Up Your Home's Curb Appeal with Front-Yard Landscaping

Successful landscaping goes well beyond a beautiful lawn. See 12 pro tips for showing off your front yard

Your front yard, regardless of its size, plays an important role in your home’s overall curb appeal. Your landscaping, however, goes well beyond just a beautiful lawn. It should take into account the style and size of your house, how it’s sited on the property, the amount of sunlight the yard receives and how to best enhance it with plantings, bushes, shrubs and trees. It should also include hardscaping features, from walkways and driveways to raised beds, planters and decorative containers.
What are the best practices for front-yard landscaping? To learn more, we reached out to Dorian Winslow, a certified landscape designer and the owner and president of Womanswork, an online retailer of gardening apparel and supplies. Here are her 12 tips for successful front yard landscaping.

1. Find your focus

Every view in your landscape should have a focal point. “For your front yard, the focal point is the front door, so be sure you don’t hide it,” advises Winslow. If you are considering major plantings such as trees, think about how they will frame the front door as you approach your house.

2. Use ground covers

Ground covers are a low-maintenance alternative — and complement — to grass. “Because they’re low to the ground and dense, they give a neat appearance with very little maintenance,” says Winslow. “They also allow you to introduce spring bulbs to your landscape because the ground cover hides the dead leaves after the bulbs bloom.” Be sure you research what ground covers work (culturally) with the trees in your yard.

The path is curved, but not meandering, to lead visitors to the front door. Source: Eduardo Mendoza

3. Set the right path

When considering the pathway from the driveway to your front door, Winslow says to “remember that our natural instinct is to take the most direct route to where we’re going.” A curved path to the front door is nice, but a meandering path may not be. “If you want to take your visitors on a circuitous route, be sure you plant densely along each side of your path,” she adds. “Otherwise, your guests will cut their own path across your grass to get to the front door.”

4. Rethink foundation plants

“Avoid treating foundation plants as if they were little soldiers pressed up along the perimeter of your house,” advises Winslow. “For a two-story house, foundation plantings should extend at least 8 feet out from the house.” And remember, a curved garden bed can soften the lines of your house in a pleasing way. Be sure the shrubs that are placed closest to your house are not taller than the windows, or they will block the light coming into your house and the view from inside looking out. When you’re planting shrubs, think about how they will look in three to five years. “You don’t want to select varieties that will block your windows,” she adds.

5. Add some privacy

If you are looking to add some privacy in your yard, consider a buffer of shrubs, suggests Winslow. “A buffer that includes multiple plants at varying heights can accomplish the same thing as a solid hedge or a fence but is far more welcoming,” says Winslow. Alternatively, if you are just trying to block the view from a particular room — or a part of your yard from your neighbors — plant a couple of trees or shrubs with strategic precision.

6. Deter the deer

If deer are an issue, select shrubs that are deciduous (lose their leaves in the winter) but retain their form even when their leaves are gone. This will help preserve the structure of your garden in all seasons.

7. Consider the light

“Your house is a large object that will block the sun for part of every day,” notes Winslow. If your house faces north, the front yard is never going to get great light. If it faces east or west, it may get searing sun for part of the day and then no sun for the remainder. Make your plant choices with that in mind, advises Winslow.

Pavers dress up the edges of this driveway. Source: All Oregon Landscaping

8. Think long term

If you’re planting trees in front of your house, plan 12 to 15 years out. They are considered a permanent fixture of the landscape, so you want to be sure they are not too close to the house. “If you are thinking of selling your house, a tree can be an asset — unless it is one that prospective owners think they will have to remove; then it’s a liability,” cautions Winslow.

9. Dress up the drive

If you have a standard asphalt driveway that you want to enhance, install a border of Belgian blocks (more expensive) or cement pavers (less expensive) along the edges of your driveway. A border gives the driveway a more finished and rich look.

10. Create an entrance

“If your driveway is a straight line from the street to the house,” says Winslow, “soften the line with a curved planting bed where the driveway meets the front corner of your yard.” This will create a pleasing, sweeping effect as you approach the house.

11. Add a flowering tree

A flowering tree provides wonderful curb appeal and is welcoming for those few weeks in spring when it’s in bloom. Flowering varieties provide fragrance and usually don’t block the house, because they tend to be smaller trees.

12. Keep it simple

Don’t crowd your front yard with lots of objects or plants. Have a clear structure to the design and a focal point.

How to Repair Your Lawn

Diagnose the Lawn Problem

Figure out why you need to repair your lawn. If you don't determine the problem, fixing your lawn could be a waste of time. For example, if grubs are the problem, you'll need to treat for them before laying a new lawn. But if too much shade is the problem, you're better off forgetting a lawn and investing in low-maintenance shade-loving ground covers instead.

Give Your Lawn a Fresh Start

If more than half of your lawn is screaming for help, start from scratch. Spray the lawn with an herbicide containing glyph sate (be sure to follow all directions on the packaging). It kills all vegetation but allows new turf to re-establish quickly

 

Mow the Lawn Low

Wait a couple of weeks after applying the herbicide, then mow the turf as short as you can. It may seem counterintuitive to really scalp it as you repair a lawn, but this low mowing leaves the area with short, dead plants, to prevent erosion, and keeps the dead plants from shading your new lawn too much.

 

Rake, Rake, Repeat

Next step in how to repair your lawn: Visit your local rental center and get a power rake. Don't worry, it's not as bad as it sounds -- many models are as easy to handle as the average lawn mower. To save yourself frustration, ask the clerk to show you how to adjust the blades.

You want to leave just the barest layer (about 1/4 inch) of thatch on the ground. Then rake off the remaining debris and compost it. You'll know you've raked enough when you see equal amounts bare soil and dead grass stems. Then spread a thin layer of compost over the soil and rake it in evenly.

Seed the Lawn

Now it's time to plant your lawn. If you're using seed, follow the instructions on the package to determine how much seed to use. This is important: Not enough, and your lawn will be thin and scraggly. To make the seed application uniform, spread half the seed in a north/south direction, then turn around and apply the other half in an east/west direction. This will lessen the likelihood that you'll end up with bare spots.

If you're installing sprigs or plugs, it's just a matter of digging little holes and plopping the plants in place. Cut a small trench for sprigging and using a transplanter tool for plugs. You can usually buy this little tool from the same place you purchased the plugs.

Deter New Weeds in the Lawn

This is an optional step, but it's pretty easy and usually worth the effort when you repair a lawn. Apply a pre-emergence herbicide containing siduron. This product will prevent crabgrass seeds from sprouting, yet allow lawn grass seed to grow. Note: If you renovate in fall, this isn't necessary, because crabgrass is mainly a problem in spring.

 Water a Repaired Lawn Well

When everything is planted, your task is to keep the repaired lawn moist. For the first week or so after planting, be sure the soil does not go dry. After the grass is up and growing, it's like the story of the three bears: You don't want the area too dry or too soggy, but just moist. This may mean watering a couple of times a day early on (for short, five-minute applications). Over time, you can go to a once-a-day watering for 10 or 15 minutes. It's important that the moisture be applied evenly so that your seed doesn't wash away, creating bare spots.

Feeding Your Repaired Lawn

When the grass shoots are about an inch tall, apply a starter fertilizer to encourage growth. The same goes for sprigs and plugs: After you see a couple of new shoots, apply fertilizer. But be sure to wait until there's growth -- you can burn roots if you fertilize too early.

Start Mowing Your New, Repaired Lawn

When the grass is about 3 inches tall, give it its first mowing. This will discourage weeds and encourage the spread of your grass. This simple step makes a huge difference in the success of the project!

Be sure the mower blade is sharp the first time you mow; a dull blade could rip the seedlings right out of the ground. Then mow as normal once the grass is the height you want it. For the health of your turf, don't cut off more than a third of the leaf length in any one mowing