My home has what most people would call a tiny front yard – especially the part that is directly in front of our home's entrance and to the left of the garage.
I’d like to replace as much of the front yard as I can with a low-maintenance, front-yard garden. Considering the yard's diminutive size, I think it’s silly to put effort and time into mowing it.
Front-yard gardens are gaining in popularity – on just a 2 to 3-block walk in my neighborhood the other day, I saw many attractive front yard gardens. (See accompanying photos.)
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I already have a flower bed in my front yard that was filled with beautiful red tulips a few weeks ago and will boast some daylilies later in the season. I hope to expand my front planting bed to eat up more of the grass in the front yard, and perhaps add a bench or seating area.
If you’d like to replace your lawn with something’s more low maintenance, consider:
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1. Adding areas of mulch or gravel. These come in various hues to complement your home’s color and aren’t water hogs. Stonegardengate.com recommends using flowing, soft lines that create visual appeal. I like the idea of framing a central area of grass with rocks and flowers.
One of my neighbors has a pretty front-yard garden framed as such, and I also like this example of arock border that I found online. Meanwhile, another neighbor has replaced her front lawn entirely with red gravel and plants to fill the yard with slow-growing, ornamental boxwood plants.
2. Extending front-yard garden beds: If you already have a planting bed in front of your home, consider widening it to cover more space (and to allow for more plantings and flowers), or continuing it along the border of your driveway.
3. Providing seating: To take up more lawn and to allow space for your enjoyment, you could add a garden bench (perhaps in a bed of mulch or gravel), or create seating by lining trees and planting beds with paver stones.
4. Creating visual interest: Small ornamental trees, boulders and decorative bushes can be used to add interest to the space and to eat up more lawn space.
5. Using ground cover: Grass can be replaced with low-growning ground covers like vines and low-ground shrubs. The best part about these is that you don't have to mow them!
Have ideas for a front yard garden? Tell us in Comments.
