Front Yard Design: Landscaping Ideas for the Front Yard

Front yard designs should be handled differently than backyards and side yards. They should be easy to maintain and offer color throughout all four seasons. Think of the design as a showcase or spotlight for the house. The design should enhance the architecture and positive attributes of the house. Planting beds and materials should soften the boxy, hard edges of the home without drawing too much attention to themselves.

How to Design a New Front Yard

Front yard design can be intimidating. To make things worse, the home design shows on television focus on elaborate makeovers created with back hoes, large crews, and giant budgets. Many of us are so afraid of making mistakes that we never begin. Year after year, we keep putting our front yard project on hold. Nearly every front yard could benefit from a fresh, well-planned design. This article will take you through some basic front yard design methods that are simple, inexpensive, and effective.

Let’s begin by evaluating your current front yard design.

Begin by asking yourself what features you like. What existing features would you like to keep? Unless you just purchased a new home without grass or landscaping, most homes will have existing lawns, plant materials, and walkways that can be saved or improved. Make a list of everything that looks good . This will be your keep list. Now, be brutally honest with yourself; what features will need to be removed or remedied? Look for old, overgrown, messy, or otherwise unhealthy features that should be removed. This will become your remove list. Keep in mind, it’s rarely necessary to eliminate everything and start from scratch. Many trees and bushes can be restored beautifully with careful pruning. If you’re not sure, prune first, then make your decision. A hedge trimmer, lopper, and pruning shears can often revitalize an entire yard. Begin by cutting back any branches that are diseased or unattractive. Often, lower branches are brown because they aren’t receiving sunlight. You can remove them first or reshape the bush in a conical shape to restore sunlight to the lower portion. In many cases, just removing the overgrown or unattractive lower branches will be enough to save the tree or brush.

Does your current front yard design employ effective foundation plantings?

Foundation plantings are the plant materials placed around the foundation of your home. Foundation plantings are essential to an effective front yard design. They serve dual roles as ornamentation and insulation for the home. They can reduce utility bills by holding back the wind in the winter; in addition, they will assist in cooling the home during the summer months. Taken a step further, they can perform other specific roles, such as protection. If you’re concerned about home security, consider adding thorny bushes below or in front of your large, ground floor windows. Pyracantha, Barberry and Roses are excellent choices for security. Make sure your front yard design includes enough evergreens. This will ensure a healthy, attractive year-round appearance. When the trees are bare and there’s snow on the ground, evergreens will frame the house with rich, green color and interest. Your front yard design should include at least 50 percent evergreens. Some successful designs use up to 100 percent. Now that you’ve assessed your current design features, we can move on to the actual how-to of design.

How to design your front yard

To keep things simple, think about your front yard design as a series of beds. These beds will likely surround the house, the front walkway, and the driveway. Let’s begin with the house. Here is an overhead view of a simple, rectangular home design. This design will begin from scratch to illustrate how to shape your beds.

Before beginning your front yard design, you may want to read the following short article. It will provide you with a bit of theory to better understand the unique elements of a front yard design.