The front side of a home is a reflection of the tastes and preferences of the owner. Carefully planned front yards will earn respect and admiration from onlookers while an abandoned front yard reflects poorly on the homeowner. In this article, we discuss five essential tips that will help you design a beautiful front garden.
Consult a Landscape Designer
Most homeowners take careful consideration of every item to achieve a perfectly polished look. While you may be talented in interior design and decoration, your talents may not translate to your front yard. Hand over the reins to a landscape designer.
Hiring a professional designer does not come cheap, but it is worth every penny. Discuss various options that could work for your front yard and narrow down to most likely ones. If you decide to plant shrubs and trees, ask your landscaper how to find the best pole saw to keep your property neat.
Hard Landscape
If you are fond of do-it-yourself (DIY) projects, collect a couple of bricks and create a walkway stretching to your front door. This path will guide visitors coming to your home especially during the rainy season when walking on grass may be difficult. Go further and set up a patio to break the monotony of the front door area.
A patio enhances the beauty of the front yard, and it also provides shade to shelter your shoes from the weather elements. You can decorate the patio with climbing plants and pots of potted flowers hang around the curved wood. Avoid plants or flowers with thorns as they could hurt family members or visitors getting into your home.
Blooming Flowers
While spring flowers are very attractive, other types of flowers can flourish in other seasons. For instance, winter tends to have an endless cycle of gloomy days that leave the neighborhood street looking dreary. The thought of having your morning coffee overlooking a gray street can be depressing for many.
Planting flowers that bloom in the winter will spruce up your yard. Place these flowers strategically near your front door to give a warm welcome to visitors.
Keep off Pests
After painstakingly growing your crop with the best fertilizer, the last thing you want is a wild deer or mole attacking your plants. These malicious pests nib on the stems, roots or leaves leaving a trail of destruction in your garden. While traps are effective in catching wild rabbits, moles, squirrels, some animals like deer are too big.
Sometimes erecting a fence around your garden is fruitless if people forget to close the gate. If all else fails, consider planting perennials like globe thistle and purple cornflower. These flowers are pleasing to the eye, but wild animals like deer do not care for them.
Horizontal Fencing and Wall Garden
Some neighborhoods allow homeowners to fence around their front and back yard while others prefer to maintain an open plan look. If the zoning laws allow you to put up fences in the front yard, erect a horizontal fence around your property. With horizontal fencing, the lines are more pronounced as compared to the traditional vertical fencing.
Though wood walls are a staple, you can also choose between steel, aluminum, and vinyl. The choice of fencing material depends on your budget and the climatic conditions of your area of residence. Staining wood and applying a generous coating of varnish will keep it safe from wood eating insects and also protect it from weather elements.
While most gardening happens in the dirt, there are other ways of gardening that look ideal for your yard. One such trend is a walled garden. All you need is a set of repurposed plastic containers, some wood planks, and side poles for support.
Set up a ladder like structure against the wall and support it with sturdy poles on either side. Fill the plastic containers with a planting medium and plant herbs flowers in them. Tend to these plants by watering on a daily basis and removing weeds.
Conclusion
The tips above will help you start off beautifying your front yard. Feel free to experiment with different ideas over a span of several weeks until you find what works best for your yard. Keep an ongoing spreadsheet of every expense and compare this against the budget you set at the onset. If it makes sense, make a few adjustments on the budget to accommodate new landscaping ideas.
What about you? Do you have any additional suggestions for designing a beautiful front yard garden? Leave a comment.
About the Author:
Shary Saunders is a blogger at sharycherry.com. Gardening and landscaping have been her passion for years. You can find Shary on Twitter at @SharySaunders.
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