Cape Cod Landscape Garden Design
Cape Cod landscape garden design is a type of design used to compliment Cape Cod architecture frequently seen in and around the area of Cape Cod. Go Figure! All Americans in one way or another owe at least a small debt of gratitude to the history of this area of the States. Ben Franklin’s grandparents lived here, J.F.K and his family lived here, Presidents vacation here, if you can’t be thankful for that at least be glad Jaws met his demise here off Cape Cod. We probably wouldn’t have shark week without this place. It is a place steeped in history and since it was one of the first places established in the “new world” its founders brought with it some of the “old world” influences that have spread across the country like the rest of us. The landscape of Cape Cod is primarily a barrier island and as such its gardens utilize native plants that are best adapted to thrive in this region. Cape Cod has mild weather and the native plant species are tolerant of drought, salt spray and can thrive in poor acidic soils. Stay with plants that are native to your own area if trying to emulate this garden design although most of the plants that grow on Cape Cod will grow in most mild weather areas with a little tweaking of the soil.
Cape Cod Landscape Garden Yard Features
A Cape Cod garden design incorporates ornamental structures into its design that accentuate the architecture of the home. This design utilizes arbors with climbing flowers, picket fencing with native grasses and flowers, pergolas and window boxes. On the approach to your Cape Cod home, you might use picket fencing with native grasses and flowers. A noticeable arbor with climbing flowers could be an introduction to the entrance of your home. Window boxes with some seasonal pairings will add compliments to your home and garden. A small natural stone walkway to a quaint seating bench or pergola grilling area with native climbers can add some shade for summer outdoor grilling. Stay with plants that are native to your own area if trying to emulate this garden design, although most of the plants that grow on Cape Cod will grow in most mild weather areas with a little tweaking Cape Cod Garden Yard Features
Cape Cod Landscape Garden Plant Hardiness Zone
Coming from a person living outside of Cape Cod and speaking for people in more southerly states, when we think of most northern states, we think cold. But, that’s not the case with Cape Cod. Since it reaches out into the Atlantic Ocean it has milder weather than its mainland counterpart. Due to the Atlantics water temperature more of a balance throughout the year in the high and low temperatures are maintained keeping this area in a hardiness zone range for plants of a 6b to a 7b zone. That makes this area by zone suitable for the same plants that might grow in Albuquerque, New Mexico…Oh, boy was I wrong!
Native Cape Cod Landscape Garden Plants
Since Cape Cod is primarily a barrier island its gardens utilize native plants that are tolerant of drought, salt spray and can thrive in poor acidic soils. Here is a list of plants by type you can utilize for your Cape Cod garden project.
Cape Cod Landscape Grasses, Rushes, Sedges
- American beach grass
- Appalachian sedge
- Bearded sedge
- Bearded sedge
- Broomsedge bluestem
- Broomsedge bluestem
- Cattail
- Chair maker’s rush
- Eastern gamagrass
- Eastern star sedge
- Fox sedge
- Hop sedge
- Indiangrass
- Little bluestem
- Pearly everlasting
- Pennsylvania sedge
- Poverty rush
- Purple lovegrass
- Sallow sedge
- Saltmarsh bulrush
- Saltmarsh hay
- Saltmarsh rush
- Small Dropseed
- Smooth cordgrass
- Soft rush
- Soft-stemmed bulrush
- Switchgrass
- Tussock sedge
- Virginia wildrye
- Wavy hairgrass
- Wool grass
- Yellow stargrass
Cape Cod Landscape Ground Covers
- Appalachian sedge
- Bearberry
- Blue-eyed grass
- Bunchberry
- Canada frostweed
- Creeping juniper
- Dwarf cinquefoil
- Eastern hay-scented fern
- Hoary frostweed
- Lowbush blueberry
- Pennsylvania sedge
- Pine-barren false heather
- Poverty rush
- Purple milkweed
- Robin’s plantain fleabane
- Sand false heather
- Sensitive fern
- Tickseed
- Wavy hair grass
- Wild geranium
- Wintergreen
- Wood anemone
Cape Cod Landscape Flowers
- Allegheny monkeyflower
- Asters multiple varieties
- Blue eyed grass multiple varieties
- Blue toadflax
- Blue vervain
- Bluecurls
- Blueflag
- Bluets
- Cardinal flower
- Cinnamon fern
- Dwarf cinquefoil
- Evening primrose
- Goat’s rue
- Goldenrod multiple varieties
- Milkweeds Multiple Varieties
- Mint multiple varieties
- New England blazing star
- Sessile-leaved bellwort
- Sickle-leaved golden aster
- Swamp rose mallow
- Turk’s cap lily
- Viola pedata
- White turtlehead
- Whorled loosestrife
- Wild geranium
- Wild indigo
- Wood Lily
- Woodland sunflower
Cape Cod Landscape Shrubs
- American hazelnut
- Arrowwood viburnum
- Beach plum
- Beaked hazelnut
- Black huckleberry
- Blue huckleberry
- Broom-crowberry
- Chokeberry Red, Black, Purple
- Common alder
- Common juniper
- Common witch hazel
- Cranberry
- Creeping juniper
- Gray dogwood
- Groundsel bush
- Highbush blueberry
- Hillside blueberry
- Inkberry
- Lowbush blueberry
- Maleberry
- Meadowsweet
- Mountain laurel
- Nantucket shadbush
- Pine-barren false heather
- Prairie willow
- Pussy Willow
- Small bayberry
- Smooth sumac
- Speckled alder
- Spicebush
- Staghorn sumac
- Steeplebush
- Summersweet clethra
- Swamp azalea
- Swamp rose
- Sweetgale
- Virginia Rose
- Winged sumac
- Winterberry holly
Cape Cod Landscape Trees
- American beech
- American chestnut
- American holly
- American hophornbeam
- American hornbeam
- Atlantic white cedar
- Beetlebung
- Big toothed aspen
- Black cherry
- Black oak
- Cockspur hawthorn
- Dwarf chinquapin oak
- Eastern arborvitae
- Eastern red cedar
- Flowering dogwood
- Gray birch
- Mockernut hickory
- Pagoda dogwood
- Paper birch
- Pignut hickory
- Pitch pine
- Post oak
- Quaking aspen
- Red maple
- Sassafras
- Scarlet oak
- Scrub oak
- Serviceberry Multiple Varieties
- White oak
Cape Cod Landscape Vines
- American bittersweet
- Virgin’s Bower
- Virginia creeper