Fall Landscape Design for the Privacy Berm

Join me at Gardening with Creekside as we revisit the construction of our beautiful privacy berm, filled with stunning shrubs and perennials that create year-round interest and natural screening in the garden. In this video, I walk you through the landscape design process, share plant selections that thrive in our climate, and reveal our exciting fall design plan to inspire your own garden projects. Whether you’re looking for fresh landscape ideas, tips on choosing the right plants, or creative ways to add privacy and beauty to your outdoor space, this video will give you practical inspiration and trusted gardening advice straight from Creekside Nursery in Dallas, NC.

Hello friends and welcome to Gardening with 
Creekside. Today we are going to take a look at the privacy burm here at the house and 
uh we’re going to do a little looking back and we’re going to do a little looking forward 
talking about the plans that we have for this space this fall because it’s going to go under a 
another kind of big renovation this fall. Also, we’re going to kind of clue you in as to what 
we’re going to be doing while taking a look back over the last three years of this space. So, 
to kind of give you a reference of where we are, um we have this burm uh is probably about 100 ft 
long that goes from our driveway and then pretty much goes all the way down, cuts the property, 
and there is just a little bit of a pass through down here. Essentially what it does is it gives 
us privacy from our home which is to the left uh from the nursery which is as you can see is to 
the right um down there. And we encourage folks as they come visit us to come and check out the 
nursery side of the burm. We just ask that folks don’t come across and visit the house side. So 
that is why we do these videos so that you can see the house side. We uh installed and began the 
construction process of this burm 3 years ago. It was October of 2022. And oh my goodness, it has 
changed radically. Before this burm was here, it was just straight grass. So this was a 
field. When we built our house 21 years ago, we built in the middle of a field. My daddy used 
to farm this and uh so it was quote cleared. there was no trees and then as we, you know, 
moved in, built our house, moved in, we turned this field into grass and kept it that way for 
quite a long time until three years ago. So, what we’re going to be doing today is talking 
about this big blank spot that is right here, really in the middle of the burm that faces the 
house. this um when we designed the burm on the nursery side. Let’s just take a little let’s 
take a little look see over there right quick because I want to show you um to give you kind of 
a reference on on what things are and you’re going to see messes and you’re going to see successes 
over here. Messes. Yes, y’all. Time to prune the perennials. They are looking a little rough right 
now. Um, and so on the nursery side of the burm, this is all filled with shrubs and perennials. 
We do not have any annuals on this side. So, um, as we go through, we’ll we’ll talk about this, 
but we have got all sorts of trees and shrubs and of course the gorgeous holy grail um, summerrific 
hibiscus. This is of course that perennial hibiscus that is just absolutely stunning. We 
have it on both sides. So, we really try to keep um on the nursery side, it filled with the like I 
said, the perennials and annuals has been here for 3 years now. The um all the trees we put in that 
like November of 2022 and then we over the next six months we added the shrubs and the perennials. 
So, that kind of gives you an idea on this side. And it has grown magnificently well, right? It is 
full. It is gorgeous. In fact, is some of those plants are getting a little too happy. And so, 
I’m going to have to uh thin some things out, move out some perennials over the next, I don’t 
know, um pro either this fall and or going into the spring depending on what the plant is. Um, 
if you can see, Brena has her giant stick and I’m really just trying not to get my knees taken 
out with this thing. So, on the house side when we designed it, what we wanted to do was on the 
corners to go ahead and again kind of use that method of the perennials and the shrubs. And 
then we have um the holy grails of course here in the middle. And then down there on the end, 
we have more shrubs and perennials down there. The inside was always the plan was just to have 
tons of beautiful annuals in there. And so we did that for the first two years and it was stunning. 
Like it was gorgeous. We did a lot of patunias the first year. Then last year we did um lantennas 
and salvas and those kinds of things. And again, beautiful. But as you know, right, annuals are in 
a way more highmaintenance because one, you have to plant them every spring and then you have to 
take them out every fall. And you know, as as we go through life and as the business grows and the 
nursery grows and our landscape grows, that was a lot of work. And so we just have enjoyed the 
other side of the burm so much is that we want to transfer that kind of template to this side 
but use completely different shrubs uh that we can see of course from the house. So that is the 
plan. What we are going to do is to kind of give you an idea. So we have basically from we have 
uh the quickfire fabs. I did put in some lantana this year that the butterflies are loving. So from 
here all the way down to the open area down to the pink cascade to Budlia. That is where we’re going 
to landscape. Now for some of you maybe uh let’s just go ahead and talk about some of the obvious 
things. Um our cherry trees. So we have two cherry trees right here. These are both oh gosh they’re 
either the Yoshinoa or the Kwanzan. I always get it mixed up. But cherry trees in the south this 
is what they do this time of year. They’re like, “You know what? It’s hot. I’m tired. I’m going to 
lose all my leaves and start to go dormant.” So, there is nothing wrong with the trees. There’s 
not a bug. There’s not a disease. There’s nothing wrong with it. They’re beginning their dormcy 
because it’s too hot. So, just to kind of give you that idea, we are going to leave. We’re not 
touching the holy grails because oh my gosh, are they gorgeous or what? There’s three of them and 
they’re huge and they’re massive. We love the holy grails and this is a great perennial hibiscus. 
Every year um in the when they get the first freeze they will die back completely and they are 
completely herbaceious and then once the heat hits come the springtime they will come back bigger 
and better than ever. So these three guys are staying and so we’re going to have to kind of work 
around those incorporate them into the landscape. the flower bed on this end is more narrow than 
it is on the right because we have, you know, um, dips and edges and how things move around. 
So, while we’re going to have some consistency, they’re not going to be perfectly symmetrical 
through here. Now, I will say this, we have some certain shrubs that are going in here that are 
like hard fixes. They are most definitely going in no matter what. Then of course you know us if 
you’ve been around Garden Creekide for any length of time and how we do projects. Then as we get 
into it, we kind of change our mind or we adapt as the situation changes with the plants. So I know 
the shrubs that are most definitely going to go in here. So let’s talk about those. All right. So 
of course we are North Carolina. We are a zone 8A. this burm. It is a cloudy day today. Praise the 
Lord. We’re not going to sweat to death today. Um, so it is cloudy, but other than that, this is 
a full sun bed, especially in this spot right here. There is no break in the morning. There 
is no break in the afternoon. It is all day hot sun. This bed is on drip irrigation. So, we will 
have the drip irrigation going in here and going to those shrubs. We run this irrigation um in the 
heat of the summer about twice a week. We now have it on automatic timer. So that has made a world of 
difference. Um about twice a week for maybe like 30 minutes at a time, 30 to 45 minutes at a time, 
just depends on the weather. And so that’s a nice deep soak. I don’t want to water these every day 
because I need those roots to get established. And so they really um that’s all they need, right? We 
have when we built the burm, we put in um because we had to raise it up. And yes, y’all, some people 
when we built it, they were like, “That’s not a burm.” Well, there is a hump to it. So, there 
you go. It is not this massive burm that’s 20 feet tall. It doesn’t have to be that tall, but it 
is a burm and it is raised. So, it is a raised bed where the fence going down is obviously the higher 
spot and then it slopes this way on both sides. So, it is very well draining soil. So plants that 
sometimes in the past maybe they get too much water, they do really really well here because 
it is well draining. And then of course we had to build that up. So we had the top soil brought 
in some really really good top soil and then loads of organic matter compost. We literally brought it 
in by the truckloads. And so this is great great soil. And then we um come through and we top dress 
with either like the uh black gold ultra outdoor planting mix. Once a year we did that on the other 
side and around the the plants and then mulching it once a year. Those are the keys to success for 
the flower beds. So what we’re going to do is we are going to have the perfecto mundo white aelia. 
So I think this is the double white. We have love the perfecto mundo series. It is a really great 
series of aelas. They were actually developed uh by Dr. Tom Rainey at NC State. So have some local 
North Carolina roots there. But the Perfecto Mundo double white is not going to be massive. It is a 
very nice manageable size. Of course, your aelas are going to be evergreen. And the Perfecto Mundo 
series that we love so much is a relooming aelia. So it will bloom three times a year. You get 
a really heavy flush in the spring, which is iconic with the south, of course, right? And 
then that in the summer you’ll get some sporadic blooms. And then we have found that the fall is 
another gorgeous, gorgeous display of flowers. So, we’re going to have that white, that evergreen 
foliage with that beautiful pure white flower. How beautiful will they be in the fall when they’re 
blooming against the holy grails. Now, when they bloom in the spring, holy grail will not be here 
because it’s too cool for holy grail to have um fully, you know, gotten uh nice and some size 
to it and be blooming. The holy grails and other summer rifics really do not start blooming for us 
until the very end of June, beginning of July. So, the fall display is going to be the best with the 
holy grails and the aelas. I want to say we have something like 20 something aelas that we’re going 
to put in here. The exact design to be determined, but they will go more a little bit more towards 
the back up against the holy grails. Um, and obviously we’re going to spread them out 
through here, but again, the exact placement is to be determined. Next, we’re gonna have some 
hydrangeas because of course I have to have hydrangeas in this flower bed. So, we have got 
two different hydrangeas that do really well. They are both panacle hydrangeas. Panacle hydrangeas 
love the sun. They have to have the sun to bloom. They bloom on new growth, meaning that they 
you’re going to prune them in like February. Uh, and so I like to do it between like middle to late 
February into early March. I prune them and then they are guaranteed to have flowers every single 
year. So, praise the Lord for that you get your gorgeous flowers every year. And so, we love 
those um panacle hydrangeas. I have a ton of panacle hydrangeas. So, what we’re going to use 
is Firelight Tidbit. It is such a great uh nice petite hydrangeanger. I had to think there for 
a second. Nice petite hydrangeanger. Basically, it’s going to be in that two and a half to three 
foot tall. Of course, we have them um Brena is um she’s bound and determined to take my legs out. Um 
so it is going to be has in the front of the house with the new porch renovation and then we have 
them um of course in the terrace garden. So we’ll have some consistency there along with the double 
whites because I didn’t tell you that is that we have those in a couple of places too also in the 
front. So we’re bringing consistency through the whole entire front of the house. So those fire 
light tidbits are fantastic. Gorgeous. Nice big heads take on a nice little pinky mauve color. 
Love them. So, we have the fire light tidbits somewhere are going to go in here. And I want 
to say we have maybe 16 somewhere around that number of the tidbits that are going to go in. 
And then I love this is I think this is so highly underrated is the tiny quickfire. Tiny quickfire. 
Yes, is another panacle. And it is tiny. So, it’ll get to be about maybe 2 feet tall, 2 feet wide at 
max. So, obviously with it being nice and petite, it’s going to go up more towards the front. Um, 
again, we’ll figure out the exact placement once we get in here. This is how Jerry and I roll. 
We know what the plants we’re going to use, and then as we get in here, we will um determine 
their exact location. So, Tiny Quickfire is nice and stocky and short. And again, we’ll take 
on those nice pink hues to it. Here in North Carolina, we don’t get the deep red coloration on 
our panacles that our friends in like Michigan, um, anywhere that it cools down a lot 
sooner and your nights are not blaming hot, you get that color. We don’t really get that 
color here. So, we’ve got those two hydrangeas. And then for a fun big pop of color, because 
I’m all about big pops of color, as is Jerry, we are going to be putting in the brand new SunJoy 
Fast Neo. This is a barberry and it is red. Now barberries are deciduous as are my um hydrangeas. 
That’s okay. I am perfectly fine embracing those um deciduous shrubs in the winter time. It 
makes me be at rest. The plants are at rest. It is okay. We’ll have the aelas in here to 
give us some structure. So there you go. So the fast neo is brand new on the market. It still 
has that great color of Neo that we love. So that really bright red, almost a little bit of orange 
tinge to it, but fast Neo, as its name suggests, is going to grow fast and it gets bigger than Neo. 
So if you love Neo, but you need a bigger size, then that’s going to be your fast neo. I want 
to say, I don’t have the specs in front of me, I want to say in that 3 to four tall, four to five 
wide, somewhere in that range. And so it’s going to be a nice presence here. Um, and so we will 
figure out exactly. I think I had eight of those. So I grew those as quarts uh because we can’t get 
them as three gallons yet. So I grabbed them from e-commerce and uh potted them up. And so they are 
growing currently up near the chicken coop. So we have got those. And then one more that I would 
really love to put in here. I haven’t talked to Jerry about this, but I think we could absolutely 
do it. And I’m thinking it’s going to go more kind of here and put one here and then we’ll kind 
of do a companion piece up here and do it over there so that the space is balanced. So what I 
am thinking is mop top budla. Mop top is another brand new shrub from proven winners color choice 
shrubs. It is coming onto the market as we speak. Now, the great thing is because you may um notice, 
let’s talk about this pink cascade right here. So, pink cascade 2 is a gorgeous budla. Um and 
the butterflies love her. Nice soft pink. Like look at this massive swallow tail here on 
that beautiful pink bloom. It’s why we love pink cascade 2. It is kind of a weeping habit to it 
and um is is just a fantastic. So, you’re like, “Well, why in the world would you put another 
buda right beside of it?” Well, mop top breaks everything that you basically know about a buda 
and flips it upside down on top of your head. So, mop top one is a beautiful cascading, even more 
cascading than pink cascade 2. So, truly like downturned leaves. has much smaller leaves than 
your traditional budla. Nice silver blue color. But what is so cool about mop top is one, it is 
a spring bloomer. So early spring it is going to be covered in these cascading lilac light purple 
flowers that absolutely they look like a string of pearls that are just coming down the plant. So you 
have got this beautiful display of pink colors. So it will be blooming before pink cascade is really 
even like truly flushing out for the season. Also traditional budlas, they bloom on new growth. 
So we prune them really hard every February, early March. We really give a great pruning. There 
goes Brena. A great pruning. But mop top, however, blooms on old growth. So, we are not going to 
prune her. Um, in fact, if you ever had to prune her was you want to put her in a spot where you’re 
not going to want to prune her, it would be like immediately after she flowers. Don’t prune your 
mop tops in late winter. You’re going to cut off all your flowers. So, that’s great, right? It’s 
less work in the garden in that time of period where we’re doing some pruning. Uh, mop top is 
going to be in that four to five foot range. So, it’s going to be a nice size to it. Very, 
very excited. I am growing again three of those. I started them as quarts, put them up 
into two gallons. So, I am growing those. So, we’re going to put two here and then we’ll 
put one over at the signature garden. So, that is for sure the shrubs that I know that we’re 
going to put over here. Now, what else can we put over here? I definitely want to put some perennial 
grasses. Not sure exactly which ones I want to do, but I love the movement of grass and so I want to 
add those um to this space. I do know, let’s go back. Let’s go over here. Um, I want to give you a 
little Y’all, can we talk about this for a second? Puffer fish. Dear heavens, this thing loves this 
spot. Pufferfish is going bananas and is going absolutely crazy. So, yay for puffer fish over 
here. Another great panacle hydrangea. And then coming on over here. So, uh, the north poles 
are doing fantastic. Of course, we have more of the holy grail and then the winecraft gold 
smoke bush. So, when we’re coming over here, you can see we’ve got we’ve got some things, 
the amsonas that need to be taken care of. So, we’ve got pugster pinker over here that is just 
going crazy with the swallow tails. I mean, they are going absolutely nuts over these plants. 
And so, uh, it’s going to be really fun to see, uh, how these all develop. These are doing great. 
Obviously, we’re not going to switch these out at all. These are going to stay right here. And 
then, of course, we have got these are the um, SunJoy orange pillar barberries. So to have the 
orange pillar here and then have the fast mo on the other side will bring some nice consistency 
to this space. But you can see how everybody is growing. I mean y’all crazy growth. I did have 
this is what I was saying is when we first planted the burm, we had some daisy maze right here. 
They have gotten completely smothered out by uh the little lime punch and the pugsters because 
they are doing fantastic. So, we have got to go through here and kind of clean some things up, 
maybe some spread some things out, especially uh with the perennials, but there is a ton of 
things going on. Um and so I really going to be a fun project. Of course, we are doing the front 
yard project right now trying to get the drainage in. That’s a major project for us to plan and 
plant the other side of the burm. That may take us just a couple of days. And that’s not that big 
of a deal because we can we have the plants here. We’ll just place them where we want them and then 
either use the power planter augers or we can use the Bobcat with the augur on that and get them in 
the ground because somebody was like, “Well, what about you know the burn project? Y’all are moving 
on to the front yard project.” Oh, that’s that’s for us in in our brain that’s an easy one because 
it’s just planting plants. The front yard is a lot more complicated because there’s drainage work, 
hardcape, and all of that other stuff. So, that’s the fun part of it. There is definitely work to 
be done in here. There’s a lot of maintenance that needs to be done. Um, but you know what? 
That’s part of gardening and that is the fun joy of it is seeing how things grow, seeing what is 
successful and then uh maybe things that are not so successful. Then we kind of move those, tweak 
those, and uh move on from there. So, we will keep you updated. And another reason, just as an 
FYI, because one of our kids was asking, they were like, “Well, if you have the plants, like, why 
in the world haven’t you planted them already in the burm?” Well, it truly was because we got to a 
point in the season where it was really warm. So, that was like the end of July, end of June. We 
were waiting for the signature experience to be over because we were busy doing everything else. 
And then you’re talking about July and August. And I want these plants to have the best um success 
that they possibly can. And so they are living their best life in the containers up at the shrub 
pad on the production lot. And so they’re getting watered every day with the irrigation. So they’re 
doing great. I like fall planting. Fall planting with my shrubs is the absolute best time to do 
it. Can you do it in the summer? Yes, you can. But you’re going to have to. It’s going to cause more 
stress on the plant. causes more stress on the gardener to make sure that they maintain it. All 
of this was planted either in late fall or very early spring and we have had massive success. So, 
why mess with that recipe? So, that’s why we’re going to plant this. And it will probably be um 
I would say definitely once the front porch, the front yard project is done. So, we could literally 
plant this anywhere from late September all the way through October, even into early November. 
So there’s we have plenty of time to get this done. And so that’s the fun thing about it is we 
get to dream, think, plan, and then when the time is right and the weather’s right, we can strike 
and get them in the ground. So yeah, as always, there’s another project going on here at Gardening 
with Creekide. So if you are in the area, you know, come see us on um and so you can walk 
through the gardens, walk through, see this area, you know, help a sister out. If you see a weed, 
pull a weed. I definitely would appreciate it. Um, but as always, we’ll take you along for the ride 
as we get this project done, some maintenance on here and all of the good things. Y’all have a 
great day. We would love it if you would like and subscribe if you already haven’t. We’ll 
see you in the next video. Bye, friends.