How to Landscape a Front Yard
When deciding how to landscape a front yard, there are lots of questions that need to be answered before you lay a spade to soil. Taking your time to determine exactly how to landscape your front yard before you start putting in beds and planters can save you hours of frustration, and years of disappointment later on. Does this Spark an idea?
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Instructions
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Review the grade level for water runoff.
In many suburban neighborhoods especially front yards are part of a natural drainage system that moves water from one yard to the next into drains or drainage areas. Just as important is the grade of the soil away from your house that keeps water from infiltrating a basement or eroding a foundation. Before putting in raised beds consider water flow and drainage, making sure water from a storm has someplace to go besides toward your or a neighbor's house. Front yard landscaping begins with good planning. Check your original house documents and plans to find grading levels especially if you built the home.
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Gather pictures of how to landscape a front yard with a house like yours.
One thing often missed when do-it-yourself landscape is applied to a front yard is congruence with the home. You do not want to put in a modern style garden with an English Tudor home. It just won't look like it matches. Do yourself a favor as part of figuring out how to landscape your front yard: go to a bookstore and look at magazines for pictures of houses that match your style. Go online and find the style of house you own and look at the landscape in the front yard to get ideas.
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Match your front yard landscape to the surrounding climate.
A garden in southern California simply has to look differently than a garden in Western North Carolina. Do a little research to find what plants do well in your area. Often the best way to discover this is to drive around looking at yards and taking notice of plants. Go to your local nursery then with pictures from magazines, and plants from memory to discover what grows best in your yards conditions of soil, sun, and shade.
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Map out your beds and front yard features.
You do not want to overcrowd your front yard landscape. You also do not want to create too much work for yourself in the future. Remember, every feature and every bed you include in your front yard landscape plan will have to be maintained by you know who. Use pencil to draw the flower beds with their shapes around the house. Usually shoot for unpredictable curves that are balanced but not symmetrical. Think through height and line of sight with larger, taller plants and trees sitting back from low the ground colorful beds. This will also help naturally the grade for water drainage.
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Work with one or two beds at a time.
When you are learning how to landscape a front yard you don't want to bite off more than you can chew at a time. It takes a day to put in a bed if you are working alone, and working hard. Remember to also plan for irrigation using an underground sprinkler system, drip hose system (especially for shrubs), or combination of the two.
* See more tips on how to landscape a front yard below.
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Tips & Warnings
Take advantage of natural geographical features in your yard. Hills make great water feature locations. Flat areas can work great for ponds or elevated beds. Rocky soil could make a great rock garden.
Focus on increasing the color variety of your perennials each year to strengthen your front yard curb appeal. Add colorful annuals for splashes of wow.
Sometimes, simplest is best. A few hanging flower pots on a front porch with a flowering ground cover in a surrounding bed, swallowed up in a well tended lawn can make a beautiful front yard landscape.
See related articles above for more on how to landscape a front yard.
