Welcome or Stay Away! What Does Your Front Yard Say?
Since Ancient Greece, the “portico” or front porch has always been a significant symbol of transition from a community outdoor and social space into the intimate indoor space of your home. It is an opportunity to create an image of elegance and warmth to welcome your guests and maybe encourage neighbors to do the same.
These front yard meeting and greeting spaces can set the vibe of your home and be welcoming or can run guests away quickly if awkward or unkempt front yards and entryways. This can be an overwhelming task at times here in Central Florida where summer heat is hot, humid and brutal with the sometimes challenging soil conditions and water restrictions. You may feel like your options are limited and why bother. But it’s not that hard!
5 Simple Florida Landscaping ideas or tips
to remember when designing your gorgeous welcoming area:
1) Create levels with different size pots to add depth and interest.
2) Design for visibility with a variety of color, texture, and form.
3) Direct view to front entry with focal plants.
4) Dress up driveways and always accent with lighting, stone or wood.
5) Get creative with larger spaces and create pathways to tucked away gardens and intimate areas.
Need Plant Ideas!
Most newly constructed home sites have very little shade while older homes may sometimes have an overabundance because of ancient old tree canopies. Here are some easy Florida landscaping ideas for the front of the house that allow you to embrace our Florida environment and keep your front areas warm, bright, colorful and tolerant of our hot Florida weather. Here are some examples.
African Iris
Purple Love Grass
Magnolia
Stokes Astor
Pineapple Guava
Azaleas
For full sun areas, some examples of some great landscaping options are:
African Iris, Stokes Astor, Twin Flower Agave, Magnolia, Purple Love Grass and Pineapple Guava. These plants are sure to add some color and texture to your front space to provide impact and warm.
For shady areas try Azaleas, Bromeliads, Camellias, Ferns, and Gardenias.
Don’t forget my four favorites to add into the mix as well. You can find out what those are in my article Four Great Plants to Make Your Florida Landscape Design Beautiful. By The Way – as a shameless plug and as an Orlando landscape supply company, We carry many of these plants
For more general over all look ideas, check out this slideshow from HGTV.
Use these Florida Landscaping Ideas and combine them with your vision of what “Welcome” means to you, you can truly create your own design as a personal invitation into your home that will be complimented and remembered by all that visit year after year.
