What kind of planting/landscaping has the most curb appeal around a front walkway of your house?

We are trying to up our curb appeal and the area around the front walkway from the street to the porch is just blah.

 

There are two mulched quarter-circle areas on each end of the walkway, and then a mulched strip on each side of the walkway leading up to the house with shrubs every 2 feet or so.

 

Soil in the quarter-circle areas is very thin with clay directly underneath. We don't love the shrubs, but they at least serve some sort of purpose.

 

Any thoughts?

  Topic Around the House/DIY/Gardening Subtopic Gardening Tags curb appeal clay for soil planting
2 Years 3 Answers 2.4k views

Michael Godfrey

Knowledge Areas : Self-Employment/Sole Proprietors

Reputation Score: 38

Submit An Answer

Answers ( 3 )

 
  1. A lot of great features and plants can add beauty to your front yard but end up taking a lot of time to maintain throughout the year. To keep things manageable, consider these tips before any front yard landscaping project.

    1. Research the growth and maintenance of your plants before buying. Some ground cover like Myrtle or Stonecrop can get out of hand fast, so look for varieties that only need edging one or two times a year.
    2. Plant perennials wherever possible. Annual flowers provide a lot of color and dimension to a flower bed, but they last for just a few months. For veteran landscapers, an easy trick is to mostly invest in perennial shrubs and bushes to do most of the work year after year, and then work in annuals if you have the time and desire.
    3. Maintain your garden bed edges. This does take a little work, but it’s well worth it later. By using a simple edging shovel, you can easily and quickly maintain clean lines around the features that you invested time and money to build. A good garden edge is seldom noticed, but the lack of one presents a messy look that takes time to dig out and redefine.



    Best Plants for the Front of Your House

    ·        Hydrangea.

    ·        Azalea. These lovely, highly popular flowering shrubs produce incredibly bright blankets of flower clusters in shades of pink, fuchsia, red, and white. ... 

    ·        Deutzia.

    ·        Gardenia.

    ·        Boxwood. ... 

    ·        Bottlebrush. ... 

    ·        Pittosporum Tenuifolium. ... 

    ·        Rhododendron.

    UTC 2021-04-06 04:54 PM 0 Comments
  2. J Starr 4425

    Flowers are considered the most appealing front yard feature, but can be work and expensive if you are using flats of annuals every season. Try bulbs between the bushes-  less but not zero maintenance. 

    What flower bulbs will depend upon your climate zone-  check a good gardening site for suggestions.

    You may also want to add some large and unusual rocks for even more interest.

    Too, roses can be trained to different shapes.  Consider in your quarter-circle areas edging brick, so you can add amended soil, and then plunk in a couple nifty rocks (here, we can get them with the brilliant blue veins of copper minerals) or a sundial or such, and then plant miniature rosebushes which you "bonsai" into shapes for your small stage. 

    Remember to insure your plantings are a good fit for your local climate.  I live in the desert southwest, and one of our first years here, my husband brought me home from Home Depot a gigantic hanging fuschia.  I didn't have the heart to do anything but thank him, have it hung up in the shadiest spot I could find and watered it daily-  fuschia are cool weather, no sun, moisture loving plants-  stunning, but NOT something that will survive in the desert.  It lasted until most of the blooms were gone, but I think that was likely the food it had been given before being shipped to Home Depot. 

    This year, Home Depot has Cyclamen in all the colors-  lovely things.  They grow wild in the Puget Sound-  they like it dark, mossy, wet-  and I just said, "Oh, you know I've never liked those" when Hubby nudged me towards them.  A small fib-  that saved an innocent plant.

    Bulbs, rocks, miniature roses-  it will be artful, and easy.

    UTC 2021-04-06 08:46 PM 0 Comments
  3. I've had great luck with Wave petunias. They're hard to kill, spread like wildfire, and are almost obscenely showy. Most people keep them in hanging baskets, but I like them on the ground. Just keep them well-watered and they'll reward you with months of low-maintenance flowers. They trail so enthusiastically that they even choke out some weeds! They're a bit pricier than other annuals because of the branding, but as a lazy gardener who likes a full bed of flowers in obnoxious colors, I find that you can't go wrong with Wave petunias. 

    UTC 2021-04-07 02:46 PM 0 Comments

To answer this question, you must be logged in.

Create an account

Already have an account? Login.

By Signing up, you indicate that you have read and agree to Sage's Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy