Lawns have been a long-time staple to house fronts. However, it takes up a lot of resources and can also be challenging to maintain with a busy schedule. Instead, consider low-maintenance landscaping ideas for your house front yard. The following are methods that will still provide you with appeal while requiring less upkeep for your time and budget:
Urban Gardens/Yards
Create an urban garden or “yard” by utilizing the front exterior to grow vegetables and other plants (e.g., begonia, dahlias). This provides food as well as attractive colors and flowers for the house.
The only downside is that depending on where you live. There may be house codes against this type of landscaping; however, if allowed, you can save on produce as well as make some extra money by selling some of your yields at a local farmer’s market or directly to the public.
Paving Stones and Hardscapes
Use paving stones and hardscapes (e.g., brick, concrete, wood) around house foundations and walkways instead of grass to reduce the time needed for mowing and watering.
While this will require more long-term planning since you will need to first pay for installation, it is still more cost-effective than lawns after their initial cost passes.
For example, on average, hardscaping costs $4-$5 per square foot while landscaping takes about $2 for every square foot, so if your house front yard has 50 feet of pavement, you would only need to spend an extra $100-$200 for paving stones.
Colorful Pots
Use pots of color near house entrances and pathways.
This will require less upkeep since the plants are contained within the pot versus the whole house front yard needing watering or mowing.
Many options don’t require much maintenance beyond changing up the flowers inside now and then. Additionally, this can even be used to establish a theme with colors (e.g., all pink pots for Mother’s Day).
Decorative Gravels
Purchase decorative gravels for house fronts instead of grass or other materials to complement hardscaping. They come in different shapes, sizes, colors patterns, etc., so choose the one that fits best with your house exterior. In addition, gravels are easy to clean, maintain, and cheap compared to other house front yard landscaping ideas.
Banana Plant/Tree
Purchase a banana plant or tree if you have house codes for growing edibles in the house front yard. Banana plants look aesthetically pleasing with their large green leaves and provide fruit that is tasty when ripened correctly.
The downside is that bananas grow fast, so this house front yard landscaping idea will need to be replaced every two years, so it may be better if you want to go with edibles but don’t have the means of regularly buying them from grocery stores or farmer’s markets.
Trees That Grow Fast
Purchase house front yard landscaping ideas that grow fast, so you only have to pay for them once. This will provide house fronts with low-maintenance house front yard landscaping ideas, especially if they are evergreen trees because the leaves do not fade in winter and fall off during autumn. However, keep house codes for house landscaping ideas (e.g., trees should be pruned and often)
Evergreen Shrubs
Evergreen shrubs provide house fronts with foliage for most of the year without any upkeep since it does not die or lose its color when fall and winter come around.
Additionally, these house front yard landscaping enable homeowners to plant flowering bulbs in the house front yard during spring which come in a wide range of colors, shapes, and sizes.
Water Feature/Fountain
Purchase a water feature or fountain that provides appealing sights, sounds, scents (e.g., roses), etc., for your house exterior. This is another example of increasing home exterior beauty without requiring much upkeep depending on the type of house front yard landscaping ideas.
Arbors and Trellises
Purchase arbors or trellises if house codes allow planting vines on house fronts as house front yard landscaping ideas. Vines provide house fronts with visual appeal and can also decorate fences and other house exterior structures if house codes allow doing so (e.g., covers for power, telephone, and cable lines).
Conclusion
House front yard landscaping ideas are essential to house exterior features that house owners do not give much thought to unless house fronts need an update, major house repairs are required, etc. There are many house front yard landscaping ideas out there, so it is best to decide which front yard landscape idea matches the house the most while being low-maintenance enough for house codes in place.
Fortunately, hardscapes and foliage plants go well together because they complement each other’s color palette while also enabling homeowners to have low-maintenance house front yards that look nice for years to come depending on their chosen house front yard landscaping ideas.
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