How To Wow! Your Home’s Front Landscape

Your Home's Front Landscape Should Make you Proud To Come Home

Your front yard is the first thing people see when they arrive. More importantly, it is the first thing you see when you arrive home. It should highlight the style and character of your home and make a bold statement. Add a few of these landscaping and hardscaping features to create an inviting entrance that will make you proud to call your own.

Walkways

Walkways are an important part of your front yard landscape design. A beautiful walkway provides an aesthetic way for you and your guests to get to your front door. When designing a front yard walkway, the width, shape and paving materials are important factors to consider.

Width – Whether your walkway connects the street or driveway to your front door, the width of the walkway is important for safety and visual effect. Your walkway should be wide enough for two people to walk side-by-side. A minimum of four feet is required, but five feet is better if you have space.

Shape – The style of your home and size of your yard will impact shape. If your home is a colonial, has a more formal style or has a small front yard, a simple, straight walkway will look best. If your home is a cottage or ranch, has a more casual style or has a large front yard, consider a curved walkway to add visual interest. Keep in mind that you should limit the curves or people will tend to cut through the lawn.

Paving Materials – When selecting walkway materials, choose materials that complement your home’s style, features and architectural materials. If your house is brick, a brick or stone walkway with a brick border is a good choice. There are also dozens of choices of color and style if you prefer brick pavers.

Gardens

Roll out the welcome mat with a blooming front yard landscape design to create a stunning entrance to your home. By creating garden beds full of colorful trees, flowering shrubs, and annuals and perennials that bloom throughout the year, guests will feel welcome as soon as they arrive.

Create Scale – When planning your garden beds, make sure beds are large enough to accommodate your desired mix of plants. To create proper scale, planting beds should span at least half of the width of your house or extend from the house to the front sidewalk. Large beds should be anchored with trees and shrubs that provide height and depth.

Create Order and Simplicity – To give your garden beds a sense of order, limit the species of plants you choose. Select one or two types of trees, three to five different shrubs and five to 10 types of annuals and perennials. Plant similar species in groups and repeat them throughout the front yard along walkways, driveways and different garden beds.

Create Year-Round Interest – Since your garden beds will look sparse in late fall and winter, plant evergreen trees and shrubs for greenery and texture throughout the year. Many plants offer winter interest with colorful bark or variegated, evergreen foliage.

Lighting

A front yard landscape design is not complete without landscape lighting. It’s an easy, affordable way to convey a soft, inviting atmosphere and enhance property safety after the sun goes down. Landscape lighting can create safe footpaths, gorgeous views and stunning focal points in your front yard. Ambient lighting creates a soft light that covers an entire landscape area while spotlighting puts focus and attention on particular features of the landscape.

Down-lighting – When lights are aimed downward from a high place, they create a diffused light that gives the feeling of moonlight. In a landscape, down lights are usually installed in trees. As the light filters downward through leaves and branches, it creates a soft glow near the ground.

Up-lighting – By aiming lights upward onto an architectural feature on the house or into trees, you can create a strong contrast between light and dark. Up-lighting creates dramatic shadows and intriguing effects in a front yard landscape design.

Pathway lighting – Pathway lights are used along walkways, driveways and garden beds and borders. They are essential for safe footpaths to prevent accidents and injuries. Rather than using pathway lighting alone, combine it with ambient lighting for a more natural look.

Landscape lighting is available in a variety of LED fixtures which save money and mean that bulbs will not need to be replaced often.

A good first impression can make a world of difference when you arrive home after a long day. By improving your home’s curb appeal, you will feel energized before you even step inside the door.

Related Posts:

8 Front Walkway Ideas for Maximum Curb Appeal

Safe Lawn Care

Remember, Allentuck Landscaping Co. is always here to help you design, install, construct and maintain you lawn and landscape. Give us a call!