Curb Appeal Landscaping Ideas Designers Love for a Beautiful, Blooming Entry
A colorful and well-designed front lawn and garden can be an eye-catcher, demonstrating how landscaping your sidewalk will make your entryway more inviting.
Window boxes and planters are classic options for decorating your porch and adding curb appeal to your front sidewalk. But there are many other creative ways to use landscaping to increase your curb appeal to your advantage.
Read on for 24 easy landscaping tips that will help you breathe new life into your flower beds, pots, and porch.
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01 Add Perennial Plants
It’s a common practice to plant colorful annuals, such as pansies and impatiens, in front of beds and in porch pots to add a pop of color. But annual plants need to be replaced every year, which can be expensive and add a chore to a home gardener’s to-do list.
Instead, try replacing some annuals with perennials that are easy to grow and will come back each spring without much fuss. Plants like coneflower, black-eyed Susan, and yarrow grow well in pots, flower pots, and flower beds!
02 Utilize Pollinator Plants
Perennials and annuals can be grown for aesthetic purposes only, but you’ll get more out of your garden if you also plant some pollinator plants. Flowers such as foxglove, pineapple sage and bee balm are quite colorful and very attractive to bees and hummingbirds.
03 Install Bed Edging
A flower bed border adds definition to flower beds and helps keep out weeds. But borders can also protect plants, trees and shrubs from damage caused by lawn mowers and weeders. One option is a plastic flowerbed edging, but you can also use natural materials such as stones and wicker branches (called edging) to frame the flowerbed.
04 Plan for the Season
If you want your front garden to remain vibrant throughout the year, plant flowers that bloom at different times of the year.
For some fall fun, try planting plants with leaves that change color, such as honeysuckle, blueberry and dogwood. And don’t forget to add some winter favorites with attractive bark and berries, such as mature tree, paper birch and winterberry.
05 Hang Window Boxes
One of the easiest ways to make your home more attractive is to add a few window boxes filled with colorful flowers and leaves.
Well-placed windows can highlight a home’s architectural features and colors, and can be replaced with new plants for seasonal displays. Climbing plants such as jenny vines and sweet potato vines are especially prominent in window treatments.
06 Put Out Planters and Pots
Window boxes have their own charm, but porch planters and hanging baskets can also be used to add color and interest to the front of your home. Tall pots can be used to frame doorways or walkways, or climbing plants can be planted to add movement and color to porches and patios.
For a classic pot design, pair “carpet” plants with brighter “horror” plants and fill in the gaps with filler plants.
07 Plant in Layers
If you want to add complexity to your front beds and garden paths, plant flowers and foliage plants in layers. Plant tall shrubs and perennials in the back of the flower bed and low-growing ornamentals and groundcovers in the front.
This planting technique makes garden design more thoughtful, but also allows you to experiment with different plants, textures and colors.
08 Include Specimen Plants
Small trees and ornamental shrubs make wonderful specimens and can be used as the centerpiece of a flower garden or to draw attention to an architectural feature in the front of the house.
Plants with interesting leaves, unique growth characteristics, or flowers can be especially attractive as specimens. For example, the weeping oak is often grown as a specimen tree because of its dark leaf color and flowing branches.
09 Play with Colors
Plants with bright flowers can highlight the entrance. But for even greater impact, choose plants in complementary colors and flowers that complement the colors of your home.
If your home has bright shutters or colorful mailboxes, introduce these colors into your flower beds to create an eye-catching design.
10 Grow Foliage Plants
Flowering plants are essential if you want to add interest to the front of your home. However, plants with interesting foliage should not be overlooked.
Ornamental grasses can add movement and texture to garden beds, while plants with variegated or silver leaves can add unexpected pops of color to flower pots and window boxes.