Regardless of the size of the front yard, it plays an important role in the overall look of your loved home. Landscaping for the front yard involves much more than just a good-looking lawn. It must match the style, pattern, and paint of the house, the amount of sunlight obtained by the yard and the included plants, shrubs, and bushes. The front yard also involves the hardscaping factors from walkaways, steps, and driveways to provide a complete look for your house.
Tips on planning the front yard:
Planning the Hardscaping features:
- Initial planning and execution must be focussed on hardscaping features. They involve the walkaways, door frames, steps, driveway, patios, etc. All these elements generally include construction aspects that could cause damage to lawn, plants, and soil if they are carried later.
- Steps must be wide, defined, and attractive but ensure to create at least one step-less entry to your home for any emergency use. You could also make provisions to add a ramp to avoid any plantings that would restrict the movements.
- The home entrance must be clear and pleasing and the structures must be appealing to the house structure. There could be certain extra elements like a shrub, lamppost, and a trellis to stop the wind/rain.
- Driveways must be easily visible and also simple in design. Trees and shrubs must not block the view and it’s better to remove them for the safety of home members. The placement of the driveway plays an important part in improving visibility and also providing a great look.
- Walkaways must be well planned before laying down any materials like sand, pea gravel, or even concrete. To provide a unique appeal, you could add creative brick designs or cumulative structures. Loose materials like wood chips and tanbarks work well for natural garden paths farther away from the house. But if they are used for nearby homes then they create the problem by causing too much tracking.
Using Plants in Your Front Yard Landscaping
Plantings: Plantings are easier to modify the look but you need to ensure that they are used efficiently to play an important role.
Trees, Shrubs, and Ground Covers: These are long-term resources that require very little maintenance and also enhance the value of your landscape.
Flowers: Flowers require some amount of attention and replanting but they can help to make your yard look full until the large plants gain the right shape and size. There are many types of flowers that are seasonal and substitute for shrubs and trees for initial years.
Lawn: Lawns are the most strenuous working aspect of any landscaping. If the rainfall is not sufficient in your area then ensure to take any alternative measures to your front yard. If the front yard is too big then it is better to have ground coverings instead of lawns that will take much time in watering and mowing. If the lawn is big, you could also utilize some part of your yard as a pasture, meadow, or woodland, and don’t restrict it to just an idle lawn.
How to include all elements of design to create an attractive front:
A well-designed front yard will showcase the pleasing features but more importantly shadow the unpleasant points. All the features of this good design are useful if you arrange the including items properly. Just go with the general feel of a particular scene or design and do not complicate too much by deep diving into aesthetic terms.
Select a particular theme:
If the house requires or if you feel to have a fruitful theme, then it must be well begun from the designing of the front yard. Themes will provide a good appeal to your property only if all the features of the front yard are designed and installed properly. You must also be sure if you need a formal or informal landscape. Formal landscapes will include strong architectural elements and geometrical calculations, consistently shaped plants, and lawns,s and clipped hedges. Informal designs are determined by free-flown and naturally visible aspects. If you are a person who would not find enough time to spend on the maintenance then this would be the best option.
Stabilize Landscape features:
To achieve uniformity in the landscape, provide a proper spot to all the elements to give them equal weight, size, texture, color, and other crucial aspects on each side of the home. The style of this spotting is dependent on individual preferences and also on the design of the house. Some prefer the same style of plantations on both sides of the house especially on either side of front walks. But again, this is also heavily dependent on the symmetry and position of your driveways, garage, and also the presence of large shrubs or trees. In any case, ensure to stabilize the front yard by considering all aspects of your front yard.
The growth rate of plants and shrubs:
Understand the growth rate of plants in your yard as they must be in proportion to each other when they grow to their full potential. Hence you need to be careful about choosing the plants that are in alignment with each other and also the house structure. This can help you reap the benefits when they reach their maturity.
Simple design:
It is wise to keep the design simple for all the elements of your yard. Having uniformity in color and types of plants will add a good visual appeal than having too much variety. The variations should only be subtle to align with the other visual aspects of the yard. You could have a blend of plants with well-matched shapes and textures.
Bottom line:
Having 20 years of experience working with landscapes, Affordable Lawn Care and Landscape LLC are the reliable, skillful, and experienced partners for landscaping in the Utah region. They provide custom-designed landscapes for your dream projects and possess comprehensive knowledge about creating and caring for the front yard of your property.
