If your home is situated close to the street and your front yard is barely big enough to turn around in, you can still make a strong statement with careful landscaping. These landscaping ideas for small front yards in Hamptons, NY, will give your petite front yard a facelift.
Related: HOW MASONRY CAN ADD CHARACTER TO A FRONT ENTRANCE IN PORT JEFFERSON, NY
Focus on a Dramatic Entry
A paver walkway surrounded by perennial flower beds makes a entryway welcoming. Create a destination by placing a birdbath, fountain, interesting lantern, bench, or sculpture at the end of the walkway. Choose interesting pavers and laying patterns that complement your home. If the paver entry area takes up most of the front yard, that’s okay. A few potted plants, a solitary tree and soft foundation plants such as ornamental grasses could transform your entry walkway into a functional work of art.
Reconsider the Lawn
You could minimize the lawn to put the focus on the creation of a beautiful garden filled with flowering shrubs such as lilacs, and a riot of colorful roses and other flowering perennials. Finish the look with a picket fence (which provides a bit of privacy as well as a support for taller flowering plants), a brick paver walkway, a fountain, and a welcoming bench.
Bring in Beautiful Materials
Create an inviting front patio with natural stone or manufactured stone pavers—a wonderful and practical replacement for a front porch, which many modern homes don’t have. Add comfortable seating, and surround the paver area with a few planting beds, dwarf trees, or potted plants to soften the look and add color.
Add in Vertical Features
Small trees are a beautiful addition to a small front yard, giving it depth and interest. Trees can be placed where they won’t block light coming in through the windows, and tall ornamental grasses could replace dense shrubbery. Ornamental grasses give a small front yard a more spacious and airy look than evergreen shrubs that are commonly used as foundation plantings.
Take a Minimalist Approach to the Design
Achieve a zen-like minimalist front yard with a stepping stone walkway and flower beds mulched with decorative stone in the same color as the stepping stones. Cluster a few soft, wavy plants such as lavender to balance the starkness of the decorative stone. Add a fountain and a stone bench for a warm welcome.
Focus on Textures
A stacked-stone wall along the sidewalk serves as a border for a lush landscape filled with layers of perennials, shrubs, and small trees. The different colors, textures, and heights of layered plants create a refreshing mix. A small bit of lawn—no bigger than a putting green—can serve as a focal point, and the wall gives a sense of privacy.
Add Water
An artistic water feature set on a simple paver patio or gravel base brings movement to a small front yard; and when lit up at night, a water feature adds drama that would otherwise be missing from a front yard without any moving elements.
Give Room to the Walkway
No matter how narrow your front yard, the size of the entry walkway matters. You wouldn’t want visitors to feel squeezed as they make their way to your front door. Blend a wider walkway into the landscape with low plants like ground covers, or surround it on both sides with flower beds.