The front of your home is the first impression someone has of your home. Landscaping can further enhance the look of your home. Thoughtful landscaping can accentuate brick or siding colors and can draw your eye to the front door. With a little pre-planning, forethought, and knowledge, you can have a front landscape that wows and beautifully adds curb appeal.
Before purchasing plants, learn what kind of sunlight your front yard receives. Full sun is 6+ hours of sunlight each day or full afternoon sun, part sun is morning sun with afternoon shade. It's imperative to know what type of sunlight the front of your home receives, so pay attention a few days before coming to the garden center.
Once you've figured that out, take a good look at your home's exterior. Do you have a modern farmhouse? A traditional home? Do you have beautiful windows in a certain spot that you'd like to feature? Think of where you'd like a focal point. Your front door is the main focal point. Your landscape can complement and lead to your front entry. If you have a blue front door (for example), you can choose plants that complement that with blue-green foliage. If you have space between two garage windows (for example), that's a perfect place for a taller plant to go between. Take into account your home's exterior style and cater your landscape around that style.
Take photos and approximate measurements of your front gardening beds. You want to plant enough plants, but you also don't want to overbuy and plant too many plants in a space. Always think about the mature size of the plant you're purchasing and plan for that in your landscape space.
Use our helpful Plant Finder tool to research plants before coming to the nursery. Keep in mind that our inventory changes rapidly at times, so we may not have the specific variety in stock when you come. We can help you find a substitute or give you an idea of when we might have it back in stock.
OK! Now, it's time to go to the garden center!
Add foundation plants first. These are typically evergreen shrubs that create a barrier between your home and the rest of your gardening bed. Our tip is to make these evergreen (meaning they keep their leaves year-round) so that you have winter interest in your front landscape. Depending on the sunlight you receive depends on the type of shrub you can plant there. Full sun options include Schipp laurel, Holly, and Juniper. Part sun options include Distylium, Boxwood, and Japanese Yew. Shade options include Acuba or Camellia. Keep in mind the mature size of each plant, as you don't want to be constantly trimming plants. You also don't want the plants in front of these to end up being larger in size.
It's nice to soften the edges of your home with a taller plant (sometimes a small tree) on each front corner of the house. You can use evergreens here also, such as Emerald Arborvitae, or you can choose something deciduous that flowers such as Crape Myrtle, or has beautiful foliage such as Bloodgood Japanese Maple.
Before purchasing plants, learn what kind of sunlight your front yard receives. Full sun is 6+ hours of sunlight each day or full afternoon sun, part sun is morning sun with afternoon shade. It's imperative to know what type of sunlight the front of your home receives, so pay attention a few days before coming to the garden center.
Keep a four-season garden in mind. We love four-season gardens here at the nursery because you can have interest in each month of the year. After choosing foundation shrubs and taller plants to go at the corners of your home, begin choosing plants that go in front of the foundation plants. Depending on the depth of your gardening bed, these may be small perennials or annuals, or (if you have a large enough gardening bed) they may be deciduous shrubs that flower in the warm months. Now is a good time to come by the garden center and look for plants that add fall or winter interest. Some of our favorites to look for (depending on your space and sunlight) include Red or Yellow Twig Dogwood, Lenten Rose, Nine Bark, Camellia, and Loropetalum.
In landscaping, plants look best in a grouping. They also look great in odd numbers.
We're happy to help you pick plants for your landscaping. Just bring in photos on your phone, know your gardening bed dimensions and sunlight, and know that we can give the most help during the weekdays, as we usually have a lot of customers on Saturdays.