Garden Design Maine | Perennial Garden Designer in Limerick ME

Privacy Planting Brings Beauty, Color and Peace

Privacy Planting Brings Beauty, Color and Peace | Privacy Garden Design in Southern Maine

This front yard planting design in southern Maine was created to provide privacy, reduce road noise, and transform a collection of disconnected shrubs into a cohesive landscape garden.

The homeowner contacted Garden Design Maine after noticing that increasing traffic on a nearby road was affecting the sense of peace in their yard. The existing planting consisted of a row of lilacs and Rose of Sharon shrubs, each planted in its own separate mulched circle. While the shrubs themselves were healthy, the layout lacked visual cohesion and did little to create the privacy the homeowner wanted.

Garden Design Maine developed a new planting plan that would transform the space into a unified 1,000-square-foot garden designed to provide privacy, seasonal beauty, and year-round interest.

Garden Design Goals

The goal of the redesign was to create a planting that would improve privacy while adding structure and seasonal beauty to the front yard landscape. Key design priorities included:

Create a cohesive planting design rather than isolated shrubs
Provide increased privacy from the nearby road
Help soften traffic noise with layered plantings
Incorporate shrubs and plants that offer four seasons of interest
Retain and reuse healthy existing shrubs where possible
Develop a planting plan suited to Maine’s climate and growing conditions

Before the Garden Redesign

Prior to the redesign, the front yard contained a simple row of lilacs and Rose of Sharon shrubs planted along the roadside. Each shrub was surrounded by its own small mulched circle, which created a scattered look rather than a unified garden.

While several of the shrubs were healthy and worth preserving, the planting arrangement did little to define the space or provide meaningful privacy from passing traffic. The homeowner wanted the front yard to feel more like a garden and less like a row of individual shrubs.

The solution was to remove portions of the lawn and transform the area into a continuous planting bed that would allow shrubs, evergreens, and perennials to work together as a cohesive landscape design.

Layered Privacy Planting Design

The back layer of the planting includes narrow evergreen trees such as Taylor juniper and spruce. These evergreens will gradually mature to form a year-round screen that helps buffer the property from the road.

In front of the evergreens, flowering deciduous shrubs including sand cherry and hydrangea provide seasonal blooms and attractive foliage throughout the growing season. Variegated red-twig dogwood adds contrast during the warmer months while offering striking red stems during the winter landscape.

Closer to the road, additional shrubs and ornamental grasses create another layer of interest and texture. Spirea and ornamental grasses provide movement and seasonal change, while additional dogwoods help extend the layered privacy effect across the entire garden bed.

Fall 2023: Early Garden ProgressA photo taken in fall 2023 shows the garden just a few months after installation. The newly planted shrubs were settling in well and already showing healthy growth.Hydrangeas produced their first blooms during the initial season, even after a bit of browsing from local deer. Perennials were added throughout the garden to fill in spaces between shrubs and provide colorful highlights while the evergreen plantings mature.To enhance early spring interest, approximately 500 spring-blooming bulbs were also planted throughout the garden.

Spring 2024: One Growing Season LaterAfter one full growing season, the garden had already made noticeable progress. The shrubs and perennials increased significantly in size and established themselves well in the planting beds.All plants came through the Maine winter successfully, and additional herbaceous perennials were added in areas where spring bulb foliage naturally dies back later in the season. Bulbs including daffodils, tulips, and hyacinths provide vibrant early-season color before summer perennials take over.As the evergreens continue to grow, the garden will gradually develop into a mature layered planting that provides both beauty and privacy throughout the year.

Plants Featured in This Privacy Garden Design

The following trees, shrubs, and perennials were selected for their durability, seasonal interest, and ability to thrive in Maine garden conditions while contributing to a layered privacy planting.