You’ve heard the phrase “You only have one chance to make a first impression, right?” Well, this applies to your home, as well. When someone arrives at your domicile for the first (or tenth) time, the first thing they see is your front yard landscape. This first impression is largely made up of the condition of your driveway to the walkway and steps leading to your front door, as well as the plants in your garden and any garden wall or borders you have containing them.
The level of care put into these details can create a very good, or very bad, impression for your guests, or anyone who drives by your home for that matter, so invest some time and effort into making your front landscape something that says “welcome” with the following tips:
- Plant for Ease of Maintenance and Year Round Color: Unlike your backyard which is normally an “invite-only” space, your front landscape can be seen by anyone and everyone who passes by your home, all year round. With that in mind, you need to be sure you have color around the space from January to December, and that takes some strategic gardening. Evergreens like the Dwarf Evergreen Cedar shrub are a great way to ensure color even in the coldest months, while planting regional perennials around your front landscape based on bloom times and colors allows for a pop of color most of the year with little maintenance required. Kick up the look of your front garden with a concrete border or better yet, a stylish garden wall to add a height to your landscape, assist with soil and water retention and turn the spotlight on your gardening skills!
- The Path to Beautiful Landscapes: A paved walkway is the best way to really create a beautiful entryway to your home. Either bordered or surrounded by your front landscape, you walkway leads the style direction of your front yard and sets expectations of what visitors will find inside your home. A walkway built of concrete pavers can be custom designed to a plethora of styles, colors and patterns allowing for a truly unique entryway to your home.
- Light Up your Landscape: Walkway lighting is not only a safety-promoting, functional aspect to your landscape; it’s also an accent to your design that draws attention to your garden and walkway in the darker hours. When setting the layout for your lights, don’t worry so much about getting them in a straight line. Vary the spacing to follow your path, but allow room for some creative license that accents varying parts of the route. With options like hanging lamps, recessed lighting or ground lanterns, you can select the type of lighting that accents your landscape design and home the best.
- Drive your Landscape Look: Your driveway is by far the largest hardscaped aspect of your front yard. As such, its condition and design will significantly add to, or detract from, your landscape. Pavers offer a variety of colors, shapes and designs with which to build your driveway, while adding more durability than a poured driveway and even storm water control options to boot. While it’s true that a driveway built from pavers is a larger investment than the other front landscape options in this list, the curb appeal and value it provides to your home outweighs the up-front costs. Consider it an investment in the value of your home with a design punch that can’t be touched by many other landscape elements.
- Tighten Up the Edges: Nothing can degrade the look of your landscape faster than unpruned trees, shrubs and plants. Overgrowth, tangled branches and limbs or dead leaves due to expired plant parts take even the best designs from awe-inspiring to feeling like a B-rated horror movie set. It’s a step that simply can’t be put off until next week, because it only makes matters worse, and once you get into the habit of pruning regularly, the effort and time involved decreases. Get your pruners ready and clean up the edges of your flora to keep the entire look of your landscape well-manicured.
Your front landscape is in plain view 24-7 for all to see. Invest in this space to give your home a beautiful the curb appeal that will be the talk of passers-by and welcoming for your guests.