Here in the north we are basking in the long warm days of July. Summertime – a hair past the solstice and the livin’ is easy! Kids play outside until dark and friends indulge in after dinner strolls. It’s a perfect time for front yard living, whether it’s people-watching in your adirondack chair or a glass of wine on the patio to finish the day. Front yard retreats can capture fresh views, foster neighborly interaction and put to use acres of carefully maintained, largely unused landscapes.
Some reasons to re-think your front yard:
– Enjoy the fruits of your mowing, weeding, watering and fertilizing.
– Take advantage of the best sun on your lot for growing flowers and food.
– Take advantage of shade or cool breezes for a comfortable place to relax or dine.
– Capture the sunset or sunrise.
– Get to know your neighbors.
– Create a walled garden-retreat.
– Enhance your entry with a patio or deck.
– Make a children’s garden with ‘rooms’ for imaginations to unfold.
– Reclaim an underutilized part of your outdoor space and make it work for you!
Here are three front yard transformations that have provided inviting, useful outdoor living spaces:
Mark & Maryann Lester
The Lester’s front yard garden patio and seat-wall:
A sliver of a backyard, dropping to a lovely, but unusable ravine, led the Lesters to consider a front yard living/dining patio for their newly remodeled retirement home. The circular paver patio was situated in the ‘L’ of the house and garage for convenience and for shelter from the driveway and street. A deep, billowing shrub and perennial border and an 18” concrete block seat wall partially wrap the patio creating friendly boundaries.
Old friends love sharing a glass of wine on the new garden patio and the Lesters have made some new friends with their front yard living room as well.
Uninspired straight shot to the street.
The Behring-McBride’s terraced arrival garden:
A long, straight descent to the street dominated this front yard. A ramped concrete walk, treacherous in winter and uninspired in any season, was replaced with a series of stone steps and paver terraces winding through the impressive arboretum-like collection of mature trees.The addition of handsome, custom made steel railings and shade-loving shrubs and perennials embellish the landscape with sculpture and blossoms.
Visitors and owners alike now move through the front yard with discovery and delight, lingering to experience the many vistas and resting places on their way to the front door.
The Wilson’s front door forest deck:
On an 8 x 12’ entry deck, anchored by a stately Ponderosa Pine, the Wilson’s have enjoyed the pleasures of social afternoons in their front yard for several years. Looking for ways to simplify mowing and edging their lawn-dominated yard led to plans for a woodland retreat with colorful understory trees and shrubs that will envelop the deck with leafy curtains, buffer street views, and screen the neighbor’s driveway.
A flagstone path winding through hardy Rozanne geranium, peonies and flowering dogwood will provide no-mow access to the sideyard. A new recirculating fountain made from a ceramic pot located off the corner of the deck will add to the retreat atmosphere and provide another level of sound and visual separation from the surroundings. A smaller, simpler lawn flanking the front path will welcome visitors and keep views open to the neighborhood.
The Wilson’s are maximizing the benefits of front yard living with enhanced beauty and comfort and lower-mower investment.
