For homeowners and landscapers alike, front yard landscape design can pose quite a challenge. After all, your front yard is essentially making a “this is us” statement about your family and how you live. When you think about your ideal front yard, what do you imagine?
Is it orderly, with trim plants and perfectly spaced lights that illuminate carefully crafted walkways, or is it something wilder, with creeping vines and propagating succulents covered by looming shade trees?
These are very distinct statements, right? And it’s a good possibility that both or neither might sound interesting to you. Would they even serve your space? Are they even possible given your taste, budget, and ability to maintain them? These are all questions we ask ourselves and our landscape clients whenever we’re discussing how we can create curb appeal in your front yard.
Remember what your front yard is for
If in your head you said, “My front yard is mine. It’s for me and for my family.” Well, yeah, you’re right! We don’t disagree. But consider this: Your front yard is also the world’s entryway into your home and, to some degree, into your life.
So how do you want to welcome folks? Even if your goal is to not make a statement, you are, in effect making a statement about your taste and your lifestyle. And that sort of statement is perfect if that’s who you are. We just urge you to consider that message and be intentional about how you say it.
There are a lot of front yard landscape design options. You could make “islands” of mulch with Japanese maple and plants of various heights to give your yard added depth and dimension. Front yard water features are a simple but grand way of giving your yard a distinct character. Rock features with succulents, container gardens, tiered planter boxes, and dramatic lighting that illuminates your favorite trees — these are just a few of the ways in which you create the difference between nondescript and absolutely extraordinary.
Remember that your front yard is not necessarily limited to your yard
What do we mean by this? Well, your home also presents numerous opportunities to create a smoother transition from outside to inside than you might think. Consider elements like window boxes, for example. These come in a variety of colors and styles and materials and can contain an equally broad assortment of eye-catching flowers and plants to add color, style, and texture to the front of your home.
Be careful with window boxes. Although they can add a great deal of beauty to your home’s facade, if they are not properly installed or maintained or have appropriate drainage, they can cause water damage to your home or not be a fit environment for plants to grow.
Don’t forget about simple but dramatic elements like hanging baskets, which can shower flowers and vines, and other beautiful types of plants. Take special care to install their hooks correctly and hang them safely, as incorrect installation can cause damage to your home, or for the baskets to become a potential hazard should they fall.
Remember that your front yard is seasonal
It’s true! Choosing the right kind of flowering plants and features for your yard is just about what you love best. It’s also about choosing the right plants for the right seasons so that your yard isn’t just making a single dramatic statement during one very narrow slice of the year. All-season flower gardens are the perfect way to give your home’s facade color and texture and vibrancy all-year long.
Front yard landscape design can take careful planning and consideration, as you have to make certain you’re not overcrowding your garden beds, you’re giving root systems ample room for growth, and so you’re not placing too many season-specific blooms in one place.
Consider early-spring flowers and plants like daffodils, tulips, and pansies, as well as summer flowering plants like hydrangeas, roses, or black-eyed Susan. But the color and blooms don’t need to end because summer has. Autumn brings with it even more beautiful blooms and plants like certain types of sedum, ornamental grasses, mums, aster, and sage. And living in the Pacific Northwest gives us the advantage of flowering winter plants, too! Ornamental cabbage is hearty and beautiful, and flowers like winter camelia and Galanthus can bring a beautiful contrast to our gray, drizzly skies. With the right strategy, you could have a bloom-filled front yard nearly 365 days a year!
Greenhaven Landscapes makes front yards beautiful
With over 25 years in business and over 3,000 yards transformed, Greenhaven Landscapes has become the premier choice for families in Portland and Vancouver because we love to bring your dream yard to life. Our landscape designer will walk you through a variety of front yard landscape ideas that will welcome guests, improve curb appeal and make you happy!