Virginia Landscaping & Your Foundation: The Ultimate Guide

Table of Contents

• Plant Locally: The Best Native Trees for Your Yard
• Trees to Avoid Near Your Foundation
• Landscaping Considerations
• Protect Your Home’s Foundation with JES

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Plant Locally: The Best Native Trees for Your Yard

You’ve heard “eat local.” Well, it’s time to plant locally, too. If you live in Maryland or Virginia, you will see some of these common trees for purchase at local nurseries and home improvement stores. They are smaller tree varieties, ranging from 12 to 35 feet tall when fully grown. Some of the trees that grow best in the area are crabapple, flowering dogwood, white fringe tree, hawthorn, American holly, and the pawpaw.

Crabapples are flowering trees that can be planted in many types of yards, including urban landscapes. The flowering dogwood is a good food source for songbirds like cardinals and robins, and should be planted in well-drained soil. The hawthorn grows dense and thorny, so it is best used for borders around a yard. It also offers a good place for birds to build their nests. The American holly attracts birds and small mammals. It is best planted in small groups.

The pawpaw is a small tree that grows well in shady conditions and produces fruit that attracts a variety of wildlife. Its leaves turn deep red in the fall. If you’re looking for new landscaping that does not attract wildlife to your yard, the white fringe tree is a good option. It is best planted in groups or near, but not too close to, large buildings in moist soil conditions.

Trees to Avoid Near Your Foundation

Our list of trees to avoid includes those that are fast-growing with invasive root systems. They can cause damage to your home’s foundation, sidewalks, driveway, and patio. 

• Sweet gum trees
• Southern magnolias
• Mimosa trees
• Tree of heaven
• Silver maples
• Hybrid poplars
• Bradford pears
• Leyland cypress
• Eastern cottonwoods
• American elms
• Honey locust
• Norway maple
• White mulberry
• Chinese flame trees

You don’t need to drop these trees entirely, but they should never be planted near your foundation, sidewalks, driveways, or patios. They can be planted elsewhere in your yard to add their shade and beauty to your overall landscaping.

Bushes to Avoid

These bushes are extremely invasive. They take over everything around them. Avoid them entirely.

• Buckthorn: It can grow 20 to 25 feet tall forming an impenetrable layer of vegetation. This shades out all other plants and contributes to erosion.
• Chinese privet: It can form dense thickets that shade out other plants. It also produces highly allergenic pollen.
• Japanese barberry: This plant is drought and shade-tolerant as well as deer-resistant. However, it’s a breeding ground for black-legged ticks that can carry Lyme disease. It is also invasive and covered in sharp barbs.
• Himalayan blackberry: The berries are nice, but the plant itself can take hold and invade the rest of your garden. It’s very difficult to root out.
• Bush honeysuckle: This bush can grow just about anywhere under sun, shade, wet, or dry. Of course, it can also spread anywhere and push out your other plants. 

Invasive Plants

Most of the trees and bushes that you should avoid are primarily invasive and tough to control. Then there’s a whole group of invasive plants that are very tough to eradicate once they’ve found your yard. Some of these you may actually plant yourself but find later they are too much trouble to keep under control.

• Kudzu: This infamous vine can grow up to 100 feet long, completely smothering whatever tree or plant it has chosen to cover.
• Ajuga: Also called “bugleweed,” this flowering groundcover does its job all too well. It spreads very, very aggressively and is incredibly difficult to eradicate.
• Sweet autumn clematis: This vine produces wonderful flowers but drops seeds everywhere. So it spreads where you’d rather not find it. It’s also tough to remove.
• Reed canary grass: This grass grows from two to six feet tall and can rapidly outcompete native grasses. It’s tough to get rid of too.
• Japanese Knotweed: This weed can grow up to six feet tall and spread 65 feet wide. Its roots can significantly damage your foundation and walkways. We’ve provided a guide to Remove Japanese Knotweed.

Poisonous Plants

Avoid these poisonous plants in your yard. If you find them, carefully dig them up and dispose of them.

• Poison ivy. Birds eat the berries and then spread the seeds, so you may find this plant in your yard. The oil from the plant causes severe allergic reactions. It can be extremely dangerous if it gets into your eyes or lungs.
• Pokeweed. This plant spreads the same way as poison ivy. It can grow up to eight feet tall. The berries cause nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea. The juice can also be absorbed by your skin. 
• Foxglove. This plant contains digitalin, digitonin, and digitoxin. It only takes 20 minutes after ingesting its leaves to cause a wide range of reactions from vomiting to an irregular heartbeat.
• Tansy. This plant is toxic to people and livestock. Not only that, but it is also invasive. 
• Virginia creeper. This plant can be very aggressive and difficult to control. The berries contain oxalic acid that is toxic to humans. Keep kids away. The sap can also cause a skin rash. 
• Belladonna. It’s called deadly nightshade for a good reason. Ingested berries cause convulsions, hallucinations, and can lead to respiratory failure.
• Horse nettle. This is also a member of the nightshade family. The berries cause nausea, diarrhea, and stomach cramps. 
• Water hemlock. This is the most dangerous plant in North America. Just a tiny piece of this plant can kill a 1,200-pound animal. 

This list is a good starting point but is by no means comprehensive. It’s best to keep these out of your yard.

Mulch 

While it’s not a growing plant, mulch can also be a problem. On the plus side, it serves to minimize soil erosion, add nutrients, insulate plant roots, and decorate your plantings. However, it also collects excess moisture, providing a breeding ground for termites and other pests. If the mulch is piled up around a tree or shrub, the bark can rot, making the plant susceptible to insects and disease. 

If mulch is piled up around your foundation, it can lead to dampness in your basement. It’s best to use a hyper-absorbent mulch that helps your plants and keeps water away from your foundation 

Landscaping Considerations

Knowing what to plant is only half the battle. Here are some landscaping tips to keep in mind when it comes to maintaining a beautiful yard and a safe, stable foundation:

How Far Apart Should I Plant My Trees and Bushes?

Once you’ve chosen the right trees and bushes to plant in your yard, make sure you do the necessary research before planting to determine where they’ll grow best. Each type of tree and bush will grow to a different height and width during its lifetime. To protect the long-term health of your new trees and bushes, you’ll need to plant them far enough apart to grow and flourish.

Sun vs. Shade: What’s Best?

If you’ve ever killed a plant by giving it too much or too little sun or water, you know that different plants need different conditions to thrive. It’s the same for the trees and bushes you’ve selected for your yard. Some grow best in full sun, some in shady conditions, and some are robust enough to thrive just about anywhere.

Protect Your Home’s Foundation with JES

Careful water management is the key to protecting your home’s foundation. Landscape grading is critical to allow the water to flow away from your home. Gutters and downspouts also route water off the roof and away from the foundation.

An irrigation system can be very helpful in maintaining just the right balance of moisture in the soil around your foundation as well as for your plants. A smart sensor can adjust the amount of water based on the rainfall, or the lack of rainfall.

Drying soil can cause foundation shifting and resulting cracks. When the rain comes again, it can seep into the cracks, bringing moisture and even flooding.

Related Resources

Landscape Maintenance Checklist

This landscape maintenance checklist is a great resource for anyone involved in home ownership.

How to Maintain Your Yard Drainage

Learn how to fix and maintain yard drains, keep your lawn and driveway clear of standing water, and avoid foundation damage.

Yard Grading: Why It Matters, How to Check It, and How to Fix it

Stabilizing your lawn can benefit your foundation. When do you need to stabilize or regrade your home, and what side effects should you look out for?

Phillip Mazzotta