How to Landscape a Cape Cod House
The cozy Cape Cod house, with its familiar, simplistic block shape, steep roof and center chimney, has been an enduring American house style for centuries. In a 1955 "Life" magazine article the house design is attributed to its resistance against “hard winters and Atlantic storms.” The small, snug size of the house means the landscape design should be proportional in size and style. There are a multitude of design aspects and features that lend themselves quite nicely to creating the quintessential Cape Cod house landscape. Does this Spark an idea?
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Instructions
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Create an overall plan of action. Think of costs and budgets constraints, total area of coverage, soil type, sunlight amount, space utilization and functionality.
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Decide on any hardscapes you’d like to incorporate; paths and walkways are a first consideration. Winding brick and crushed stone pathways are a great choice, as their curves contrast to the square shape of the house, and the casual design lends itself to the casual cottage feel.
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Consider small patios or terraces. Stone, brick or crushed stone are good material choices. Bordered with trimmed boxwood shrubs, privet hedges, flowering hydrangeas and ornamental grasses provide texture, color, contrast and privacy.
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Choose any fencing or stone walls you would like to incorporate. Draped with climbing roses and honeysuckle, interspersed with bold blue blossoms of hydrangeas, white picket fencing is a staple in Cape Cod landscape design.
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Add some Cape Cod favorites: a rose-covered, gated arbor or pergola, rose-covered trellis and window boxes on front facing windows. Fill with soil and colorful mixtures of annuals and trailing vines.
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Build a stone wall, either stacked fieldstone, or a more casual rounded rock wall, adding structure and definition. As a backdrop for annual and perennial gardens, stone walls provide a wonderful, natural focal point.
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Select plants and flowers that work with your soil, climate and lighting. Sunny areas are perfect for perennial clumps of yellow day lilies mixed with spiky purple delphiniums. Sunflowers and black-eyed Susans, lupine, larkspur and foxglove all add color and variation and are favored cottage garden choices.
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Plan for your shady areas, and if you lack this, consider trees proportional to your house size. Flowering ornamentals add a bit of height, but not so much as to overpower the house size. Shaded areas work well with impatiens, an annual season long bloomer. Perennials such as lily of the valley do well in shade as do hostas and ivy variations.
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Install lighting to add nighttime drama and functionality. A lantern-topped stone or wooden lamp post at a pathway entrance is welcoming. Low voltage up-lights along a fence, a pathway, beneath shrubs and trees create drama.
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Tips & Warnings
Browse through landscape books and web pages for images of the Cape Cod house landscaping style, keeping in mind your particular climate and soil type.
Add a bit of whimsy to your landscape: a stone bench, sundial, a stone well, wind chimes or bird feeders.
White wicker furniture against a backdrop of red roses and blue hydrangeas suggest comfort and “set a spell” appeal.
