Three Amazing Front Yard Landscaping Ideas

Your front yard doesn’t have to be a typical patch of grass, mailbox, and garden flag. The front yard landscaping ideas that are available for you to use are endless. With a little creative thinking and an open mind, you can have a front yard that everyone in the neighborhood will talk about.

Front Yard Landscaping Idea Number One: Create Outdoor Rooms

Many landscapers sell the idea of creating outdoor rooms in your backyard, but it is very popular to apply this landscaping idea to the front yard. Simply assess the size of your yard and look for areas that can be landscaped as a separate little sitting space. Place a bench under a tree. Fill in the surrounding area with different types of flowers and shrubs, and add a few potted plants next to your bench. Having a sitting area in your front yard creates a wonderful place to visit with neighbors, observe the daily happenings on your street or even watch your kids while they play.

Front Yard Landscaping Idea Number Two: Create Visually Pleasing Displays

Make your front yard a fun place to be by adding lots of visual stimulating objects. Adding a bird house or birdbath will attract lots of interesting wildlife to your yard. Planting shrubs and flowers that attract butterflies is a great way to bring these gorgeous insects to the area around your house. Try to partner your non plant items with compatible foliage and fauna. For example, if you place a birdbath in your yard, plant a colorful array of flowers around the base.

Containers are a fantastic way to add variety to your yard. You can place big tubs or planters of flowers on your front porch, along your driveway, or even on your lawn. The beauty of containers is that when you get tired of them in one place, they are easy to move or replant.

Front Yard Landscaping Idea Number Three: Mix Perennials And Annuals

Perennials are one of the easiest ways to landscape your yard. The bloom year after year can be propagated by division, making them an inexpensive way to add to your landscape, and they are relatively maintenance free. Perennials tend to bloom in succession, so you always have something blooming in your yard. Annuals give a continuous burst of color in your front yard, but they only last one season. They aren’t that expensive, so it isn’t hard to plant them each spring. Because they only last one season, they are wonderful for people who like to try new things each year. By having a mix of perennials and annuals in your front yard, you get the best of both worlds.

Front Yard Landscaping Secrets

Your front yard says a lot about you. It is the first thing that visitors see, even before they enter your home. Your front yard landscaping often is the first impression that your neighbors will have about you. Taking a little time to design your front yard landscaping will pay off with years of enjoyment.

Keep Your Front Yard Landscaping Consistent With Your House

Before you decide on your front yard landscaping, take time to choose a style that fits with the type of house you live in. If you live in a Spanish style stucco bungalow, choose a plant scheme that is compatible with this style of architecture. For example, consider terra cotta planters, draping bougainvillea plants and other tropical foliage. If you live in a sprawling ranch house, consider low growing shrubs and changing annuals.

Keep Your Front Yard Landscaping Easy On Maintenance

Before you invest your time and money in landscaping your front yard, take the time to do the preliminary work the correct way. Invest in a good sprinkler and drip water system, complete with a timer. For years to come, you will enjoy a green lawn and healthy plants without ever having to worry that you forgot to water.

Take the time to have your yard leveled before you plant grass, and have an expert give you advice on any drainage issues you might face. Putting the extra work in before you plant can save you lots of money and work down the road. If you don’t like the grade of your yard, it is easy to add top soil to your yard and change the level of your slopes.

If mowing isn’t your thing, consider having easy to maintain groundcovers instead of grass as a part of your front yard landscaping plan. Many people prefer to have their grass behind their house and choose to landscape their front yard using shrubs, rocks, bark, or even flagstone.

Have Fun Landscaping Your Front Yard: But Not Too Much Fun

It can be a lot of fun to show off a little personality in your front yard. While your front yard can be a great canvas for expressing yourself, don’t make it an eyesore that causes your neighbors to shudder. Having one garden gnome or a cute garden sign is fun, but having a collection of gnomes or pink flamingos can be a bit overwhelming. Strive to create a classic balance of whimsy in your front yard and your landscaping will be appreciated by everyone who visits.

Free Landscaping Software Helps Design Exterior On A Budget

When designing your own landscaping on a budget, you may not want to spend a lot of money on three-dimensional computer software for designing your exterior design. Some companies offer free landscaping software to help you choose the plants as well as their colors and sizes to get the most out of your outdoor living space. Most include different types of plants, including annuals and perennials and allow the user to alter the size of the pictures for a more accurate rendering of how the project will look when completed.

One of the drawbacks of using free landscaping software is it may not allow the user to change the style of the house or the layout of the flowerbeds or other gardens. With many of them, there is one main house design surrounded by beds and if it not the same as your home’s design the free landscaping software can be used only for choosing the sizes and colors of flowers to see how they will look together.

Some of the free landscaping software available is offered by companies selling flowers and flower seeds, usually online and their suggestions usually center around the products they offer for sale. However, with some basic landscaping software costing close to $100, this can be a cheap trade off to the benefits of the software. While the suggestions are made, there is no reason why the plants cannot be purchased at a local nursery.

Lack Of Options Obvious Is Some Software

Complete landscaping software will usually include options for adding landscaping stones or lumber while most free landscaping software lack this option. Depending on the company from which you receive your free software many options may be included or eliminated. Many times do-it-yourself landscape companies will offer free landscaping software for potential customers that contain more features than the software given away by seed companies.

One of the good things about many of the free landscaping software offers made online is that they do not require registration, are quick to download and, once you find out they really will not offer any help, can easily be deleted from your system. It may take a few minutes for the entire process, but you will not be out any money.

In most cases, free landscaping software will be fairly easy to use as well as being self-explanatory. Seldom will there be any help available except what is included with the software, but they can provide some information about choosing plants for individual climates. As with just about anything given away for free, you can expect basic options to be included, but you also get what you pay for.

Where to Find Free Landscaping Ideas

You have been looking at your yard lately, and are dismayed at the way it looks. You mow the lawn on a regular basis, but the lawn looks more like straw. You try to weed when you can, but the weeds just keep coming. You don’t have a lot of money at the moment, so what you need are some free landscaping ideas.

About Free Landscaping Ideas

The first thing that you need to do is find free landscaping ideas in reference to why your lawn is so straw-like. The main cause of this probably has to do with lack of watering. It can also have to do with too much mowing. So, you should begin by only mowing your lawn when it really becomes taller than three inches – so no more than once per week.

The next free landscaping idea that you need is in reference to why you have so many weeds. Much of this might have to simply do with the climate that you live in. For example, if you live in a humid climate, weeds thrive on moisture. So, a free landscaping idea to try is to take some lemon juice and spray it throughout the lawn. The acidic nature of the lemon juice can help to kill the weeds.

If you need other free landscaping ideas, a simple thing that you can do is take a walk around your neighborhood. Look at the lawns of your neighbors, and make a mental note of things they have done with their lawns that you might like to do as well. You can also ask them about their lawns.

Another free landscaping idea that you can do is to go to your local garden center and look at the free pamphlets that are usually available throughout the store. Not only can these pamphlets give you free landscaping ideas, but they can also give you ideas as to how much landscaping products generally cost

Something else that you can look into when it comes to free landscaping ideas is the gardening section of your local bookstore. Many places now have sections where you sit and read without having to actually purchase the book. Of course, the intent is that you buy the book if you think you will like it.

However, take your time and go through the gardening books and any gardening magazines that are available. The pictures alone can help you find what you are looking for when it comes to landscaping your yard. You can also search the internet, but regardless, you are sure to find the right free landscaping ideas with the proper research.

A Guide To Desert Landscaping

Perhaps when most people think of the desert, they only think of broiling hot days, cacti, and dry heat. In truth, many deserts are located in high terrain and the hottest of days can actually turn into cool nights. Many deserts also experience cold winters that can include snow, and desert landscaping often reflects this.

Desert Landscaping: The Hot And Cold

Because the desert can experience such a range of temperature changes, desert landscaping needs to be hardy enough to tolerate heat as well as cold. Evergreen shrubs and trees survive well in high terrain deserts, because they withstand the heat and tolerate cold. Many cactus plants are also cold hardy. This surprises many people, because they think of cactus as hot area plants.

If you have a home in the desert and want to do some desert landscaping around your house the best place to buy your plants is from a local nursery. Often big box garden retailers have their plants ordered by someone in their regional office. This person often doesn’t understand the complexities of desert weather and orders plants that might not do well in your yard. Ordering plants from a local nursery or choosing landscaping that is locally grown ensures that you will get plants that will thrive and grow in your desert landscaping.

Desert Landscaping: Water With Care

If you stick to plants that are native to the area in which you live, watering your yard shouldn’t be an issue. However, if you want to grow flowers, vegetables, or other plants that don’t normally grow in the desert, you need to make sure that you provide a source of water to your desert landscaping. Before you design your desert yard, check with your local authorities to make sure that there are no watering restrictions in your city or county. Once you have established how much water you want to spare on your yard each month, come up with a watering plan. Do you want to water by hand? The easiest way to water your lawn and garden is with a timed sprinkler system. If you plant grass set your timer to go off in the early morning hours, so that the water can seep into your ground before the sun rises and causes it to evaporate. Choose a drip irrigation system to water your shrubs and ground covers and you will see minimal waste.

If you want to cut back on the amount of watering your desert landscaping requires, fill your yard with gravel or rocks instead of grass. This low maintenance alternative to grass looks attractive in a desert setting. One caveat to rocks is that light colored gravel will reflect the sun’s heat, causing your yard to seem even hotter each afternoon.