As a homeowner, you probably already know about the importance of curb appeal (perhaps your home’s curb appeal is the reason the property caught your eye in the first place?). Not only does it impact the amount of money your property can fetch on the real estate market, but it also plays a significant role in how you feel about your home each time you pull into the driveway—as well as the impression your neighbors get when they pass by.
One of the best ways to raise your home’s curb appeal is by increasing the quality of your front yard landscaping. Sometimes the challenge here is figuring out where to begin.
Whether you’re looking to create a front yard that looks clean and simple, one that’s extravagant and complex or one that is somewhere in the middle, these 10 landscaping ideas are sure to spark the inspiration you’ve been looking for to help get you started on your landscaping project as soon as possible.
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1. Use Ornamental Grasses for a Low-Maintenance Upgrade
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Ornamental grasses provide a very natural and breezy feel to your front yard landscape. The variety of grasses you should choose will depend on the environmental factors where you live, and you’ll need to select the right ones if you want them to thrive. Otherwise, they are fairly drought-tolerant, easy to maintain and unlikely to become infested with insects, so they make a great choice for those who want a little flair without a lot of fuss.
2. Select Plants That Provide Year-Round Color
Nothing is cheerier than a colorful front yard landscape, but many flowers and trees bloom only in the spring and summer months. Fortunately, you can avoid having a drab-looking landscape the rest of the time by planting varieties that are at least somewhat colorful all year long. A few of the many options include verbena, magnolia, hydrangea and begonia.
3. Charm the Olfactory Senses with Fragrant Plants
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When it comes to your front yard landscaping calendar, plan to make things useful as well as pretty. Consider lining your front walkway with aromatic flowers and plants. Lavender, jasmine or rosemary are all great options that will have your friends, neighbors and even the delivery driver captivated by their inviting fragrances.
4. Plant a Garden in Front Yard Raised Beds
Who says a garden has to be located in the backyard? Well-crafted raised beds can blend quite nicely into your front yard landscape, especially if that sunny spot next to your driveway provides the perfect place for your tomatoes, snap peas and strawberries to thrive.
5. Incorporate Containers in Your Landscape Design
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Containers are often an afterthought, but they don’t have to be. You may think to place potted plants and flowers on your front patio or doorstep, but you can also use them in other areas, too. Consider placing containers in your lower beds or along walkways as a way to create unique and beautiful borders.
6. Illuminate Your Front Yard With Strategic Lighting
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Whether it is a string of fairy lights on your patio, path lights along your stone walkway or recessed ground lights sprinkled throughout the front of the yard, lighting can add a lot of pizazz to your landscape design. Front yard landscape lighting is functional, too—no more fumbling around for your phone’s flashlight app when you come home after dark.
7. Allow Wisteria, Roses or Clematis to Climb Your Fence, Trellis or Pergola
Ivy is often thought of as the climbing plant, but it isn’t your only option. Whether your goal is to cover something unsightly (like a fence that has seen better days) or you simply enjoy the look of your yard’s various accouterments adorned in vines, climbing flowers like wisteria, roses and clematis offer a nice alternative to (basic, green) ivy. You’ll especially love the color these climbing flowers provide during their blooming season.
8. Skip the Lush Green Lawn
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Green lawns are nice, but they often take a lot of time, money and water to maintain. While we’re not suggesting that you let your lawn dry out, if you’re over the idea of spending your weekends mowing, consider using a rock-based ground cover, like gravel or crushed stones, instead of grass for a creative take on landscaping styles.
Rocks create a lovely backdrop for other landscaping features (like plants, trees and lighting), and they are also eco-friendly since they require nothing in the way of water.
9. Add Stucco to Your Retaining Wall
Adding stucco to an existing or new retaining wall is, first and foremost, aesthetically appealing (credit for this goes to the smooth, clean lines and the fact that it is available in tones that compliment your landscape). However, it also makes your wall more durable, thanks to the fact that stucco is water- and mold-resistant.
10. Plant to Keep the Deer Away
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Want to know one of the most important landscaping tips? A doe wandering through your front yard might be a lovely sight to see—the first time. Eventually, though, her presence won’t be so welcome. Why? Because deer like to snack on plants, and they aren’t all that picky.
Before you know it, the flowers, trees, shrubs and veggies that you so carefully cultivated are going to be destroyed. Fend the herd off by planting deer-resistant plants like heather, daffodil, peonies, yarrow, foxglove and juniper (to name a few).
