Front Yard
Visitors see your front yard before anything else when they arrive to your home. Landscaping your front yard to make it look attractive and frame your house and entry well will help your house stand out and add value to your home. Whatever your budget, you can make some changes to your front yard that will improve the look of your home.
Define an area to be landscaped, ideally by extending it past the left and right edges of the home, as seen from the street. This helps connect the home to the land more than limiting landscaping to the area directly in front of the home. Creating curved boundaries around the landscaped areas creates a contrast to the angularity of the home.
Symmetrical or Asymmetrical?
Design your landscape either symmetrically or asymmetrically. If the door to your home is in the center, a symmetric approach looks very clean and is easy to execute because you only have to design a plan for half of the yard. An asymmetric approach may lend more visual interest, but you have to be careful to balance the visual weight of landscaping on either side of the house.
Trees
Plant a large tree on each side of your home to frame it. These trees also help define the edges of the property and draw the viewer's eye in toward the front door.
Shrubs
Plant shrubs at the front corners of your home to soften the corners and blend the home into the surrounding landscape. Plant smaller shrubs as you get closer to the front door. Having large plants close to the front door can cause confusion because they hide the door.
Pots
Purchase two large pots and place one on each side of the front door or the path near the front door. Plant seasonal flowers in these pots to add color and make the property look more inviting.
Hardscapes
Replace a concrete front walk with a walkway made of stone, brick or wood, depending on the style and materials used in your home.
Edible Gardens
Assessment Criteria
Most importantly, review the Trillium Sub-Committee assessment criteria. This evaluation process will help you to determine types of landscaping upgrades you may want to consider. Please check back to this page from time to time for more tips and to see if any up-coming events or workshops are planned.
Have a question?
If you have a question that you'd like to ask a Mentor or questions about the Trillium program, submit your question now! You can also view a list of questions that have been asked and answers provided by mentors.
Mentor Videos
Throughout the season, we will be adding videos that provide tips to your landscaping from our Mentors.
Top 10 Perennials suitable to the Niagara Region
In no particular order:
- Echinacea (cone flower)
- Sedum Spectabile
- Rudbeckia (goldsturm)
- Hosta
- Calamagrostis (reed grass)
- Miscanthus (maiden grass)
- Hemerocallis (day lily)
- Paeonie (peony)
- Phlox (tall and ground phlox)
- Coreopsis (tick seed)
There are plenty of different wonderful perennials but these are known performers. They either are drought tolerant, bloom repetitively or are somewhat maintenance free. These plants are truly hardy to the Niagara Region.
