Front Yard Planting Ideas
The landscaping around the front of your home can completely change how your property looks from the street. A well-designed foundation planting can soften the appearance of the house, add seasonal color, highlight the entrance, and create a more finished front yard.
For homeowners in Northern New Jersey, choosing the right combination of shrubs, perennials, ornamental trees, and landscape lighting is especially important. Plants need to work with our local climate while also fitting the amount of sunlight, available space, drainage, and style of the home.
At RVG Landscape Design, we design and install front yard landscapes throughout Northern NJ, including Bergen, Passaic, Essex, and Morris counties. Here are some ideas to consider when planning landscaping around your home’s foundation.
Start With a Layered Foundation Planting
One of the best ways to create an attractive front landscape is to use different plant heights instead of installing one row of the same shrub across the house.
A typical design may include:
- Ornamental trees as focal points
- Evergreen shrubs for year-round structure
- Flowering shrubs for seasonal color
- Perennials and ornamental grasses along the front of the beds
- Mulch to provide a finished appearance
- Landscape lighting to highlight the home and plantings at night
The goal is to create a landscape that looks balanced without blocking windows, walkways, steps, or architectural features.
Boxwoods for Year-Round Structure
Boxwoods are one of the most popular foundation shrubs because they provide greenery throughout the year.
They can work well along front walkways, underneath windows, near entrances, and as borders within larger planting beds.
Boxwoods can also provide structure behind flowering perennials. When flowers and other plants go dormant during the winter, the evergreens help keep the front landscape from looking completely empty.
The key is selecting the appropriate variety and allowing enough room for its mature size.
Hydrangeas for Color and Larger Planting Beds
Hydrangeas are another popular choice for Northern NJ landscapes.
Depending on the variety and location, hydrangeas can produce large flowers throughout the growing season and work especially well in larger foundation beds.
They can be combined with smaller evergreen shrubs and perennials to create different heights.
For example, a planting could incorporate hydrangeas toward the rear of the bed, boxwoods through the middle, and lower-growing perennials along the front.
This creates depth instead of having every plant at the same height.
Roses Around the Front of the House
Roses can provide excellent seasonal color when installed in an appropriate sunny location.
Rather than filling an entire foundation bed with roses, we often recommend incorporating flowering plants into a larger landscape design.
Roses can be paired with:
- Boxwoods
- Catmint
- Salvia
- Ornamental grasses
- Other flowering perennials
Combining different plants provides more variety throughout the season.
Catmint and Perennials for the Front of Planting Beds
Catmint is a great option for adding softer texture and color along the front of a landscape bed.
Perennials can help fill the spaces between larger shrubs while providing changing colors and textures throughout spring, summer, and fall.
Other perennial options for Northern NJ landscapes can include:
- Salvia
- Coneflowers
- Black-eyed Susans
- Hostas
- Heuchera
- Daylilies
- Ornamental grasses
Plant selection should always depend on the property’s sunlight, soil conditions, drainage, available space, and desired level of maintenance.
Add an Ornamental Tree
Not every front yard needs a large shade tree.
Sometimes a smaller ornamental tree can provide the right amount of height without overwhelming the house.
Popular options can include:
- Japanese maples
- Flowering dogwoods
- Redbuds
- Serviceberries
- Other flowering ornamental trees
An ornamental tree can work especially well near a corner of the house, within a larger front planting bed, or as a focal point near an entrance.
The location matters. Trees should be positioned with their mature size in mind rather than based only on how small they are when first planted.
Don't Cover the House With Plants
One of the most common mistakes with foundation landscaping is planting too close to the house or installing plants that eventually become too large for the area.
A new shrub may look small when installed, but several years later it could cover windows, grow into siding, interfere with walkways, or require constant trimming.
Good landscape design considers the mature height and width of each plant.
Leaving appropriate spacing can also make the landscape easier to maintain.
Mix Evergreens With Seasonal Color
Northern NJ landscapes experience four very different seasons.
Because of that, we recommend thinking beyond how the property will look during June or July.
A good foundation planting can combine evergreen shrubs with flowering shrubs, perennials, ornamental grasses, and trees.
The evergreens provide structure throughout winter while flowering plants provide color during the warmer months.
This approach can give your front yard interest throughout more of the year.
Consider Sunlight Before Choosing Plants
The front of one house may receive full sun for most of the day while another property may be heavily shaded.
That makes plant selection extremely important.
Before designing a front yard planting, consider whether each area receives:
Full sun – generally six or more hours of direct sunlight.
Partial sun or partial shade – a combination of direct sunlight and shade.
Shade – limited direct sunlight.
Trying to force a sun-loving plant into a heavily shaded location—or the opposite—can result in poor growth and disappointing flowering.
Use Landscape Lighting to Complete the Front Yard
A front landscape doesn’t have to disappear after sunset.
Low-voltage landscape lighting can highlight the home’s architecture, improve visibility along walkways, and showcase trees and plantings at night.
RVG Landscape Design installs low-voltage landscape lighting as part of front yard landscape projects throughout Northern NJ.
Path Lights
Low-voltage path lights can be installed along front walkways, steps, planting beds, and entrances.
They provide subtle illumination while helping homeowners and guests navigate the property after dark.
Instead of placing lights everywhere, proper spacing can create a cleaner and more natural appearance.
Spotlights and Uplighting
Landscape spotlights and uplights can be used to highlight specific features around the property.
They can be positioned to illuminate:
- Ornamental trees
- Mature trees
- Front entrances
- Architectural features
- Stonework
- Larger shrubs
- Other landscape focal points
For example, an ornamental tree that serves as a focal point during the day can be illuminated from below at night.
Combining plantings with professional landscape lighting allows the front yard to make an impact during both the day and evening.
Don't Forget the Walkway and Entrance
Foundation landscaping should work together with the rest of the front yard.
The planting beds, front walkway, steps, entrance, lawn, and lighting should feel like parts of the same design.
Plantings can help soften the edges of a paver or natural stone walkway, while low-growing plants can add color without covering the walkway.
Path lights can then provide nighttime visibility and highlight the route toward the front entrance.
Finish the Beds With Mulch
Mulch provides more than a finished appearance.
A properly prepared and mulched planting bed can help retain soil moisture, reduce weed growth, and visually separate the landscaping from the lawn.
Bed shape is important as well.
Creating appropriately sized beds gives shrubs and perennials enough room to mature instead of squeezing everything into a narrow strip directly against the house.
Low-Maintenance Foundation Planting Ideas
If you don’t want to spend every weekend maintaining the front yard, tell your landscape designer from the beginning.
A lower-maintenance design may use a combination of appropriately sized evergreen shrubs, hardy flowering shrubs, ornamental grasses, and selected perennials.
Plant spacing is also important.
Installing too many plants to make a new landscape look immediately full can create overcrowding several years later. A properly designed landscape should have room to mature.
When Is the Best Time to Install Foundation Plantings in Northern NJ?
Spring and fall are both popular planting seasons in Northern New Jersey.
Fall can be an excellent opportunity to install many trees, shrubs, and perennials because temperatures are cooler than the peak of summer while the soil can remain workable.
Spring is also an excellent time for new landscape installations and gives homeowners an opportunity to prepare their property for the upcoming outdoor season.
The appropriate planting window can vary depending on the specific plant material and weather conditions.
Professional Front Yard Planting Installation in Northern NJ
A successful front yard landscape is about more than choosing a few attractive plants at a garden center.
The placement, mature size, color, texture, sunlight requirements, drainage, and relationship between plants all need to work together.
At RVG Landscape Design, we provide professional landscape design and planting installation throughout Northern New Jersey, including Bergen County, Passaic County, Essex County, and Morris County.
Our front yard landscape projects can include:
- Foundation planting design
- Shrub installation
- Boxwood installation
- Hydrangea installation
- Rose and perennial installation
- Ornamental tree installation
- Privacy plantings
- Mulch and landscape bed installation
- Front yard landscape renovations
- Low-voltage landscape lighting
- Path light installation
- Landscape spotlights and uplighting
- Walkways and other landscape improvements
Whether you’re replacing outdated foundation shrubs or redesigning the entire front of your property, we can create a landscape that complements your home and provides interest throughout the seasons.
RVG Landscape Design provides front yard landscape design and planting installation for homeowners throughout Northern New Jersey. We help transform front yards with foundation plantings, ornamental trees, shrubs, perennials, mulch beds, and low-voltage landscape lighting.
We provide front yard landscaping services in communities including:
Whether you’re looking to update older foundation plantings, add boxwoods and hydrangeas, introduce colorful perennials, install ornamental trees, or redesign the entire front landscape, our team can help create a planting design that complements your home and property.
Frequently Asked Questions About Foundation Planting in Northern NJ
Popular options include boxwoods, hydrangeas, roses, catmint, salvia, ornamental grasses, hostas, and other perennials. Ornamental trees such as Japanese maples, dogwoods, and redbuds can also create beautiful focal points. The best plants depend on sunlight, drainage, available space, and the style of your home.
A low-maintenance foundation landscape can combine evergreen shrubs such as boxwoods with hydrangeas, ornamental grasses, and hardy perennials. Choosing plants that fit the space when fully grown can also reduce the amount of pruning and maintenance required.
Spacing depends on the mature size of the plant. Shrubs should have enough room to grow without pressing against siding, covering windows, or blocking walkways. When designing foundation plantings, we consider the plant's mature width rather than its size on installation day.
Yes. RVG Landscape Design provides complete front yard landscape design and planting installation in Northern NJ. Projects can include foundation shrubs, perennials, ornamental trees, new landscape beds, mulch, walkways, and low-voltage landscape lighting.
Depending on the property, options can include Japanese maples, flowering dogwoods, redbuds, and serviceberries. The right ornamental tree depends on available space, sunlight, soil conditions, and the desired mature size.
