Six front yard landscaping tips to try

Before people step foot in your home, they pull up to your curb. The exterior of your home will determine how they feel about your home even before they enter it and may even lessen the effect that the nice interior has on them. This is an especially big deal if you’re trying to sell your home and the people visiting are prospective buyers but it’s also important if visitors are friends or family members. Some landscaping can go a long way in improving the appearance of your home from the curb so here are six front yard landscaping ideas to try.

Make a landscaping plan

Your front yard is more than just your lawn and a few plants. Your front yard also includes your driveway, walkways, trees, and front porch. If you want the entire look to come together, then you need to come up with a landscaping plan before you even start to landscape. A local garden center may provide landscaping consultations for free if you agree to buy plants from them. You could also pay a landscape architect per hour to assist you in creating a landscaping plan.

Pick the right plants

Plants are the building blocks of landscapers. They’re the foundation of everything so good landscaping starts with carefully selected plants. Plants can range from flowers to small shrubs to large trees. They provide your yard with color, height, texture, and even movement. You have to choose plants that will do all of that but also plants that can thrive in your yard so you need to do a soil test to understand its composition, pH levels, and nutrient quality. Then you can take the results to a garden center to begin selecting plants.

Stagger the heights and depths of greenery

Plants don’t look nice when they’re arranged in straight lines. Uniformity is fine for tree farms and rows of corn but for your landscaping you’ll want to vary the heights and depths. Plant taller species on the ends of plant beds and plant the shorter species in the middle. Keep in mind that height will vary as the plants mature so you may have to put up with things looking a little weird while the trees are growing. You don’t want to put a shrub that’s going to be seven feet tall directly in front of a window.

Mix evergreen with deciduous trees

Deciduous trees lose their leaves each year and those leaves will also change colors before they fall. A good mixture of evergreen trees and deciduous trees will create a nice effect, especially in the spring, summer, and fall. Aim to have evergreens on the side of your house where prevailing winds occur as they can serve as a natural windscreen.

Light it right

With all the work you’ll be putting into landscaping, it’s a shame to think that people won’t be able to see it at night. That’s why it’s a good idea to invest in some lighting for dramatic effect. Use a mixture of lights that point up at taller plants and lights that point down at smaller ones to create a lot of visual interest. Landscape lighting done right adds lots of texture and depth to your yard.

Water your plants the easy way

The last thing you want is for your expensive landscaping to go to waste when plants die due to lack of water. So invest in an in-ground irrigation system that will keep all of your plant-life hydrated. If you live in an area prone to droughts and water use restrictions, you may want to select plant-life that requires little water.

Source: Realtor.com

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