Tips for designing a beautiful entry garden
Your entry garden has a big job to do—it needs to deliver low-maintenance curb appeal all year, greet guests and show off your own unique style. Follow these design tips to help your garden meet all of these goals.
Widen the path
Even if you have a smaller yard, you want a front walk that looks inviting and is easy for visitors to traverse. A smooth surface that’s at least 4 feet wide can do just that. It leaves plenty of room for two people to walk comfortably side by side, and allows enough space for a wheelchair too.
The original front path and steps to the Washington home in the photo above were very narrow and looked out of place with the wide front door and full-length windows flanking it. So one of the first things that landscape designer Stacie Crooks did was widen both the path and the front stoop for a more balanced visual connection as you and visitors go from the outdoors to inside.
The steps are made of ipe, a tropical hardwood that’s super dense, rot- and insect-resistant and lasts for decades. A generous 12-foot-wide Pennsylvania bluestone path connects the entry to the drive and runs along the front of the house.
Add evergreen foliage for four-season interest
With its four-season appeal, evergreen foliage fills the gap between blooms and provides a sense of permanence. Stacie’s rule of thumb for designing borders is to use two-thirds evergreen foliage to one-third deciduous.
Plenty of plants have evergreen foliage in a wide range of colors, shapes and sizes. The texture-rich planting in this zone 8 garden looks good all year thanks to a variety of rhododendrons (Rhododendron spp. and hybrids), ferns and heath (Erica carnea). You could also try low-growing sedges (Carex spp. and hybrids) in green or brown to soften the walkway’s edge or a 4- to 15-foot-tall weeping Norway spruce (Picea abies ‘Pendula’) to draw you toward the door. Though the stately Indian paper birches (Betula utilis subsp. jacquemontii) near the front door don’t have evergreen foliage, the white bark looks fantastic during the gray days of winter.
Don’t crowd the front entry
The front door isn’t a good spot to let your shrubs and perennials outgrow their space. Overgrown plants can be a tripping hazard or a security risk. Choosing dwarf varieties and shrubs that have tidy habits, such as bigleaf hydrangea (Hydrangea macrophylla) or spirea (Spiraea japonica), can provide low-maintenance beauty and structure for a front-yard border. Be sure to site plants so once they reach the mature size, the foliage only overlaps the path by a few inches. And while it’s great to have perennials for flowers and added texture, be sure to keep the shorter ones up front, making them easy to see.
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Entry gardens are a great way bring the house and landscape together
Choosing flowers or foliage that repeat your home’s siding or trim color is one simple solution for a unified look. But if your house has distinctive architectural features, you can accentuate those too. The prairie style home above has a full-length glass front door and row of large windows with a great view of the yard. A line of upright feather reed grass (Calamagrostis x acutiflora) and allium (Allium hybrid) along the front border echoes the repetition on the house. The entry garden doesn’t have to be exactly the same as other parts of the yard, but by repeating a few of the elements from the backyard out front, you can tie the two together.
If Vermont garden designer Erica Bowman is designing a Japanese garden in the back, the front yard will have a foliage-heavy plant palette and an ornament, such as a lantern, to give a hint of what’s to come. Or if the homeowner has a loose native planting, she’ll use many of the same plants in front in a bit more structured way and make sure to add a grouping of colorful wildflowers near the door to draw your eye there.
Design quick tip:
A limited color palette is an easy way to get a pulled-together look. Plus, it helps make choosing the plants easier.
Consider the garden from different views
It’s always a good idea to step back and look at the front yard from different perspectives, such as the sidewalk or across the street. This can help you see where you might need to add height or balance out a larger plant that’s already in place. But not every view of the garden has to be taken in from the street side. What you see from the inside matters too. Wisconsin garden designer Mark Dwyer suggests looking out the front door and windows to imagine what you’d like to see there, such as flowers changing through the seasons or an elegantly shaped Japanese maple (Acer palmatum).
Also, take note of plants that might be encroaching on your view out the picture window or any screening that might be needed. With a full-length glass front door or a large window, you might want to site a tree or shrub so passersby can’t easily see inside at night.
Add sensory elements to your front entry
Once you’ve taken in the views from inside, walk through the front door, paying attention to what you’re experiencing. Would you like more color or a soft grass to run your hands over? This isn’t so much about curb appeal as it is about making your entry an experience you can immerse yourself in every time you pass through it.
Add a focal point
A focal point helps with traffic flow, drawing guests along to their destination. The showy red screen door in the photo above shows you right where to go. A special ornament or a few brightly planted containers can work just as well.
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Beautiful & fragrant plants for your front entry garden
Fragrance helps make the path to your front door a journey to enjoy. Whether you want to fill containers or edge a border, the plants below will do the trick!
