The Front Yard Makeover

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Curb appeal - that special something that some homes have that, from the road or sidewalk, make it visually appealing and inviting.  Curb appeal is a term usually associated with the real estate industry.  It is a very important factor in selling a home - it is after all the first impression a prospective buyer makes of your home.  Savvygardeners don't wait until it's time to move to worry about curb appeal.  The front yard is after all a garden, one that should reflect your tastes as a gardener and a good neighbor.  

Most suburban front yards are fairly homogenous.  Lots of grass, a concrete porch stoop and walkway, a couple of yews, and a few foundation plantings.  Sound familiar?  It was all too familiar to us and we recently decided to do something about it.  Not that our front yard was unattractive.  In fact we recently added a large shade garden to reduce the frustration of trying to grow a lawn under the shadow of our magnolia tree.  But there were a few notable items we wanted changed.

Above, the "Before Picture".  Not a horrible sight but there's plenty of room for improvement.

Like all home and garden projects the amount of time, effort and money involved is variable.  The bigger the project the more resources you will need.  For this project we decided to hire a professional landscaper.  While much of the work could have been done by ourselves (and some strong friends) we realized that our schedules (three kids ages 4-11, a demanding publishing schedule, and the rest of life that seems to already require more than 24 hours each day) would probably turn a do-it-yourself effort into a never-get done mess.

Planning
Don't start any project, large or small, without a plan.  If you don't know where you are going you'll never get there.  A good landscaper is a real plus when it comes to planning.  Your chosen landscaper should ask you many questions: 

• What do you like about your yard and what do you dislike?

• Do you have examples (other yards, magazine photos, etc...) of elements you want to incorporate into your new landscape?

• What types of flowers and shrubs appeal to you?

• How long do you plan to live in this house?

Based on your answers to these and other questions your landscaper will begin the process of putting a plan together.  It starts with accurate measurements of the area to be landscaped.  These measurements are the starting point of a paper plan - the drawing that will be proposed as the work to be done.  

Geoff Makin (left) of Willco Landscaping starts our project by measuring off our property. These measurements will be the basis for a drawing that will be presented to us in his proposed design. Our shade garden (in magnificent early-spring bloom behind Geoff) will remain in the new design.

After discussing our our likes and dislikes, considering our budget, and applying his experience as a professional landscaper Geoff and we decided to move forward with the project (see plan here). 

Next week we'll show you the groundbreaking and first stages of putting our plan in motion.

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