Winter is the perfect time to start thinking about the changes to your yard you might make when the warmer weather comes. During Hamilton winters, there isn’t much landscaping going on, but it is a great time for planning some changes. If you’re thinking about changing up the landscape of your front yard, here are some design tips to consider.
Pick a focus point for your yard
Every well-landscaped yard has a primary focus or focal point to it. When it comes to front yards, many homeowners will choose their front door as their focal point. Consider choosing plants and flowers that will frame the front door well.
Ground covering plants
Often, homeowners believe a large majority of their front yard should be covered by grass, but that doesn’t have to be the case for you. Ground covers are a fantastic alternative to grass, and they are incredibly low maintenance.
Ground covers are fairly dense and will hide dead leaves. They will keep your front yard looking neat and well maintained, even if you can’t always be around to tidy it up.
Think about the path you want to take
Part of front yard landscaping is usually to put some type of path or walkway – either from your driveway to the front door or the sidewalk to your front door, or maybe both.
Naturally, humans will want to take the most direct route from where they are to where they want to go. Winding walkways may look very nice and fancy, but they aren’t really practical, and they take up a lot of extra space. Try to keep the pathway direct if you put one in.
Need for privacy
If you live on a busy street, you may want to have a little bit of privacy in your front yard – but putting in a full-height fence is probably too much. Greenery, like shrubs, can be used to your advantage when trying to create a little bit of privacy in your front yard without completely blocking off your home. Adding a sloped hill is another way to bring more privacy to your backyard.
Let in the light
Depending on the direction your home faces, you may have a lot of light coming into the windows at some point during the day. When doing some landscaping, consider what you’re planting and if it will be blocking any of the natural light coming into your home.
You may also want to purposely create some shade if your home is in direct sun for a large part of the day. Additional shade can help with utility costs too, and keep your house cooler in the summer.
Alternatively, you may want to add landscape lighting to highlight trees and shrubs during the evening hours.
Long-term, not just this summer
When you’re planning landscape changes for your Hamilton home, you may want to consider how these changes will hold up long-term and not just how they’ll look this summer.
You don’t want to be doing major landscape work every year, so taking some time now to make sure your design ideas will stand up over time is a prudent thing to do.
Contact Evergreen Landscapes
Are you planning a landscaping project for your front yard? If so, we can help. Contact Evergreen Landscapes today to arrange for a consultation. Our premium landscaping company services the Burlington, Milton, Oakville and Hamilton regions.
