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This article about the Landscaping for your front yard, is written with the do-it-yourself in mind, with some simple principles and basic elements for accomplishing the best results. After many years of experience in the Nursery and Landscaping field, you get to the point, maybe by intuition, when you are called out to give an estimate, you pretty much could tell how much is it going to cost, just by looking at the house. It becomes such a routine, but still, each and every house has it's own characteristics, and I would adventure to say, personality. This might might have something to do with the color and the position of the house on the rough landscape, and many other factors. Now, that was not always the case. When I am thinking of my first projects, many years ago, I remember struggling a lot to do my utmost best to create and design the best landscaping plan possible to get the job and to build my reputation as a landscaper. That was not an easy task. When starting a such a project, there are several principles and elements in the landscaping design, that you have to keep in mind. The element of form, the shape of the "line", the size of the landscape relative to the size of the property, and many other principles and elements that you need to keep account of when designing a landscape project. The purpose of this article is not really to give any definition of the landscaping, but rather to help the home owners to create their own project, in this case, intended specifically for the front of the house. Concentrating on the very front of the house, is essential to pay attention to every little detail, since that is the part of your landscape that will decide the character of your real estate, and the first impression for the visitors. Just think of a painting, where the front yard is your canvas, you are the artist, and you must decide the "colors". That is another important element for your landscape project in order to be a success! The colors! Another important element in designing a landscaping project, is the "lines" in the shaping of the planting surfaces. I believe that for a nice aesthetic design, the lines play a significant role. I personally, never liked to use too many straight lines when designing the planting space right next to the front of the house. Only if I did not have a choice, like when there was a walkway from the front door and turning to the left or to the right of the house at 90 degrees in a straight line, not too far from the wall of the house itself. It was always working better when the walkway was straight from the front door towards the street, to the Mail Box. It always worked and looked much better when I was using curved lines, starting from the side of the house, where usually there is an air conditioning unit, at the left side or the right side of the house. It does not really matter. I hope that you can envision the design as we go along in describing the shape of the planting space. Drawing a curve line in such a way as to hide the AC unit with a few taller shrubs, coming with a fine curved line to the corner of the house, and expanding the line in a loop shape, to give you the chance to plant a little tree to kind of frame the house with some accent planting, on both extreme corners of the house. Then, from that loop line at the corner, I have drawed a curve line allowing room for other shrubs and blooming perennials, bedding plants and some ornamental grasses, as accent planting, going towards the front door to the walkway. Right here, next to the walkway, on both sides of it, I planted another little tree, a topiary or any other tall shrub, for the purpose of framing the landscape, to give it some character and again, accent or focal points. The right front side of the house will perfectly mirror the left front side. They should be identical. Now, in between the two corners and the taller trees or topiary plants next to the walkway, you can plant some low maintenance shrubs, about 16 to 24 inches from the wall, and about 2 to 3 feet apart, as "foundation planting". These can be Compacta Hollies, Korean Boxwood, Indian Hawthorne, or any other low maintenance shrubs that you like. Right in front of this row of shrubs that is called the "foundation planting", you can plant in a staggered fashion, (so that the back row next to the wall should be visible), some other low growing shrubs, like Yaupons, Helleri, Soft Touch, or any other shrubs that you want. Right in front of the second row of shrubs, as a border, plant some ornamental grass like green or variegated Liriope, Aztec grass, etc., for some nice contrast and color variations. For some nice colors, plant a few bedding plants of your choice, and as they are seasonal, you can always change the bedding plants in other colors as you please. This should create a nice unique character to your home. But wait, I've got ahead of myself, jumping too fast to the planting faze! Assuming that you draw all this on a sheet of paper, you pretty much have the lay out of how your finish project is going to look like. At least you have a pretty good idea. Now let's mark our project on the ground, and see how is it going to work out. First let's start with the side of the house, where the AC unit is located, be it on the left or on the right side of the house. Or if the unit is on the back side, then you don't have to worry about it, for now. Only if, and when you will start working on your back yard landscaping. So, we going to take a flexible water hose, and lay it down in a nice curve line, from the back corner of the house coming towards the front corner, and forming the loop we were talking about. Make it large enough so the loop will accommodate one tree, and three low growing shrubs for a group planting right in front of the tree. I hope you get the picture. Continue to go with the hose, in a nice curve (again) expanding the line just a little away from the house, to have room to accommodate the shrubs and the rest of the plants described above. Go all the way to the walkway, and end the line turned slightly towards the street, to make room for your next accent tree or topiary. Look at the lay out of this side of the house, from different angles, and adjust the line until you like what you see. It's not really much to see, yet, but you'll have a pretty good idea. Once you are satisfied with the lay out, mark the line with a landscape spray can, that you can find at the hardware store, and do exactly the same thing on the other side of the house. Now is the time to measure and see how many plants you going to need. Keep account of the distance you will need between the plants, and then figure out how many can you accommodate, not to make it too crowded, nor too bare. It should be a nice balance, pleasant to the beholder. Remember, this is your work of art, and it should make you very proud! The hardest part is over! Now let's get our hands dirty, and let the fun begin! So, the beautiful lay out of our plan is done, let's clean the ground of any rocks and debris and if necessary, let's add some amendments, like cow manure, several bags, some good fertilizer, and spread it on the top, and till it in the dirt. Rake it nicely, and now you can buy the plants, from your preferred Garden Center. Water the plants until you have time to start planting. The fun part is just about to start! Lay the plants in their position, and look at the entire picture once again, from different angles. Move the plants as many times as you like, while they are still in pots, until you are fully satisfied as how your landscape is going to look. Once you have them all in place, leave them right there, and just pull away just one at a time, while you dig the hole, and plant your trees and shrubs one by one. Dig the hole large enough so that the roots have room to expand. Note: Under no circumstance should you put any fertilizer in contact with the roots at planting time! This is very important! Sometimes in our eagerness to make the plants grow faster then they should, we put fertilizer to the roots, and that will burn the roots, and the plants will surely die! Best way to fertilize, is what we call "top dress" with slow release fertilizers. Let mother nature do the job, and we should not force anything on it. Once you planted all the plants, is time to apply the mulch, about 2 to 3 inches deep, and this should add a phenomenal beauty and neatness to your landscape project! Make a nice little flower bed around your mail box, mulch it as well, and plant strategically for even greater accent and focal points, some nice ornamental trees, in the rest of your front yard.
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