Landscaping your Elevated Home

Once you’ve decided to elevate your home, or moved into a home that is already elevated, there’s no reason to keep it stark and camp-like. Using creative landscaping, an elevated first floor can be hidden or enhanced, and the elevated home can even offer a new perspective. Window boxes and hanging plants on porches can help add another vertical layer of landscaping. This series of pages is a visual guide to landscaping your elevated home, followed by an overview of the process of establishing a garden, and references to local resources.

The photo is a Central City New Orleans home, where the owner has created visual layers by extending landscaping from the ground to the stairwells, the elevated porch and the roof of the porch. Other techniques include using the elevated foundation as a canvas for the landscape, building the landscape into the structure, using the landscape to hide unattractive parts of the foundation, and drawing the viewers attention away from the floor elevation by extending landscape toward the street.

This article was contributed by the University of New Orleans Center for Hazard Assessment, Response and Technology.