40 Front Yard Landscaping Ideas For A Good First Impression
Front yard landscaping ideas are the fastest and most effective way to freshen up your home’s curb appeal. Having a front yard is definitely something to appreciate and to take advantage of.
The front yard is like a magical garden through which guests have to walk before reaching you and it’s an amazing opportunity to use it to your advantage.
You can give it a stunning landscape if you use natural materials along with rocks and a variety of plants.
Obviously, the possible yard landscaping ideas are unlimited. You can opt for something simple such as a nice beautiful green lawn with colorful flowers on the side or for mini gardens along the pathway. Also, you might want to consider a water feature because they are distinctive and calming.
You can also use this opportunity to showcase your favorite plants and colors by also appealing to your artistic side. There are numerous types of designs that incorporate colorful plants and flowers in stunning ways.
The Best Trees for Small Front Yards
If you have a small front yard and think there are no options for improving your home’s curb appeal, you’re wrong. There are tons of yard landscaping ideas you can incorporate! Like trees. Yes, trees often require ample space, but there’s a workaround. Look for the following when planning your small front yard landscaping projects:
- Dwarf trees
- Small trees
- Landscaping bushes
Need some specific yard landscaping ideas for dwarf trees, small trees, and some bushes? Here are a few low maintenance ideas that can be fairly inexpensive:
Wintersweet
This can be grown in shrub form which works for small yards, but it can also be cultivated and manipulated to grow as a tiny tree. With wiry branches and beautiful, small off-white/yellowish flowers, Wintersweet can add height and depth to your front yard landscaping ideas without taking up too much space.
Hedge maple
This unique-looking tree grows stunning silvery leaves most of the yard, with a pop of pink to add color in the Spring. Best of all? It only grows to a max of fifteen feet tall, unlike regular maple, which is a large shade tree. So, you can easily stick one of these in a small front yard.
Hardy orange
One of the best features of the Hardy Orange tree is the lovely citrusy smell it releases in the air. But, it can also be grown as a short eight-foot tree, or cultivated to be a fifteen-foot tree. Either way, it’s one of those front yard landscaping ideas that is great for small spaces.
Yellowhorn
It is known for growing in China, but can easily thrive in North American conditions. Just make sure to stick it where there’s the most sunlight during the day. Like most small trees, it averages about 10 feet in height and is slender in shape with wiry branches.
Mountain witch alder
Probably my fav of all the small tree and landscaping bush ideas. This is mostly because they stay close to the ground and offer visual interest to any small front yard landscaping projects. You also get several colors throughout the years; with follows during the springtime and fall-colored leaves during autumn.
Decorative Landscaping Rocks
- Slate – Slate is a great choice for landscaping rocks as they are sturdy and flat, great for stacking or layering garden beds.
- Granite – Granite is one of the most common landscaping rocks for its abundance. Also, you can get a variety of colors and patterns.
- Quartz – Believe it or not, most decorative gravel is comprised of a mix of quartz and other stones. Use the crushed form to line garden beds, create landscaping boundaries around your yard, or other yard landscaping ideas.
- Local rock – The easiest and cheapest landscaping rock idea. Head to your local quarry, beach, mountainside, etc. And spend some time finding local rocks to decorate your garden with
Best Landscaping Plants That Love the Shade
Red Twig Dogwood
Personally, I adore red twig dogwood. It’s great for small and large spaces. This adds a rich red color to your garden, and is easy to care for.
Bleeding Hearts
These pairs well with other shade-loving plants in your flower bed. Plus, they add a stunning visual appeal and a deep pop of color to your front yard.
Hosta
Probably the most popular landscaping plant around. Mostly due to their hearty nature and full appearance. You can easily fill a garden bed or line your landscaping with only a few hostas.
Front Yard Landscaping Design Ideas
Whether you want nice green grass, an elaborate front yard garden full of flowers, or some low-maintenance front yard landscaping ideas such as rock gardens, this list has all the best ideas!
Perennials for the Front Yard
This front yard flower bed is full of beautiful perennial flowers and plants that will come back each year. The pops add color, give great curb appeal and match perfectly with the home’s exterior. Also, if you have a small yard and not much planting space, using window boxes is a great way to add some color with annual flowers.
Best Trees for Front Yard
The trees in this front yard are perfect because they’re tall and looming, creating a lovely canopy of shade over the house without crowding the beautiful exterior. The white walkway flanked by red and green foliage in the flower bed adds a pop of color. It’s also a fabulous way to visually draw the eye to the front door of the house.
Detailed Front Yard Landscaping
Something like this is most likely a professional landscape design. But if you’re handy around the garden and have some landscaping skills, you could achieve this look for your flowerbeds. You’ll need some carefully chosen annual flowers and perennial plants, lots of mulch, and some grass seed.
Small Front Yard Landscaping
We love this landscaping idea for the front yard. It makes the most of the small flower bed by adding a partial decorative fence and an arbor with foliage hanging down over it. The curved stonework creates a nice perimeter to keep it in all in place.
Modern Front Yard Landscaping
With just a few low-maintenance succulents, some carefully selected rocks, and mulch you can recreate this modern front yard flower bed for your home. Simply clear the space on either side of your walkway and lay down some landscape fabric. Then plant the succulents and cover the flower beds with mulch before placing the stones. It’s one of the easiest front yard landscaping ideas.
Simple But With a Big Impact
This vast front lawn is bordered with lush flower beds, perfectly trimmed plants and hedges. But the small details like the placement of rocks and pavers give it that extra layer of curb appeal. At the top of the retaining wall, boxwood shrubs line the edge. These are a classic look but require regular trimming and maintenance.
Landscaping for a Manor
This stunning manor has a gorgeous front yard landscape with perfectly manicured sections of lawn. Short hedges and flower beds add visual appeal without impeding the view of the home’s exterior.
Have Fun with Shapes
This front yard is so much fun to look at! Rather than the standard clean lines, this homeowner has bordered the lawn and front step with a flower bed in a wave that curves around the plants. It makes a lovely entrance leading to the front porch.
Simple Front Yard Landscaping Idea
With a detailed home like this, you don’t want to compete with that exterior by overloading the front yard with plants. The simple addition of short shrubs and ground cover plants in the flower beds around the edge of the lawn is all it needs.
Draw Attention with Flowers
By placing tall, attractive flowers in places where the patio ends, it creates a visual border in this front yard. This type of flower bed is the perfect idea if you don’t want to overdo it with plants but want to add that appeal.
Luscious Trees in the Front Yard
Yard ideas like this would take years to cultivate as trees take so much longer to grow and fill out compared to foliage. However, you can always purchase already grown trees and tall bushes and copy this look anytime. Adding a pop of color with annual flowers is always a great accent.
Unique Front Yard Landscaping Idea
This is probably my favorite on the whole list. At first glance, it just appears to be some nice ground cover plants and a few trees. But a closer look shows what looks like a cool water feature with a stone walkway leading up to it.
Traditional Front Yard Landscaping
With a massive home and large front yard like this, you definitely want to keep the landscaping to a minimum if you don’t have the time to maintain it. A smooth lawn trimmed with some boxwood shrubs is all you need to pull it off.
A Closer Look
This one has already been featured on the list, but from a different angle you can see and appreciate the placement of the plants used. Everything is very pleasing to the eye with symmetry, and the all-white flowers make it look like a dream.
Budget Front Yard Landscaping
This front yard proves that you don’t need a huge budget to make a big impact with your garden ideas. Simply some mulch or gravel with a few shrubs planted in a line on either side of the walkway. This highlights the entrance to the house as well as the front porch. Voila!
Tropical Landscaping Idea
A unique home like this needs to have an equally unique front yard landscape. Lush with near-full ground cover plants and foliage, the ferns and larger plants create real curb appeal. This is one of the relatively low-maintenance front yard landscaping ideas.
Modern Colonial Landscaping
There may be a lack of color on this property but it’s on purpose. A modern Colonial design with classic crisp white serves as a beautiful background to the simple shrubbery placed around the edges. It is also low enough to keep sightlines from the front porch clear.
Front Yard Pond
This octagonal-shaped water feature anchors the entire front yard space. You could leave as is and add some plant life, or throw in some koi fish if you live in a climate that allows it. The pop of pink in the background is just the right amount of color to accent the architectural features of the home.
Texan Style Landscaping
This property has already been featured on the list but from a different angle, you can see more of the low-maintenance landscaping. By using mulch mixed with gravel and succulents you create simple garden designs that basically take care of themselves.
Farm Fall Landscaping Idea
This homeowner clearly loves the Fall season! Pops of orange, yellow, and red can be seen all over the place and even play into the garage exterior. This type of landscape design is easily customized to the seasons.
Overgrown Wonder
If you love that overgrown, natural look, then this is a landscaping idea for you! By choosing plants and shrubbery that grow to be lush and fill the space, you get a natural garden look that requires little maintenance.
American Landscaping Idea
Front yard landscaping ideas such as this one require quite a bit of frequent care and maintenance. The shrubs are perfectly trimmed and shaped. Flowers are carefully placed to add pops of color. The addition of little white picket fences is just the cherry on top. A traditional home like this could also make use of window boxes instead of extensive flower beds.
Simple Front Yard Landscaping
This garden design lets the various plants go wild. All you have to do is trim them back from the edge of the lawn and keep your grass mowed to achieve this look. It’s a very simple, natural look, although some people would call it a messy look.
Unique and Modern Landscaping
This ultra-modern home clearly needed a front garden to complement the home’s style. And the owner delivered. Everything is installed in straight lines and shows balance. Using succulents along the edge of the walkway, makes this an easy-care front yard, too. The best part? No lawn mowing!
Natural Landscaping
If you own a cabin or second home you tend to only use a few times a year, this front yard landscaping idea is a great option. It uses the natural plants that obviously grow wild there. But keeps it all boxed in with thick concrete structures.
Simplistic Landscaping
Less is definitely more with this home’s style. The front garden consists of flat square pavers inlad in a small patch of grass. Gravel divides the space and cute stone garden beds line the fence.
Geometric Landscaping
This property proves that you can create a stunning front garden design with just grass. By dividing and lining the lawn with concrete borders, you get an eye-catching look that’s sure to turn heads.
Concrete Grid Landscaping
With towering trees around the edges of the property, this homeowner has created a nice private front garden. Placing flat pavers in a grid pattern makes a unique walkway to admire the garden.
All Green Front Yard
This multi-layer look is achieved with elevated garden beds and concrete enclosures. Keeping all the plants and shrubbery green seems to have given the property a cool, easy but modern look.
Futuristic Meets Rustic
You wouldn’t normally think that ultra-modern and rustic go together but this property proves that theory wrong. The futuristic home design is a giant in the background to the large front yard. But the addition of brown, rustic plants softens the whole look. This is the type of front yard landscape that would look great with a Zen-like water feature,
New Level of Raised Garden Beds
This modern front yard landscaping idea is probably my favorite on the list of garden ideas! Yes, it looks complicated, but anyone can achieve this look with some time and patience. I love how the carefully chosen plants are perfectly lined in each bed.
More Rustic Modern Looks
This property shows how you don’t need to have perfectly manicured lines to pull off a stunning front yard landscape. The use of ground cover plants and billowy shrubs gives it a nice, relaxed feel.
Budget Front Yard Landscaping Ideas
Again, you don’t need a huge budget to pull off great curb appeal. This home has used just grass, gravel, and flat pavers. But with some creativity and pre-planning, has laid everything in a geometric design that catches the eye.
Southern Style
The pavers are placed in a mosaic style and work as the perfect backdrop to the plants and trimmed bushes. You don’t need a ton of color in the flower bed to make this home look amazing.
Unique and Different Landscaping
You don’t see a look like this very often. Perfectly trimmed shrubs in clay planters sit strategically across the front lawn where you see square pavers leading up to the front door.
The Use of Lighting
Just a few simple garden lights bring this nighttime front yard to life. The wide concrete walkway is done in a zigzag pattern to add a little dose of personality.
Privacy Front Yard
Instead of the typical picket fences, a wrap-around partition wall gives you get a little bit of privacy to enjoy a morning cup of coffee in your lounge chair. It also fits better with contemporary home styles. the low style means that you can still converse with your neighbors.
Basic Landscaping for Modern Home
Front yard landscaping ideas for such a modern home are not over the top. Keeping things simple and minimalistic plays into the ultra-futuristic style of the house.
Landscape Maintenance Tips
- Keep things trimmed: Good yard landscaping ideas require regular pruning and trimming of bushes, tress, and plants.
- Prune dead stuff: When you see dying leaves, dry branches, and mulching bits around your plants, get rid of them. These things will drain the energy from your garden, causing everything to look sad and dull.
- Refresh mulch: mulch is great for helping your soil retain moisture, plus it looks good in your garden. But weather can wreak havoc on your mulch so be sure to keep it tidy and refreshed.
- Proper watering: If you live in a dry climate, be sure to water your front yard landscaping as needed.
- Weeding: This goes without saying, but some people forget. Make sure to pull weeds from your garden and flower bed regularly before they take over.
- Winterizing: Wrap trees in burlap, add nutrients to the soil, winterize your lawn, and cover any plants you don’t want to die in the coming season.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)FAQ
How do I landscape my front yard on a budget?
There are lots of ways to landscape the front yard on a budget to make a great first impression. When it comes to plants, remember that perennials are the gifts that keep on giving. They come up and bloom every year, while a flower bed of annuals has to be purchased each year. A stepping stone walkway is functional, but it’s also a big part of your front yard landscaping ideas and can be cheaper than a concrete sidewalk. Or, use gravel for a low-cost and low-maintenance walkway.
If you have a small front lawn and down relish the idea of spending money to maintain grass, replace it with rocks or Pebbles. Finally, mature bushes and trees are very expensive, so instead of spending on a large shade tree, plant a young tree.
How tall should shrubs be in front of the house?
When planting shrubs along the foundation, you don’t want them to grow taller enough to block the windows. Assuming that the bottom of the window is 5 feet above the ground, you want something that tops out at 5 feet. Or, you’ll have to keep it trimmed at no more than 5 feet.
You also don’t want foundation shrubs to grow taller than the eaves of the house because they can interfere with gutters and damage them.
How can I make my front yard look more expensive?
You don’t need to spend a lot of money to have a beautiful front yard, but you do have to invest some sweat equity in maintenance and upkeep. Keeping bushes trimmed, grass mowed and beds weeded are a must. Make sure that your outdoor style matches the style of the house and that the house itself is in good shape.
Other things that will make your home look distinctive are outside lighting and any yard landscaping ideas — like a water feature — that make a grand entrance to the house.
How do you arrange plants in front of your house?
When you design the flower beds in front of your house, create zones for the different sizes of plantings. Start by laying out the shortest plants in the front of the bed, the medium sizes in the middle and the tallest in the back. To make them look less regimented, you can shift some of the medium plants toward the front and some of the tall ones to the middle.
What bushes to choose for landscaping?
Assuming that you have planned your shrubs according to your climate zone and budget, you want to choose plants that appeal to you. The best ones are those that grow slowly so you don’t have to trim them all the time. If you have a very sunny entrance to the house, you want to look for plants that tolerate drought and plentiful sunlight. Conversely, if the yard is shady, choose plants that thrive on less than full sun.
Conclusions
Front yard landscaping ideas can be simplistic and eye-catching at the same time. You can also use rocks, sand and other materials to make your front yard look unique and to allow it to complement the rest of your property perfectly. The right yard landscaping ideas can breathe new life into a sad-looking property.
And for more home improvement tips, check out our back yard landscaping ideas!