5 Spring Landscaping Tips for Your Naperville, IL Front Yard
Spring has sprung and it’s time to get going on landscaping projects you’ve been thinking about all winter. Landscaping professionals can help you launch projects that will transform your front yard into a welcoming yet private, open yet secure, and gorgeous yet reserved masterpiece. Focusing on a welcoming entry, various features and landscaping strategies can help increase curb appeal and safety. You can gather inspiration from some of these five spring landscaping tips for your Naperville, IL front yard.
A Welcoming Entry
Updating your hardscapes and adding plenty of greenery that fits in with a modern design will make an incredible impact on your home and the neighborhood.
Making the most of your front yard begins with focusing on the entry of the home. Some may want to have a more welcoming front yard than others – hinting at various levels of desired privacy, but the simple fact is that the front yard is the main entry to the home. What folks see of your home’s entry from the street and the sidewalk affects your home’s curb appeal. A more welcoming entry has an open feel, a clearly defined path to the front door, attractive and carefully maintained vegetation, and accent features that improve the visual landscape.
Safety is the Priority
Safety contributes to the sense of welcome. Security could simply mean a clear visual line to all parts of your front yard if you have security cameras. It could mean doing away with thick foundation plantings and instead, placing more open landscape plants a bit further from the home. And, it means adequate landscape lighting that ensures safe passage at night.
Create a Focal Point
The front yard needs a focal point to draw the eye of visitors as they approach your home. This could be a dazzling feature such as a fountain or an ornamental fruit tree.
Create Balance
Balance doesn’t mean perfect, formal symmetry. While symmetry is pleasing to the eye, you can use a combination of visual weights to create attractive balance: for example, a visually dense spruce tree or large boulder can be balanced by a multitude of more open shrubs, ornamental grasses, and flowers.
Updated Hardscapes
Nothing is visually more boring than a straight concrete walkway leading to the front door. Updating your walkway to an attractive paver or natural stone walkway will allow you to complement your home’s aesthetic and express yourself creatively. Whether you admire the look of bluestone or the chic elegance of granite, you could opt for either in its natural form or in a concrete paver alternative. Some concrete pavers are permeable, which allows surface water to seep into the ground below; it’s better for the environment and helps reduce slipping hazards.
A low seat wall that runs along the outside of a front walkway immediately offers a warm “embrace” to visitors as they approach your front door, along with a place to rest. There’s the choice of natural stone blocks, concrete wall blocks, or concrete blocks faced with either a natural stone or manufactured stone veneer.
New Lighting Techniques
The best feature for a nighttime landscape is the right amount of tasteful lighting at night. A well-lit front yard will greatly enhance curb appeal and dazzle folks as they walk by. LED (light-emitting diode) lighting is an optimal decision for any landscape illumination as it uses far less energy than traditional bulbs and it’s possible to place them in hard-to-reach places. They also have adaptability for different colors and automatic timers. Updating the lighting of your front yard will make a welcoming and attractive statement.
