10 Front Yard Landscaping Ideas Perfect For Reimagining Your Lawn

Do you dream of a brand-new lawn that sets you apart from the rest of the block? If so, we’ve got the perfect list of front-yard landscaping ideas for you. When it comes to the front yard, the classic green lawn bereft of ecological diversity is gradually going out of style. Water is at a premium in many parts of the country, and consumers have become more eco-conscious homeowners over time, so it only makes sense to update your lawn for the new world.

The cool thing is that transforming your lawn into something new doesn’t have to be a super-expensive or difficult project. There are plenty of cool ways to go about realizing your beautiful front yard dreams, so let’s explore just a few.  

Eco-Friendly

Choose hardier indigenous plants for your front yard and save water in the process.

Having an eco-friendly approach to gardening means thinking about how your lawn interacts with the wider environment. The rule of thumb is to ensure that your lawn is populated with plant life that is both indigenous and also has a symbiotic relationship with the rest of the ecosystem. For example, planting your garden with a series of different flowers that bloom at different times allows you to provide a year-round haven for local pollinators.

If you want to keep away pests without resorting to harmful chemicals, use nets instead to keep insects off your crunchy lettuce. Using more resilient plants will also reduce your reliance on artificial fertilizers as your plants will be able to stand up to difficult conditions on their own. Some types of fruit trees, for example, can prove quite hardy even in the face of frost or lack of sun. 

Budget Saver

A rock garden costs almost nothing to build and helps fill ugly gaps in your lawn.

There are hundreds of affordable hacks out there for improving your lawn in small yet meaningful ways. If your main goal is to boost your home’s curb appeal, one reliable way of doing this is tree planting. Trees cost virtually nothing to plant but give your home reliable shade, and noise abatement, and even shield your home from the wind.

Small DIY decorations such as wooden window boxes are another quite simple addition that can make your home look a lot nicer. Adding a small rock garden to your lawn is another way to visually improve it without breaking the bank. Rock gardens are easy to build and can help fill in any blank space on your lawn - not to mention save on water.

Accent Flowers

Populate your garden with coordinated pops of bright flowery color.

Wherever you live, your lawn is likely dominated by one primary color. In the Northwest that color is probably green, in the Southwest it might be a sand color. Either way, adding some bright flowers as an accent will make your front yard pop in a way that it didn’t before. The beauty of this front yard landscaping design is that it works with your existing lawn and doesn’t require you to radically change anything.

Rather, all you need to do is plant your favorite brightly-colored flower in a few strategic places and this design will make a big statement. As far as front yard flower bed ideas go, this is one of the simplest ones out there and requires little to no gardening experience. 

Go Wild 

Reimagine your garden as a friendly sanctuary for local critters, bees, and butterflies.

Most of us have a standard green patch of grass for a front lawn, and maybe a few hedges and flowers. If you want to spice up your front yard landscaping though, we recommend ditching the standard front yard look and going for a wild garden filled with indigenous plants from your area. This makes for a much more visually interesting front yard as it will have much more color, texture, and variety.

This front yard idea is also just better for the environment since it means you don’t need as much water, fertilizer, or fuel for lawnmowers. Turning your front yard into a ‘micro prairie’ also makes it a haven for local wildlife including birds, butterflies, and other critters. 

Accent Trim 

The visual effect of good color coordination between your house and plants cannot be understated.

Rather than using plants, you can also color-coordinate your house with your garden. By choosing one color for elements such as door trim, outdoor furniture, doors, and windows you can use your home’s colors to play off the colors of your lawn. This is an especially popular technique in Mediterranean countries where the whites, blues, and sandstone colors of Riviera-style homes are contrasted beautifully with luscious green and flowery colors such as pinks, yellows, and oranges. This front yard landscaping idea effectively enhances your lawn without making changes to the yard itself. 

Echo Your Home’s Design 

Use the same natural stone cladding material to make a lovely garden path in your yard.

If your home makes extensive use of natural stone cladding, this presents you with a cool inspiration for the design of front yard hardscaping. Garden pathways are a simple way to make your front yard look more sophisticated and modern - and you can use natural stone slabs. Using the same natural stone slabs used on your home’s cladding makes for a well-thought-out design that looks well put together. This way you can revamp your front yard landscaping and make it fit with your home’s design at the same time.    

Biophilic Architecture

Biophilic decor adds dimension and texture to your home in a very eye-catching fashion.

Another front yard landscaping idea that offers an effective way of integrating the styling of your home with that of your garden is to create a biophilic design with a vertical garden. By building a simple plywood support a few inches from the wall you can provide a guide for vines to grow over your home, adding texture without the vines damaging your siding.

Hanging potted plants also allow greenery to drape your building for an extra burst of natural color. You can combine this with the color trim coordination mentioned earlier for an especially eye-catching decorative effect. 

Green Terraced Cascade

Terraced gardens look neat and make watering a lot easier.

A home perched on a hill represents an exciting potential for front-of-house landscaping. With this front yard landscaping design idea you can take advantage of the natural slope your hilly front yard provides to install terraced flower beds. This is the ultimate front yard flower bed idea because it allows you to create a cool cascading effect with colorful greenery.

This front yard idea is also quite practical because it allows you to easily water all your flower beds as they are closer together and within easy reach. Taking care of a lawn can be a lot of work, so it only makes sense to make smart front yard landscaping choices so that your job is easier.  

Curvy Flower Rows

A well-manicured flower row is a perfect way to boost curb appeal.

A curvy row or two of beautiful colorful flowers makes for a positively regal atmosphere for any front yard. What better way to spruce up your front yard landscaping than by endowing it with a sea of color? All you have to do to make this front yard flower bed idea work is to pick a selection of two or three flower varieties and plant them in neat rows.

Build your row along a driveway, walkway, or along your home’s facade for maximum effect. If you have trouble choosing flowers, think about colors that go especially well with each other. Pinks and purples, yellows and oranges, and other such combos are what you are aiming for.  

All-Year Special 

Perennial flowers don’t need to be replanted every year, saving you lots of manual labor.

If you yearn for a small front yard landscaping idea that makes gardening even easier, planting perennials is by far the best way to go. Unlike your garden-variety annual flowers that must be replanted every year, perennial flowers will last at least two years or more. Perennials will bloom once per year before going dormant until the next season. 

They can bloom in either summer, spring, or even fall depending on the variety. If you just don’t like replanting every year, this is the next best thing - especially for a small backyard. Popular perennial plants include hollyhock, azaleas, and sage.