Front Yard Landscaping - Your Smile To The World

When we approach a home, our first impression is obviously what's in the front yard. If it's strewn with beer bottles and refuse, well, we make a harsh judgment concerning the occupants. An abandoned automobile, rusting and rotting, would do the same. The appearance of reckless disregard for cleanliness would be the first judgment, I would think. Plus, we have learned far too much about what seems to be the primary recreational activity. Everything screams "Stay away!". Well, to most of us anyway.

I use such an extreme negative example to consider our focus on the front yard, rather than to purse my lips and "tut-tut" anyone's bad day. The impression is strong, right off the bat, and judgments are made about the occupants in short order. Generally speaking, it is the same with any other front yard not containing piles of garbage. The design, it's relative maintenance and the amount of individuality can not only reveal much about its owner but can also provide something additional to a person's day. It can give a literal sense of pleasure and even be more than "just a yard". Even one tiny creative portion can draw the eye and make things far more interesting for the observer.

In the picture above of a newer home in a Reno, Nevada subdivision, a nice green expanse is bisected and made far more interesting by some curving features bordering not only its periphery, but also a bed set smack in the middle of things. This middle bed serves to break up the larger green sight lines into smaller parts, creating immediate interest in the content of the beds themselves (and particularly if what's inside is interesting) as well as giving an appealing curving characteristic which the most gentle landscapes tend to have. It has been my experience that the curving line in landscape design provides the most soothing and somehow fascinating appeal. When what we do on the inside of what those curving lines separating bed from lawn provide also has interest, we have succeeded in doubling our efforts and results, simply by using a curving principle.

The next picture reminds us we do not need immense space nor simply flowers to make for an interesting approach. Taken in Autumn, this picture from Louisville, Kentucky's St. James Court area, gives a partnership of earthy color to blend with an old-fashioned brick home to augment and focus our sight on what really appeals about the home. A very darling "do it yourself" feel to this landscape tells us the owner cares deeply about and enjoys where he lives. His efforts are not wasted one iota as those gorgeous colors remind us, in Fall, that they were undoubtedly completely gorgeous during Spring and Summer as well.

Front yards open the owner's hearts to the world. They can say "Welcome!" in the very best of ways. They can also reflect a sense of what sort of minds exist behind the doors. A changing front landscape - one where the owner tinkers and plays with design elements - tells us he likes living where he lives and that he might just be a very good, or at least avid, gardener. These sorts of yards are always fun - evolving, changing into different suits, as it were, yearly or over a most interesting period of time. These are what anyone would call just plain "Interesting Front Yards". These are probably the most fun.

Sidewalks And Patios

Other, more permanent entries can feature not only plants, grass and design elements like art work or boulders, but they can also feature interesting surfaces to walk on to get to the home itself. Make no mistake, there are some hugely attractive surfaces available for gorgeous entries.

All these things and many more matter. The design of a front yard can even feature driveways. Yes, a good driveway can appeal as much as anything else, done correctly and dressed up a little bit with the appropriate peripherals.

A home can add value and even longevity with the right design. Proper Feng Shui elements actually simply "happen" because they most resemble Nature's finish with your intent. Naturalized, modern and interesting is a very, very good way to present a home, to say nothing of living a life. All these things work as one. There is no greater value than that of beauty of form and function.