What Can I Plant In My Front Yard Curb Appeal

Curb appeal is the key to making a design statement in the front of your house. It is what draws people in and makes your home look cozy and inviting. Try planting a few simple things in the front of your home to make it look more beautiful and add more visual curb appeal to it.

• Choose planters that coordinate with the color of your front door and the outside of your home. An old red wagon or an old bike make cute porch planters. Even an old suitcase sitting on a small table would be cute filled with small plants or plants that hang down.
• Add shutters to your windows on the front of your home and add a shelf for planters or window boxes underneath your windows. Plant flowers in small containers or plant them directly in your planter box. Plant flowers like Geraniums, Coleus, Begonias, Supertunia Petunias, Zinnias, Impatiens,and hanging greenery like Creeping Jenny works well.
• Plant flowers up your walk like a combination of Super Tunias Petunias alternated with Blue Mohawk Juncus grass, White Guara, or “Sky Rocket” Fountain Grass Pennisetum or Hostas. Alternate the tall with the short for a striking look greeting visitors up your walk.
• Plant a berm. Plant shrubs, plants, and flowers that will prevent soil erosion such as Hostas, Mugo Pine, Creeping Phlox, Japanese Yews, Periwinkle, Boxwood to name a few.
• Put your house number on a basket with handles. Decorate the top of the basket with flowers flowing over the top or a flower arrangement that stands above the basket.
• Add unique lighting in your front yard plants.
• A small DIY water fountain can add some interesting variety to the plants and curb appeal in your front yard.
• Hang a live wreath on your front door.
• Add symmetrical bushes in a row like boxwoods or plants like Hostas or hydrangea bushes.
• Use decorative lanterns on your porch stairs. Put battery operated candles in your windows on the front of your house.

I love me a sub division that has well kept yards and cute houses. A house doesn’t have to be a mansion to be cute and have a lot of moxie curb appeal. With just a few simple additions to your yard, you can have a jaw dropping beautiful home front that will make people look twice when they drive by.

What To Plant In Your Porch Planters

You can get pretty imaginative with your porch planters or keep them simple and chic. First let’s talk containers. An old red wagon or an old bike makes a good porch planter. I use an old bike for a porch planter. I wired an old wire basket on the front of the bike. Next I lined it with a piece of burlap. Put some heavy plastic like a dark garbage bag turned inside out. (Garbage bags are treated for bugs so turn it inside out so it doesn’t affect the plants.) Fill with potting soil. Tuck the garbage bag below the soil so it doesn’t show.

Now a word about what to plant. Plant a combination of Supertunias Petunias regular size or mini vista petunias which are small beautiful petunias. (Easy to maintain and easy to grow if you take care of them.) These will look amazing when planted facing the sun and watered consistently. You can add other flowers to the container or just let the petunias take over the basket. They will bloom like crazy. They are simple flower beauties and easy to care for. Best part about it is that you don’t have to dead head them. It is a good idea to use a fertilizer once a week on a consistent basis. The company Proven Winners has a good water soluble fertilizer that works well. Choose a color or colors that will best compliment your porch area.

Shutters and Window Boxes

Shutters always take a house to the next level when painted or stained the right color. If you aren’t sure about what color to paint them, take a look at my post on How To Choose Color With Confidence. Look through magazines and online resources to find a color or style you like. A window box or a shelf with planters sitting on it make a house look very eye catching and put together. Plant Begonias, Impatiens, Petunias, Geraniums, Coleus, Asparagus Fern, Zinnias, and Creeping Jenny which can hang down and add interest to your flower box.

If you only have a shelf under your window framed with shutters, find some matching planters and put one plant in each. Match the flowers so it will look uniform and neatly decorated.

Plant Flowers Up The Walk

I think walkways look so quaint with flowers and greenery planted up along the walk to greet you when you visit the house where they are planted. They take your eye from the street all the way up to the porch in high style even when simply done. You can plant the same type of flower over and over and let it fill in as it grows and the summer goes by or you can alternate flowers and greenery. Combine flowers like Zinnias or Petunias alternated with Blue Mohawk Jukas Grass, White Guara, or Sky Rocket Pennisetum alternated up the walk would be so inviting. If you want really simple, plant some Hostas and vary the colors like green with green and white edged Hosta.

Try A Berm

Another way to upgrade your curb appeal is to plant a berm. Scope out where you want your berm. It will be a focal point in your yard so place it where it will make sense. Plant the berm with really good soil. Define it with bricks, stones ,or rock. Then plant bushes and flowers that will be easy to maintain and that will help prevent soil erosion. Plants such as Hostas, Blue Spruce (you will have to trim this to keep it shorter), Mugo Pine, Boxwood, Creeping Phlox, Periwinkle, low to ground Juniper, and Japanese Yew. These are just a few. There are many more options you can choose from. You can see from my picture above how beautiful this berm looks with just three types of plants. The Hostas repeated in front of the two taller plants is very striking. See how easy it could be to use something like this to add curb appeal to your yard. You could add yard lights to the front or one tall light to hang your house number from in the center of the plants.

House Number On A Basket With Handles

Get creative in the way you present your house number. You could take a basket with handles and attach purchased black numbers on your basket. The numbers need to be big enough they can easily be seen. Then plant flowers in the basket or put faux flowers that come out of the top of the basket. Hang on your fence out front, a fence post, a front gate, or your front door.

Another unique option would be to put a wooden post in your front yard and attach a lantern light to the top. (This may take the help of a handy electrician if you aren’t sure how to create this yourself.) Then attach your house numbers to a wooden plaque so that it hangs to the side of the post.

Lighting In Front Yard Plants

There is something so magical and interesting about lights in a front yard at night. At night, you want to display your home so that it is simply beautiful and a safe place to visit. The last thing you want is for someone to trip or fall on their way up your walk. Some of these ideas might work for you.

• Hang decorative lights in the roof of your porch.
• Wrap lights around a tree or in the branches of trees.
• Put solar lights in planters up your walk.
• Install a tall post with a lantern type light in the middle of a berm.
• Make sure your front yard is well lit.
• Change out small porch lights if it isn’t in scale to your home. Install a larger front porch light if needed.

DIY Water Fountain

A water fountain in your front yard is another eye catcher. Plant flowers underneath it and around it. Keep it clean and tidy and you will love listening to the gentile sound of water falling. If you search online places like Amazon have DIY water fountain kits. You could check your local IFA or Tractor store as well. It doesn’t have to be big just put it in your front yard where it will get noticed and enjoyed.

Living Wreath

A beautiful wreath on your front door makes a home look so finished and cozy. For something unique, make a living wreath. This wreath means just what it says. You make it with live plants and flowers. You will need the following tools:

• A variety of small plants to put in your wreath form.
• 16″ wreath form
• Potting Soil
• Sheet Moss
• Green Florist Wire on a paddle

Take your wreath form and fill it with sheet moss that has been drenched and soaked in water first. Then put potting soil on top of the moss. Plant your flowers and greenery in the soil. Plant some plants on top of the soil and stick some of the plants around the side of the wreath so it looks full. Take the green wire and gently wrap around all of the plants in the wreath and then secure it and cut it. Let your plants settle in the wreath form before hanging. Give your wreath a couple of days to let your plants take root. Then hang on your front door. Spray plants with a water bottle when needed to keep your plants watered.

Symmetrical Bushes

You will notice in the picture above, up the walk are some symmetrical bushes. Though they are small they pack a punch of interest. Along the home under the windows, there are three bushes that are spread out and are the same type. This gives a very clean and tidy look to your front yard. Notice the cute chairs with pillows and two planters with purple flowers. The window boxes are all the same and add continuity to this home. It’s simple curb appeal makes it darling and very beautiful.

Lanterns On Porch Stairs

Lanterns always add a homey touch to your porch stairs especially at night when lit with battery operated candles. They add that bit of sparkle to your curb appeal. That extra something to your curb appeal decor. You could also put skinny battery operated candles in your windows to turn on at night. While visiting our son and daughter in law in Ohio recently, we noticed a lot of people do this. Homeowners light up their home with soft candlelight in the windows. I love it! It’s not just a Christmas thing either! Homes look so warm and inviting with their lit candles as the sun sets for the night every day of the year. It really helps set your home apart.

It’s not always easy to show off curb appeal at night without spending a lot of money on lighting. However this special touch does highlight your home with evening curb appeal. Definitely worth giving it a try!

You might also like:

Wondering how to identify your style when it comes to home design? Check out What Is Your Home Design Style? 11 Easy Steps .

Need help creating a mud room when you don’t exactly have a space for it? Mudroom DIY: How To Create A Mudroom With What You Have

Ready to pick out flooring for your kitchen? How To Choose The Best Flooring For Your Kitchen