Test Garden Tip: Choose an interesting material to make the trip to your front door even more memorable. Bricks, flagstone, and pavers all lend more charm than traditional cement.
Dress up your front yard with a mailbox garden.
Test Garden Tip: Check your municipality’s rules for planting on the parking strip (that patch of ground between the street and the sidewalk). Some communities may have restrictions on how tall plants can be or how far away you should plant from a fire hydrant. Test Garden Tip: Decorate your front yard patio with a skirt of flowers or a small hedge to help it seem more intimate and enclosed— without making an unfriendly barrier.
Learn how to conserve water with your landscape design.
Test Garden Tip: Mix groundcovers, grasses, evergreens, annuals, and perennials to create a planting that looks good all year. Test Garden Tip: Incorporate a birdbath or bird feeder in your yard to attract even more birds. Test Garden Tip: Be sure to select evergreens that mature at the size you want, so your yard won’t end up an overgrown mess. Test Garden Tip: Spend time looking out from your windows as you design. That way, you will enjoy the view looking out as much as passersby enjoy looking into the garden. Test Garden Tip: Install a simple drip-irrigation system to make containers easier to maintain. Test Garden Tip: If you have an unattractive driveway, use a border such as this to partially hide it from view. Test Garden Tip: Repeat an element to bring continuity to the design and keep the landscape from looking helter-skelter. Test Garden Tip: White structures stand out even more against colorful flowers and a nonwhite home. Test Garden Tip: Look for features from your home to guide your design. Small trees can echo pillars on a porch, for example, or use a water feature based on the shape of one of your home’s architectural elements. Test Garden Tip: Be sure your house fits in with the drama you build in your landscape. The example shown here might have been overpowered if not for the bright blue front door. Test Garden Tip: Play off colors, as well. Try a garden that contains the same colors as your home—or create contrast by going to the opposite side of the color wheel.
See more landscaping ideas for the front yard.
Test Garden Tip: Be sure to include some fragrant varieties to add to your landscape’s sensory appeal.
