Landscaping Ideas For Improving The Curb Appeal Of Your Front Yard

LANDSCAPE LOOKS CLUTTERED OR UNTIDY

• Does your landscape still have leaves from last fall or unwanted weeds, vines, or turf grass growing in your plant beds?
• Are the edges of your plant beds no longer well defined because of encroaching grass or weeds?
• Is the mulch in your beds thin or faded?
• Are your shrubs in need of shearing, thinning, or pruning?
• Do your perennials look tired, spent, or overgrown?

If any of these situations applies to your yard, we can help transform your landscape with a professional clean-up by:

• Weeding beds and removing landscape debris.
• Re-edging beds, walks, and driveways.
• Re-mulching beds.
• Shearing, thinning, or pruning shrubs and hedges.
• Cutting back perennials after blooms or foliage has faded.
• Removing low-hanging limbs on trees making it easier to mow or walk around your yard.

OVERGROWN SHRUBS ARE BLOCKING WINDOWS, DOORS, WALKS, OR DRIVEWAYS

Pruning may or may not be the solution.

Some shrubs can take severe pruning and still look good, some will look very bare until they can grow back in, and some will look just like a shrub that got too big for the space where it was planted and had to be severely pruned to recover a walkway.

Also, pruning may be required once or twice a year to keep those existing shrubs in bounds which can be quite costly depending on how many shrubs need pruning.

If pruning is too costly or not an option because of the type or sheer size of your existing shrubs, consider replacing them with shrubs that will grow to a mature size suitable for the space without requiring frequent pruning to keep them in bounds.

Other options for replacing shrubs where the available space is limited include using:

• Shrubs that have a more upright shape rather than a rounded or sprawling shape
• Upright perennials or tall groundcovers
• Climbing roses or vines

NOTE: When selecting plants, be aware of the mature height of plants in relation to overhead utilities, trees, and other overhanging structures.

EVERYTHING’S JUST GREEN

Foundation plantings are often evergreen to mask the house’s foundation with their year-round foliage. Other shrubs and trees in the landscape may provide some colorful – but fleeting – blooms in spring. If you’d like to add some more interest to your landscape through the other seasons of the year, there are a number of ways you can do that.

• ADD ANNUALS AND BULBS:
  • Evergreens and blooming shrubs or trees are wonderful, but if you long for some bright blooms that last a bit longer than that first flush of spring, consider adding an annual bed that can be planted with long-blooming annuals.
    • Fall into winter - Pansies, Mums, Violas, Ornamental Cabbages, and Kales (plus fall-blooming Crocus, Spider Lily, and Resurrection Lily);
    • Spring – Pansies (plus spring-blooming bulbs Grape Hyacinth, Crocus, Daffodil, and Tulip)
    • Summer into fall - Geraniums, Impatiens, Lantana, Marigolds, Petunias, Zinnias, and many others.
  • Don’t want to add another bed to your yard? Give your landscape a make-over by adding groups of flowering annuals or brightly-colored foliage plants for seasonal color and variety to the beds you already have.
• ADD HARDSCAPING ELEMENTS: To create year-round interest in your yard, you could also consider adding stone, paver, or flagstone elements, such as:
  • Stone or paver front stoops and steps
  • Flagstone or paver walkways to replace broken, uneven concrete ones
  • Paver driveways
  • Low free-standing walls (can also be used as seating)
  • Stone raised beds
  • Decorative concrete plant containers as accents (with or without plants)
• ADD A SPECIMEN PLANT: Break up the monotony of masses of evergreen plantings by installing a specimen plant with interesting features to add impact and variety. (A specimen plant is usually a SINGLE plant that has features, size, or form that set it apart from adjacent groups of plants. NOTE: Planting several specimen-type plants together or in close proximity may overwhelm other plantings as well as your design concept.)
  • Let’s say you have a planting of short, rounded Boxwoods. Consider adding a single tall broad-leaved evergreen, such as Golden King Aucuba with attractive gold-flecked foliage or April Kiss Camellia with rose-colored spring blooms.
  • Or, maybe you have a group of evergreen shrubs such as Carissa Holly or Otto Luyken Laurel. You could use Dee Runk Boxwood as a focal point for this planting. It has a different form – tall and upright – from the short and rounded form of the Holly or short and spreading form of the Laurel.
• ADD DECIDUOUS PLANTS TO EVERGREEN PLANTINGS (OR VICE VERSA):
  • If your landscape is predominantly evergreen, you can add some deciduous plants that will lend bloom color, fall foliage color, interesting branching structure or bark – or all of these. For example, you might consider adding a deciduous small tree like Diane Witch Hazel with mildly fragrant red flowers that bloom from January to March before the leaves emerge and beautiful yellow, orange, and red fall foliage.
  • Conversely, if your landscape is comprised primarily of deciduous plants, you might consider adding some evergreens with a different shape or height or beautiful dark green, blue, or golden foliage. Some evergreens even change the color of their foliage in cold winter months.
• ADD LAYERS TO YOUR LANDSCAPE:
  • Adding layers to your landscape gives you opportunities to add even more interest to an otherwise green landscape. You can add other foliage colors – like reds, blues, chartreuse, or variegated leaves with cream or yellow. You could also add other foliage textures – lacy leaves have a finer texture than simple leaves and large leaves are coarser in texture than small ones, and so on. (See the text box below for an example.)

IN WINTER, EVERYTHING’S JUST BROWN

If more of your landscape plants are deciduous than evergreen, your winter landscape may lack interest at a time when it would be really nice to see some color. Consider adding fall/winter annuals or supplementing your deciduous plantings with evergreens for more color and interest during the long dreary months of winter.

You might also consider planting more perennials or shrubs that attract wildlife so that you can enjoy fall/winter visitors to your yard.

LANDSCAPE LACKS A COHESIVE DESIGN

If you love plants, you probably have a yard that looks like an odd assortment of all of your favorites. This might be pleasing to view up close, but it may not look like a cohesive landscape design at a distance.

OPTION 1: Plant large groupings of the same or similar plants in multiple areas. Groupings make for a better visual impact than single plants – especially if the single plant is small, thin, or low to the ground.

OPTION 2: Put your plant collection in the back yard where you can sit and enjoy it at your leisure. In the front yard, install several groupings of fewer types of plants to lend unity, balance, and cohesion for greater impact and curb appeal.

For more information on the design, build, and installation services we can offer you, visit our other Web pages: LANDSCAPE DESIGN, BUILD SERVICES, and LANDSCAPE INSTALLATION. If you decide you need help with your landscape design and installation, feel free to contact us for a free estimate.