Having a small front yard makes it easier to create curb appeal. Here are some small front yard landscaping ideas that can make a big impact.
1. Ruthlessly declutter your front yard.
For many people, landscaping means planting shrubs and flowers. In fact, when I would to tell friends I was studying landscape design, the first thing they said was, “What should I plant in front of my house?”
But landscaping is essentially about creating outdoor spaces. And the first place to start that process is to remove what isn’t needed, rather than to add new things. This way, you’ll be better to see clearly what you already have.
Toss items in your front yard landscape that are past their prime.
Many things have a way of accumulating outside without being noticed. Get rid of items that aren’t currently serving a purpose. Examples: old plastic hanging baskets, cracked lawn furniture, tattered flags and decorations, faded kids’ toys, and those little piles of dead leaves that need to be composted.
This includes plants! If you don’t love them, and they really aren’t adding anything to your landscape, dig them out. Just because something is growing in your front yard now doesn’t mean it has to stay forever. With a small front yard, it’s important to curate a collection of plants that truly bring you joy.
Get rid of weeds in your front yard landscaping.
Go all the way out to the street and clean up your curb line. Remove weeds growing in cracks in the sidewalk and debris left over from storm water. This makes a clean, crisp framework for your property.
Pull out the entire root system of weeds, so you only have to deal with them once. Although some weeds do respond best to repeated cutting at ground level, which weakens them over time.
Places to eliminate weeds include around your mailbox, around downspouts and drainage pipes, along the perimeter of the house, around kids’ play structures, and around trees.
2. Prune overgrown trees and shrubs in front of your house.
Whether you do it yourself, or hire a professional, you’ll want to read up on the proper pruning techniques for all of your trees and woody-stemmed shrubs.
In general, anything dead, diseased, or damaged should be removed. No shrubs or tree branches should touch your house. Remove any that makes mowing difficult, and anything that blocks windows or walkways.
Invest in professional care for your trees.
Professionals will prune branches that are blocking air circulation or interfering with the shape of the plant. They also make cuts to distribute weight properly, which makes plants safer during storms and enhances their health and growth.
“Limbing up” trees removes the bottom layer of branches to lift up the canopy. This can let in quite a bit of new light and air circulation, and often the results are dramatic.
In terms of small front yard landscaping ideas, asking a certified arborist to evaluate your trees is one of the most important things to do. Often the initial consultation is free, resulting in a comprehensive plan for tree care, which you can do in phases, if cost is an issue.
Try to take care of major tree work before doing anything else, since it might require large equipment that could damage planting beds and so forth.
Prune shrubs to enhance their natural forms.
Unless you are working on a formal hedge line, you don’t want to “shear” your woody plants. Follow a target branch down to the point where it joins the main stem, then make a sharp cut using a proper pruning saw or sharp loppers. Clean cuts look best and don’t invite fungus or pests. The cuts should be angled so as not to retain surface water, which can invite pathogens.
Pruning in this way maintains the natural shape of the plant. It is also possible to cut some deciduous shrubs down to about 6″-12″ high to start over. New growth will emerge from the base of the plant.
Check with a professional first to see if this will work for your particular plant. A great place to find out this information is from a quality nursery in your area.
Another idea could be to start over with low maintenance shrubs that do not require much pruning. Check out this terrific video from S&K Greenhouse for suggestions:
3. Eliminate the need for lawn trimming.
Rethink areas where the lawn is not accessible by a mower (i.e., where you have to go around with a trimmer). If it’s around the foundation of your house, install a planting bed or gravel strip. The goal is to be able to mow your lawn completely without stopping.
If you have planting areas edged with protruding pavers or bricks, sink the stones or brick to ground level so the mower can run right over them.
If you have trees, create mulch circles or plantings of ground cover around them. This saves the tree from being damaged by the mower or trimmer (weed whacker). A respected arborist once told me the goal is to try to recreate the forest floor around my trees.
No turf grass (lawn) or mulch should be mounded up against the base of the tree. The tree’s “flare” (the beginning of the root system at the bottom of the trunk) should be visible to the eye.
4. Clearly define the edges of your driveway, walkways, and planting beds.
It’s amazing how much turf and sediment can build up at the sides of your hardscape areas. Take a flat shovel and lift up all areas around the edges your walkways and driveway. Then use an edging tool to cleanly cut off the excess.
Use the same edging tool to create crisp landscape edging for all of your planted areas.
This often adds a bit of “found” width to your paved areas and a fresh, renewed appearance.
It’s one of the small front yard landscaping ideas that costs nothing to do and makes a huge impact.
5. Streamline your small front yard plantings.
Eliminate anything too small in scale. For example, if you have any tiny “island” plantings, consider moving the plants to a larger bed and turfing over the islands. The landscape looks best when designed in large drifts. Think swathes of lawn, waves of flowers, groupings of shrubs, groves of trees. Why? Because it’s most like nature.
Likewise, thin strips of plantings along walkways and driveways are usually out of scale and hard to maintain with a clean edge. A planting area should be 3′ deep at the barest minimum (deeper is better). If you have smaller areas created by structures or walkways, these look best when planted with simple green ground cover (sweet woodruff, creeping thyme, etc.).
These small front yard landscaping ideas will lay the groundwork for creating a unified, elegant space. Once this important work is done, you can focus on adding fun projects like adding a bright front door color and pretty pots to welcome visitors to your home.
