescue is a shade-tolerant, low-growing grass that can create a lush greenscape beneath your taller shrubs and flowers. The grass has a clump-forming habit, growing in feathery balls of foliage that are almost reminiscent of something out of a Dr. Seuss book.
6. Catmint
Catmint, another member of the mint family, is also a pollinator-friendly plant that is sure to turn heads with its vibrant and full flowers. Since the plant is drought-tolerant, it’s a great choice for beginner gardeners aiming to create low-maintenance landscaping.
7. Hosta
Hostas are a popular foundation plant, thanks to their shade-tolerance and their lush appearance. You can choose from hundreds of hosta varieties to find the color, texture, pattern, and size that best suits your landscape.
8. Panicle Hydrangea
Hydrangeas have long been a favorite for creating striking landscaping and increasing curb appeal, and this particular variety is an especially good choice for foundation plantings. Panicle hydrangeas are one of the easiest types of hydrangeas to grow and they’ll reliably provide big, bold blooms each year.
