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Updating your home with Renewal by Andersen of New Jersey & New York Metro replacement windows and patio doors allows you to creating an amazing street-facing appearance. While we generally focus on helping homeowners select appropriate styles and decorative elements that complement the home’s architectural elements and character, we’d like to talk about landscaping and the relationship between your windows and green spaces. After all, despite being in the throes of winter now, spring is right around the corner, so it’s time to plan now.
Naturally, if you have plants, shrubs, paving stones or other ornamental features in close proximity to your windows and entry doors, our installers will be sure to protect your greenspaces during the installation process. If you have a prized rose bush planted directly beneath a window scheduled to be replaced, you’ll want to talk to your local nursery consultant to find out if special care is needed, or the plant should be temporarily moved to protect it from construction dust and airborne debris.
If you’re considering updating your lawn and flowering beds as part of a full-home makeover, these tips will help you discover some amazing ways to create beautiful views from the curb and from inside your home looking outside.
Positioning for Safety
When planting shrubs or flowering plants beneath a window, consider the size those will be when fully mature. All too often we plant to look good today, and discover when it’s too late that you’ve crowded your shrubs so much they become unhealthy when mature. While you can use a variety of plant types in the same bed, you should plan for mature plants should be level with the window or slightly above. Trees or shrubs that will be taller than the lower edge when mature are better positioned to the side of your windows, unless you plan to use boxwood, or a similar shrub, that can be groomed and shaped without affecting its health and vitality. Plants should ideally be positioned about 3 feet away from the house to allow for good ventilation, safe egress during an emergency and to prevent roots from growing into or under the foundation. Planting thorny bushes or plants with spiked leaves under your windows can add a bit of discouragement to potential intruders.
Planting for Seasonal Variety
When you are choosing plants, remember that we enjoy all four seasons in the area. Select plants suitable for our variable climate. Also remember that towering trees can reduce the amount of direct sunlight that reaches your windows and your beds. Choosing the best glazing option for energy-efficiency includes considering the number of hours of direct sunlight each window gets. The same is true when drafting a landscaping plan. Here are three examples of nice plants to position under the window.
The pink flowering almond, which produces a profusion of pink blossoms each spring, has an appropriate hardiness score for our area and is a good choice for beds that receive full to partial sun.
If you’re trying to create a classic appearance, consider one of the many cultivars of hydrangea that have large (up to 12-inch) flowers and come in many interesting colors from white and purple to nikko blue. All hydrangea require moist, well-drained soil and partial sun to thrive and produce their blossoms each summer.
Looking for a plant that transitions from one season to the next? Consider cotoneaster coral beauty, a low-growing shrub that matures to a full height of 2-3 feet. It produces an abundance of white blooms each spring and beautiful coral-red berries each fall that stay bright well into the winter season and look beautiful glistening under the first frost and early snow. A delicate white edging accents the sturdy evergreen foliage. Cotoneaster, like the pink flowering almond, requires full to partial sun.
Planning a Front Lawn Master Piece: Weekend Projects
It doesn’t have to be expensive or time consuming to revamp your curb appeal. These tips and suggestions from HouseLogic will give you some inspiration for ways to transform your green spaces into amazing plantscapes with a few simple tools – wheelbarrow, spade, rake, shovel and garden hose – in just a few hours. Adding a berm, laying down a simple path with paving stones and building a simple retaining wall give you opportunities to showcase your lawn with varied textures, dimensions, heights and color palettes.
The Window-Landscaping Relationship
As we mentioned earlier, both plants and windows need access to natural sunlight, but natural and man-made structures can reduce the amount of sunlight that reaches your home. It’s important to consider the surroundings when deciding which Energy Star labeled window is a best-fit for every room in your home. Window styles that open outward, like casements and awnings, may determine which shrubs you want planted near your entrance and egress points. Sliding patio doors won’t interfere with traffic patterns or impact planter placement on decks; however swing-out French doors require enough “free space” to safely enter and exit your home. One the wonderful things about designing your windows is the opportunity to choose unique configurations that allow you to decide whether a hinged door or window opens from the left or right and inward or outward. Melding a combination of window types together for extra ventilation or expanded viewing areas is another benefit.
At Renewal by Andersen of New Jersey & New York Metro, we don’t do plants and shrubs, but we know everything there is to know about home windows and patio doors. Have more questions about the relationship between windows and landscaping? Give us a call at (866) 609-5033 or fill in the short form on this page.
Learn Everything You Need to Know BEFORE Buying Replacement Windows