Low-Growing Landscapes Enhance Ranch Style Homes

Match the front yard landscape to suit the style of your home. For instance, use low-growing shrubs, grasses and flowering plants to repeat the horizontal lines of a ranch-style house. Some low growing plants such as dwarf trees, small conifer trees and ground cover look amazing in front of ranch style homes. Choosing evergreen will ensure that you enjoy the lush green landscape throughout the year. It’s also a good idea to plant smaller plants in the front of flowerbeds and taller ones in back to create depth and dimension.

Tip: Be sure to check plant tags to know how big your shrubs or trees will be once fully grown.

Quaint Cottages, Classic Styles and More

Accent a Cape Cod house or cottage with classic details such as a white picket fence and cottage garden flowers like roses, larkspurs, dianthus, snapdragons and hydrangeas. Some houses lend themselves to landscaping, and cottages are at the top of the list. 

Less is More with Modern Style Homes

A minimalistic or simple front yard fits well with a contemporary house. Grow plants with spiky leaves or sculptural forms and use concrete or other modern-looking containers. Instead of lantern-shaped lights along a walkway, add a glow with outdoor rope lights or choose sleek mounted lighting for a wall. Native plants are great if you want plants and shrubbery that are low maintenance. Since these plants live in places that match their growing requirements, they will thrive in the soils, moisture and weather of that region.

Get Creative with Traditional Style Homes

The traditional style home pulls from a variety of historical architectural periods. Details such as large front porches with overhanging beams, rafters and columns may be featured on these homes. Materials such as brick, wood, plaster, stucco and stone are commonly used as well. When it comes to lawn maintenance, it’s great to start with shrubs and basic lawn care. This creates the perfect foundation to create a front yard you’ll love.

Drought-Tolerant Landscaping Tips

Do you have a small yard in a hot, dry climate? Grow space-saving succulents and cacti or native plants that don’t need much water. Instead of grass, cover your soil with attractive landscaping rocks, crushed stone, pebbles or gravel. Also, knowing your plant hardiness zone will allow you to determine which plants grow best in your part of the world. A technique called xeriscaping entails using drought resistant grass mixes, native plants and drought-resistant plants to keep your landscape thriving with little water.

Place an Arbor Over the Front Walk

Put an arbor over the walk to your front entrance. Plant it with climbing roses, Carolina jasmine, clematis or other vining plants. Consider attaching the arbor to a picket fence to make your front yard feel like a welcoming garden enclosure. You could also add trellises, pergolas and hardscape features like retaining walls or pathways to add visual interest to your landscape.

Add a Water Feature

Install a small water feature, such as a fish pond or a glazed pot with a circulating pump, and let the overflow splash into a bed of attractive rocks. Fountains are also a great way to add an organic touch to your yard. Allow the soothing sounds of the water to drown out the noise from street traffic. Outdoor fountains create a calming oasis in your yard, while a tabletop fountain can be used on your front porch to bring the zen right to you. 

Line the Walkway

You can make your house the focus by planting a few trees or shrubs on each side of your walkway. Grow flowers under them and echo their colors in planters beside your entrance. Line the walkway to your front entrance with landscape lighting or low-growing liriope or mondo grass, sometimes called monkey grass. The walkway is also a great place for solar and LED lights to dimly light your path at night and impress onlookers. Our DIY Pathway guide provides all the direction you need to create a pathway you can be proud of.

Fill Window Boxes with Color

A window box is the perfect way to inject color and detail in the front of your home. Mixing and matching vibrant blooms and plants gives your house charming details that will increase curb appeal and distinguish it from other houses. Fill window boxes with colorful flowers, herbs or small shrubs. To enhance the effect, add the same plants in matching or complementary colors to flower beds below the windows.

Showcase Your Mailbox

We all don’t have space for a garden, but a mailbox can be used to display shrubs, colorful flowers and climbing vines to showcase your taste. Whether you choose pavers to create a border or have your plants growing wildly around your mailbox, it’s sure to add interest to your front yard. Dress it up with a new set of house numbers, too.

Source: Front Yard Landscaping Ideas (homedepot.com)