In the theater of gardening, too often the backyard is the superstar and the front yard is the understudy.
Backyards have patios and hot tubs, barbecues and vegetable gardens, swing sets and dog runs. They even have special names: outdoor living spaces.
Front yards have a driveway and grass. Some may have a tree, a few shrubs and a tulip or two. They have no special name, except for, perhaps, “that useless piece of turf I have to mow and water.”
That doesn’t have to be the case. It’s easy to boost your home’s curb appeal from the B-list to the A-list. Here’s how two landscape designers transformed front yards.
Pop-top flip-flop
When the owners of a Congress Park bungalow in Denver popped the top of their house and built a new garage, they encountered an unforeseen problem: The additions swarmed over the backyard like kudzu on a riverbank. The only outside space remaining was a side and front yard.
So the homeowners decided to transform the front into a backyard, with a patio for entertaining and a fence for privacy. The redo was so successful, it won the Excellence in Landscaping Grand Award in Renovation last year from the Associated Landscape Contractors of Colorado.
Lynn Gregory, a landscape designer and owner of Chelsea Gardens in Denver, designed the area to highlight the historic house. Instead of the traditional landscaping ploy of disguising the foundation of a house with tall shrubs, she planted perennials and dwarf lilacs along the porch walls to lure the eye with color.
Because the new garage had alley access, Gregory was able to take out the driveway and reconfigure the front steps so visitors no longer had to march single file to get to the front door.
“When you look at your house, think of your entry, because that’s one of the most important parts of the house,” she says. “It’s much more fun to meander through a garden on the way to the front door.”
Gregory designed the fence with two goals in mind: to form a barrier between the yard and the sidewalk, and to echo the architecture of the house. The wrought iron is more in keeping with the age of the house than a cedar fence, and the brick pillars match the ones on the porch.
The fence also serves a practical purpose by leveling out the front yard and allowing Gregory to terrace the slope below.
“You can’t just stick plants in a slope like that,” she says. “Things won’t grow, because the soil erodes so easily. The soil has to be amended with compost and planter’s mix.”
Gregory says terracing a slope not only creates level planting beds, but also gives the homeowner easy access to the garden. The boxwoods on the top tier inside the fence can form a 3- to 4-foot hedge for more privacy.
There is no grass in the yard, not even on the strip between the sidewalk and street. Gregory opted for fast-spreading vinca vine, which not only is easy to maintain, but grows well in the shade cast by the looming trees and stays green throughout the winter.
Gregory’s redesign cost more than $50,000. Here’s what she would do if she only had $1,000 to spend:
Soften the front walkway with flower beds. Plant a strip of perennials at least 2 feet wide on each side of the sidewalk, curving up to larger beds in front of the house. Mass perennials in groups of three or five for continuity.
Plant a small tree on the left side to complement the hawthorn on the right.
On the slope, plant ground cover. Gregory likes sedum and vinca, or a low juniper like Wilton Carpet. For interest, plant a variety of ground covers in a pattern.
Plant vinca in the strip between the sidewalk and street.
Castle Pines color
The owner of a house in Castle Pines North in Douglas County wanted what many think is impossible: a lush, colorful but xeric front yard.
Horticulturist Terry Carter of Columbine Design in Englewood dealt with this dilemma by dividing the yard into thirds, both physically and seasonally.
Because the front yard slopes and is on a corner, Carter designed it in three horizontal strips. Each strip is a mini garden that can be viewed from either the top, middle and bottom steps of the sidewalk, and from the side or front of the property.
The trio of gardens is planted traditionally, with trees and taller shrubs in the center, and smaller plants on the edges and along the front sidewalk. Carter spread the same kinds of perennials throughout the design to meld the gardens into one big yard.
To ensure the front yard is colorful from March through October, Carter analyzed plants by bloom time. The backbone of her garden is roses and red valerian, which bloom almost continuously from late spring. She interspersed spring-flowering lilacs, salvia and catmint with hearty summer bloomers such as rubekia, day lilies and daisies. For fall color, she added Russian sage, coneflowers and asters. For winter texture, she planted pines on each side of the house, along with ornamental grasses near the walkway.
“To do this yourself, map out your garden and then use colored pencils to draw in the plants,” she says. “Do one map for each season – spring and summer – so you know what blooms when.”
To soften the sidewalk, Carter planted “steppable” ground covers such as creeping thyme and Scotch and Irish moss. As the plants grow, they spill onto the steps. To highlight the stone steps and add even more color to the yard, she massed pots of annuals along the walkway.
Carter also incorporated the house into her design, using its muted stucco walls as a background for spectacular climbing roses.
