The front of your home is important when it comes to curb appeal. It’s the first thing people see and therefore contributes to a “first impression” of your home, whether they’ve actually been there or not. Homeowners want to keep the front of their home looking its best for many reasons.
The flower beds in front of your house are particularly important. They help to add bursts of color for some “wow factor,” soften any hardscaping around the front of your home (like walkways, the driveway, or even the sidewalks), and also help make you proud of your home.
Of course, in order to achieve all of those benefits, you need a great landscape design. You don’t want something boring or ordinary. You’re looking for some exciting flower bed ideas for the front of your house that will help make it the best on the block. In other words, ideas that take your home to the next level.
To help get you started, we’ve rounded up some front yard flower bed ideas to consider.
The ideas that will work best for your property will depend upon your specific wants and needs (as well as logistics like the amount of space available and the layout of your home). But here are some ideas to get started.
You already understand the value of having color in front of house flower beds. This is an area where those bright bursts of color will grab attention and really add curb appeal to your North Texas home. They can help to make the front of your house “pop.”
Season annuals are a great way to add color as they come in a wide array of different hues. Some of the spring annuals that we particularly like include some of the following choices.
We have some great tips for planting annuals in this article so that you get the most out of your installation. Everything from spacing to color groupings and overall layout are important factors to consider.
While annuals seem to be the obvious choice for color, keep in mind that perennials and various shrubs can also provide color variety. In fact, if you go “all in” on annuals, your landscape will look pretty bare once they die off. That’s why it’s also important to have a good variety of perennials and other shrubs in the front of house flower beds, too.
These will provide the “longevity” that annuals can’t offer.
Though they might not offer quite as spectacular a burst of color, many perennials and shrubs come in various shades that still add appeal and will keep on looking their best even as annuals fade.
There are various approaches to the color scheme of your front flower beds. Some homeowners prefer “like colors” grouped together whereas others like complementary colors spread throughout the beds. A lot of this is a personal preference.
What you want to avoid doing is going too “color crazy” that it looks like a hodgepodge mix. You don’t want it to seem as though there is no rhyme or reason to the layout. You also want to avoid making it seem as though the colors are clashing in some way.
Another schematic mistake that people sometimes make with front of house flower beds is spacing flower choices too far from each other. For instance, they go to the local nursery and pick up a variety of flats but then they install one flower here, another there—and it all looks really sparse.
Ultimately, you want to think about installing flowers in clusters so that it makes more of an impact.
Another consideration is the flower bed shape. Sometimes homeowners want a curved flower bed or one that juts out into their yard, giving them less grass to care for and mow. Other times, homeowners prefer flower beds that simply follow the lines of their walkways and are very linear in nature.
What will work best for you will depend upon the layout of your home as well as exactly what you want to achieve.
Sprucing up your front of house flower beds with professionally installed mulch can make a world of difference in the finished look. While some homeowners inquire about mulch vs. stone, choosing stone is going to dramatically limit your plant choices (and therefore your curb appeal factor). Plants ultimately perform better in a healthy layer of natural mulch.
Mulch can be a lovely addition that creates a fresh canvas that offers aesthetic appeal. But it also boasts benefits to your front yard flower beds like weed suppression, added nutrients, and root insulation.
A freshly mulched flower bed really stands out in an appealing way.
Of course, the finishing touch to professional mulch for front yard beds is edging. This means cutting a clean line between your lawn and your plant beds to help keep them looking neat and tidy.
There are various ways to perform edging.
Some clients like the idea of adding rock to edge their plant beds. This is definitely a visual addition that can create a nice look. But we can also cut a natural edge to create the delineation.
A natural edge will need some upkeep as it begins to fade over time, but it is definitely a clean and professional-looking finishing touch.
While stone might not be the best choice for mulch if you’re looking to have a lot of color in your front of house flower beds, you can incorporate stone in other ways. Big boulders or even areas of decomposed granite can add interesting appeal to your front yard flower beds.
It’s an added bonus that stone doesn’t require watering or upkeep the way that plant material will. That can make it a nice addition if you have a large space to fill but don’t want to do the entire area in flowers.
Flower beds in front of your house can be filled with a beautiful array of plants but you may still need a boost of “color factor” at your doorstep. This is where container gardens can shine.
Not only do the plants within the containers add color but so do the beautiful pots or urns that you plant them in.
A good rule of thumb for gorgeous container gardens is to have something that “thrills, spills, and fills.” This helps to make the containers look “full” and give the visual effect that you’re looking to achieve.
You’ll also want to make sure that you’re choosing plant material that will perform well in a container (as not all plants do). If you’re looking for guidance, a landscape professional should be able to help.
At the end of the day, whatever flower bed ideas you decide to incorporate, you want to feel that they will be executed exactly as you desire. This boils down to choosing the best landscaping professional.
You want someone with a keen eye for design that will offer you plenty of ideas that will help make your property stand out in the way that you want.
While homeowners sometimes consider tackling front yard landscaping on their own, a pro can remove the guesswork and make the entire process easy. After all, even flower installation on an existing plant bed can become more cumbersome than people realize. And if you are installing a brand-new flower bed that doesn’t already exist (or perhaps extending one), it’s quite a bit of work.
These projects can become labor-intensive and use up your free time. Plus, they can be a bit more complex than people realize. Even knowing which plant varieties will perform or look best or how to prep your plant bed ahead of mulching can require some horticultural knowledge you just don’t have.
That’s why hiring a pro might be your best choice.
We understand that you have better things to do with your time than getting involved in a landscaping project. By making the wise choice to work with a pro, you can sit back and relax while you watch your beautiful front yard flower bed ideas take shape.
Ready to have a truly impressive Northern Texas landscape? Get in touch with us so we can talk about some enhancements that might work best for your unique property.
Image Source: Zinnia