The front of the house does a lot of quiet work. It’s the first thing anyone sees, including you pulling in the driveway after a long day, and the right front of house landscaping moves can take a tired yard from blah to finished without ripping anything out.
We save these ideas year-round, scrolling late at night with a cup of tea, taping sketches to the fridge, then going outside with a measuring tape to see if they’d actually fit. (Reader, half the time they did not. We adjusted.)
The twenty-one below cover the questions we get asked the most about front yard landscaping: what to plant if you want it low-maintenance, what reads simple but expensive, what counts as modern without going cold, and what works on a small front yard on a budget. If your plan has to be mostly spray paint and sweat, the curb appeal under $100 list is where to start. These are the plant-first picks.
A note: the links to a few products in this post are affiliate links. If you buy something through them we may earn a small commission, which goes right back into making this blog possible.
Low-Maintenance Front of House Landscaping
1. The classic boxwood foundation line
Three to five dwarf boxwoods along the base of the porch is the look that never dates. We like Green Velvet or Winter Gem, spaced about 30 inches apart and trimmed once a summer at most. Add one taller shrub at a corner to break the rhythm and you’re basically done for the next decade.
2. The “always something green” evergreen mix
Build a bed with four or five evergreens of different habits: a mounded Japanese holly, a soft yew, one upright arborvitae at the corner of the house, and a low groundcover like creeping juniper around their feet. In winter the bed still looks alive, and in summer the textures do all the work. Our old neighbor had this exact combo and we were jealous for years before we figured out there were four species in there.
3. Ornamental grasses and a clean sweep of mulch
Three or five of the same ornamental grass, planted in a tidy sweep of dark mulch, is the lowest-fuss front yard move on this list. Little Bunny fountain grass is the small-house pick, Karl Foerster for anything taller. The grasses swish all summer, the mulch handles the weeds, and the whole thing wakes up again every September.
4. Compact shrubs in a repeat pattern
If you have a long run under the front windows, three groupings of a single dwarf shrub, repeated down the line, reads intentional in a way that random variety never will. Dwarf Japanese hollies, loropetalum, and compact nandinas all behave politely. Repetition is the trick, not variety.
5. Native plants that fit your zone
Low-maintenance really means “right plant, right zone, left alone.” A short bed of native inkberry holly, little bluestem grass, and a handful of coneflowers is a combo we keep saving. If you want a fall-forward twist on the same bones, our fall landscaping ideas for front yard color cover the native-plus-mum variations we love in October.
Simple Front Yard Landscaping That Looks Expensive
6. The rule of three
One feature plant, plus two supporting plants repeated two or three times each. That’s the formula every landscape designer uses, and the reason their beds look so calm. We lay it out as one hydrangea feature plus three catmints and three low ornamental grasses as supporting. Three plants, nine plants total, done.
7. A monochrome green bed with no flowers
Four to six shades of green, from gold-tipped boxwood to deep yew to silvery lamb’s ear, planted in soft repeating waves. No flowers at all. It reads modern and expensive and lets the house carry the color story, which is the whole point of a front yard anyway.
8. A clean mulch line with a crisp edge
Half of what makes a front yard look custom is the edge of the bed, not the plants in it. A deep V-cut edge, or a hidden run of landscape edging, gives the mulch a defined line, and that one move does more for curb appeal than any one shrub. We’re not kidding. Try it, then thank us.
9. Mirror the symmetry of the house
If the front of the house is symmetrical, the beds should be too: match the shrub species on each side of the walkway, mirror the heights, keep the planting counts even on both sides. For an asymmetrical house, do the opposite and let one side be the louder one and the other the quieter.
Modern Front Yard Landscaping Ideas
10. Mass plantings of one species
Pick one plant and put forty of it in a tight block. Three blocks of three different plants reads modern and architectural in a way nothing from a mixed nursery flat ever will. Little bluestem, autumn joy sedum, and black mondo grass is a combo we save every single time we see it, which is often.
11. Mounded grasses in a gravel strip
A six-foot-wide strip of pale pea gravel running the front of the house, with three mounded ornamental grasses rising out of it, is the modern front yard look that handles full sun and zero watering. Family Handyman’s writeup on front yard landscaping ideas we love has an install-depth photo (two inches of gravel is the sweet spot) worth bookmarking before you order the bags.
12. Geometric gravel panels around shrubs
Divide the bed into clean rectangles of pea gravel, river rock, and dark mulch. One shrub lands in each panel. Reads architectural, and a layer of two-layer weed-control fabric under the gravel helps the panels stay cleaner for longer. It’s weed suppression, not a compacted base or a drainage layer, and we don’t try to tug it out of established roots once they’re in.
13. Concrete bands with planting strips between
Modern front yards love a hard line, and alternating 24-inch concrete bands with 36-inch planting strips gets you a bunch of them. Fill the strips with mounded shrubs or ornamental grasses, cap each end with one tree-form hydrangea or Japanese maple. Expensive looking, surprisingly budget-friendly once the pour is behind you.
Small Front Yard Landscaping on a Budget
14. Pea gravel instead of lawn
If your front yard is smaller than your couch, pea gravel is the no-grass answer. Lay heavy landscape fabric underneath, two inches of pale gravel on top, and leave a planted spine down the middle for shrubs. Easy to walk on, easy to rake, no mower bill, no sprinkler bill.
15. The 18-inch foundation strip
You don’t need a wide bed to make a small front yard feel finished. An 18-inch strip against the house, planted with alternating low shrubs and perennials, pulls everything together and lets the lawn breathe. Yes, we measured. Yes, 18 is the number.
16. A row of matching containers along the walk
Six or eight of the exact same pot, same plant, down one side of the walkway, is the budget version of a formal landscape. Terra cotta with boxwoods for summer, swap in a short evergreen with winterberry stems for cold months. Replaces half a planting bed for the cost of pots and one bag of soil.
17. Mulch-heavy with three anchor shrubs
Pulling out a tired bed, mulching the whole thing dark, and dropping in three well-placed shrubs is the cheapest front-yard refresh on this list. If your base is already mulch and stone, our rock and mulch landscaping ideas have the exact combinations we save for this move.
Flower Beds and Full-Sun Combos
18. Coneflower, black-eyed Susan, and grass
The pollinator cottage combo that peaks in mid-July and holds through October. Three to five coneflowers, three Rudbeckia, three Little Bunny grasses. All deer-resistant, all full sun, all come back on their own every year, which is the kind of plant we fall hardest for.
19. Lavender, salvia, and yarrow
The drought-tolerant Mediterranean mix that smells amazing every time you walk past. Three lavenders at the front edge, three salvias behind them, two yarrows at the ends. Needs full sun and sharp drainage, so lift the bed slightly with gravel if your soil holds water.
20. Hydrangeas under the front windows
Classic for a reason: three hydrangeas, same variety, under the big front window with solar lanterns down both sides of the walkway at dusk. We use a set of warm-white solar pathway lights with two brightness settings, pressed into softened soil rather than stepped on, and how long they stay lit after sunset depends on the day’s sun and the time of year.
21. A succulent and sedum front strip
Hot south-facing wall, poor soil, no time? Sedum groundcover (Angelina or Autumn Joy), one or two agaves if you’re in zone 7 or warmer, and a handful of hens-and-chicks tucked into the gravel pockets. Looks like you did more than you did, which is our favorite kind of landscaping.
Front of house landscaping doesn’t have to be a full tear-out to work. One sharp edge, a repeating shrub, three good containers, and you’ve already done more than most of the block. The real trick is picking two or three of these you’ll actually maintain, not the twelve that looked best on Pinterest at midnight.
If the back is next on the list, we’ve been saving the same way over at backyard landscaping ideas. Tell us in the comments which of these you’re starting with. Ours is a tie between the mulch line and the row of matching pots.
