If your house is lacking curb appeal, or is just in need of a refresh, these unique front yard landscaping ideas will inspire you as you tackle a new landscape design.

The Best Front Yard Landscaping Ideas For Your Home

What kind of first impression does your home make? Whether you’re looking to sell your house, or just want to love where you live, your front entrance landscaping design is crucial. Front landscape design often falls down on the priority list because people often spend more time hanging out in their backyard. However, by implementing a few simple front yard landscaping ideas, you can change the look and feel of your home, increase its curb appeal, elevate your neighborhood, and make your home a place you’re proud to live in. We’ve pulled together some front-of-house landscaping ideas from recent projects designed and installed by Big Rock Landscaping. These, combined with our landscaping tips, can help inspire you as you create the welcoming front yard you’ve always wanted.

Front Yard Landscaping 101

Before you take a trip to the local nursery or home improvement store and fill your cart with anything and everything you see, let’s cover some front landscape design basics. None of these are meant to be hard and fast rules, but you should consider each of these front yard landscaping tips as you make a plan for your yard.

Don’t Block Light

Whether you’re planting trees, shrubs, or bushes, think about what will happen when they mature. Will they grow up and cover windows or keep natural light from entering your house? Even if you’re looking for a little extra shade, keep things clear so you don’t obstruct your view looking in or out, or block any sunlight from entering your home.

Get Crisp Edges

Nothing livens up a yard faster than freshly mown and crisply edged grass. Whether you’re personally maintaining your landscaping design, or hiring the task out to professionals, keeping it well groomed will liven up the look of your home.

Create An Entrance

The last thing you want to do is leave people guessing about how to get to your door, or maybe even which door to use. Make your entrance obvious, and make it easy and approachable for people to reach you. Curved paths are ok, but don’t create a meandering path for people to navigate. Avoid planting shrubs that may grow onto or obstruct the path. If you decide to line the walkway with greenery, make sure it is a low growing, hearty variety.

Use Planters

Planters are a great way to add some drama to a porch, driveway, or front of a house. The best part is you can easily change up the plantings each season. If you opt to place planters as part of your front of house landscaping, pay close attention to their scale. Planters that are too large can overtake or dwarf the front of your house. On the other hand, too small of planters might look silly, and will lack the impact you’re looking for.

Mix Hardscape And Softscape

Your front landscape isn’t just about what you plant. Your pathways, borders, pots, porch, and other hardscape elements come into play as well. Make sure you have a good mix of hardscape (permanent or solid landscape fixtures) and softscape (living or organic landscaping).

Take Cues From The Surrounding Area

Sure, you want your front landscape design to stand out and be original, but there’s a big difference between being unique and being outlandish. Take a look at the natural growth in your area, and observe what your neighbors have done with their landscaping. You’ll likely want to incorporate elements that pull from nearby inspiration. Again, your yard can be uniquely yours, but it should also blend in with your neighborhood.

Be Mindful Of Growing Seasons

It would be great if your yard could be in bloom all year round. Unfortunately, most climates don’t allow for this. Be mindful of growing seasons, and plan your yard accordingly. If you plant annuals, know that you will have to replant them every year, and will require more upkeep. If you go with perennials, be aware that they have a shorter blooming period. Consider what the flowers, bushes, and trees will look like in the colder months and in the heat of summer. Planting a variety of vegetation is a great way to stagger the growing season in your yard so you experience as much green as possible for as long as possible.

7 Front Yard Landscaping Ideas To Inspire Your Design

With the basics of landscaping out of the way, it’s time to dig into the fun stuff. These front yard landscaping ideas will help spark your imagination and show you some possibilities you may not have considered before. For even more landscaping ideas, be sure to visit the Big Rock Landscaping portfolio.

A Layered Look

This home took what could have been an eyesore in the form of a large, sloped front yard, and turned it into a tiered masterpiece. The use of retaining walls, a large pathway to the front door, and a variety of layered greenery creates a visually appealing look that guides your eye around the yard and up to the home’s entrance.

Natural Elements And Visual Interest

The staggered walkway and natural grasses give this front of house landscaping a wild and free feeling. Even though the steps aren’t perfectly aligned, there is still a direct path up them to the front door. Thus they add visual interest while still being functional. The wild grasses are contained within beds, which allows them to have a natural look that won’t overtake the yard. And overall, the style of the yard nicely complements the architecture of the house.

Clean And Simple

The architecture and finishes of this house add a lot of visual interest, so the landscaping is low and simple. It works to highlight features like the large front windows, the walkway, and the front door alcove. The greenery is also a beautiful contrast to the neutral palette of the house.

Mountaintop Vibes

This home is situated in the foothills, and the front landscape design reflects that. We used rocks, bark, and natural stone elements, combined with clusters of trees and bushes to create a woodsy feel. It gives the home an overall cabin-like feel, even though it is in an urban setting.

Small And Simple

If you’re working with a smallish front yard, you don’t want to overwhelm the landscape with too many plantings. In this design, a freshly mowed and edged lawn pairs nicely with simple garden beds and a couple of well placed trees.

A Clear Pathway

This front entrance pathway is simple, but provides a great deal of visual interest. The little bit of spacing between each cement pad breaks up the pathway, without impeding its functionality. The simple garden boxes and limited trees allow light to flow freely into the windows and don’t detract from the details of the architecture.

A Simple Xeriscape

When water is tight, or maintenance just isn’t your thing, you may want to opt for a no grass look. We used a variety of plants and natural elements to create a visual story in this simple front yard landscaping. It’s low maintenance, looks great, and is supremely unique.

Big Rock Landscaping: Your Utah Landscaping Design Experts

If you’re overwhelmed, or want help coming up with customized front yard landscaping ideas, you should call Big Rock Landscaping. We’ve been providing our award winning landscaping design and installation services to Utah homeowners for years. We use our award winning landscaping process on every project we tackle. This has helped us consistently provide the best landscaping services to our customers, whether we’re designing a yard from scratch, giving an outdoor space a refresh, or maintaining what you’ve got. If you’d like to learn more about what we can do, or talk to us about your front landscape design, contact us today to set up a consultation.