Every landscape makeover can give you ideas for your own yard or garden. Try any-or all-of these tips to give your front entry a facelift.
Sometimes giving the front of your house a warm and inviting entrance requires nothing more than a change in the landscaping leading to the front door.
If a tree planted near the door is too large for the area and will require extensive pruning every year to keep it in bounds, move it to the backyard and replace it with a tree with less spread and foliage that will contrast well with the house. A good choice-'Red Baron' flowering crabapple. It has dark red flowers in spring, bronze-green foliage, and a canopy only 8 feet wide.
A curved, flagstone path through a garden bed is more interesting and doesn't make the destination quite so obvious.
Remove a tall, upright evergreen to open up the view of the house and entry garden.
A bountiful border of flowers on both sides of the sidewalk creates a colorful and inviting path. An easy way to create a garden border is with a garden hose. Using a garden hose to define a border for a garden bed works well because you can adjust it easily. Once it is in place, use utility paint or stakes to mark the area (see photo at right).
Add more perennials to your bed that will give season-long color. See the Better Homes and Gardens Web site for a list of plants for a front entry garden plan. Go to www.bhg.com, click on "garden," then "garden plans."
While you are there, check out the other garden plans-for shady areas, island beds, privacy, patios, property lines, and more-that have been designed so you can adapt them to fit your yard space and your planting zone. You can print out the plans and plant lists to take to your yard and garden, or to take to the nursery or garden center when you select your plants.
Garden Tips for Attracting Butterflies
Your garden can provide bounty, beauty, and butterflies-and give you more than just a fleeting glance at these natural wonders.
Even if your garden only attracts a few of the 575
varieties of butterflies identified in the United States,you can set many of these butterflies on a flight plan for your backyard if you plan and plant a garden designed for them.
The copyright of the article Front Entry Facelift and Gardens for Butterflies in Garden Planning is owned by . Permission to republish Front Entry Facelift and Gardens for Butterflies in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
1.
Apr 30, 2005 9:59 AM
Thank you for all the great tips, especially about attracting butterflies!
-- posted by Tina_Coruth
For a complete listing of article comments, questions, and other discussions related to
Michael Vyskocil's
Garden Planning topic, please visit the Discussions page.
