Front Yard Sidewalk-Garden Ideas (2024)

Add beauty and curb appeal to your front yard with a sidewalk garden. Check out these front garden ideas that'll work even in the smallest of spaces.

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Use Layers in the Garden

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Some of the best garden ideas use layering. For this, you combine layers of plants that grow at different heights. This front garden idea is a great example. The white alyssum and purple-leafed lobelia in the front set the stage for taller tulips and butterfly flower,s which are in turn backed by society garlic and a wall topped in glowing pink bougainvillea.

Here's a tip: Even if you don't live in a warm-climate area, you can still take advantage of tropicals such as bougainvillea. Just treat them as annuals (or grow them in containers and bring them indoors for the winter).

  • Layering is one trick used by the pros to create great landscapes—check out their other top tips

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Create Interest with Curves

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Curves are much more appealing to the eye than straight lines. So give your sidewalk garden an extra bit of pizzazz with flowing curves. Here, the strip of turf between the street and the garden sets off the planting wonderfully. And it gives folks a place to step when they get out of their cars. If your area is big enough, you could do the same thing between the planting and the sidewalk.

Here's a tip: Install landscape edging between your border and the turf to keep the grass from creeping into your beds.

  • Create this look with our small-space garden plans

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Make the Most of Your Space

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A sidewalk garden doesn't have to take up a lot of room. This is a great front garden idea showing how you can pack in color and texture in just a little space; with only about a foot between the fence and the sidewalk, this garden is filled with tall, narrow plants, such as these pink and white foxgloves, purple delphiniums, and a climbing rose to attach to the fence. Tall, narrow plants are a great way to maximize narrow spots.

Here's a tip: If you use tall plants like these, be sure to add smaller plants around the bases, so there are blooms from the top all the way to the ground.

  • Discover tips for growing foxgloves
  • Learn great tips for growing beautiful delphiniums

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Grow a Cutting Garden

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Even though they take up little real estate, small sidewalk gardens can be great for growing your own cut flowers. In this garden, foxgloves, roses, and a host of other flowers are perfect for dressing up the front of the house, for table decoration, or for dropping in a vase as a great hostess gift.

Here's a tip: Look at landscape accents to give your sidewalk garden more appeal. Here, for example, a white picket fence and arbor create even more charm.

  • Learn more about great cut flowers

Decrease Your Yard Maintenance

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A fun idea: Instead of having to mow your front lawn once a week (or more), indulge in rich plantings. This crafty gardener mixed ornamentals, herbs, and vegetables to create a beautiful front yard that takes a lot less time to maintain than a lawn. Her front yard is the perfect place to grab some fresh herbs for dinner.

Here's a tip: Check your local rules concerning t front yard plantings. Some areas require a certain amount of lawn.

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Our Best Curb Appeal Tips

Watch and follow these simple tips for stunning curb appeal.

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Make Your Yard Feel Bigger

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If your yard is small, create an illusion of space with street-side planting. This garden adds a layer of dimension to an otherwise shallow front space, and the mix of textures adds to the effect—the variety of shapes keeps your attention on the border.

Here's a tip: The border's simple color theme helps it feel larger, too. Cool colors, such as lavender, light pink, and blue, often feel farther away than they really are.

  • Check out these other tips for making your landscape feel larger

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Delight Passersby with Fragrance

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A sidewalk garden doesn't just have to look good—it can smell great, too. This front garden combines a lovely, majestic Southern magnolia and shrub roses for low-care color and delightful fragrance spring to fall. The planting between the sidewalk and street helps soften the front yard plantings, and the result is privacy that's not unwelcoming.

Here's a tip: Use a 2- to 3-inch-deep layer of mulch to keep weeds down and help the soil stay moist longer. That way you'll have even more time to enjoy your lovely garden.

  • Learn more about fragrant plants

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Add Easy Elegance

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Get inspired with this garden idea: Give your front yard a transformation by clearing out the turf between your sidewalk and the street and filling it with low-maintenance plants, such as these ornamental grasses, which include fountain grass (Pennisetum) and blue oat grass (Helictotrichon).

Here's a tip: Check your city's rules about planting in this space; some places have restrictions on how tall plants can be.

  • Learn about other great, low-care ornamental grasses

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Make a Statement

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This relatively simple sidewalk front garden makes a big statement in a small space. A simple boxwood border and snaking line create pockets for the fireworks-like texture of ornamental grasses. We love the plant choice—the evergreen boxwood looks great all year and the grasses shine from summer through early spring.

Here's a tip: If you plant between the street and sidewalk and your street allows for parking, leave a space so people can get out of their cars. Here, a flagstone border does the trick perfectly.

  • Ornamental grasses are some of the most versatile plants in the garden—learn about other great ways you can put them to use in your landscape

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Garden No Matter Where You Live

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Use this idea, and you can have a stunning sidewalk, even if you live in an arid area. Here, yellow and orange ice plants make a stunning statement backed by yucca, agave, and cactus. Other attractive plants for hot, dry places include aloes and many salvias, penstemons, and flowering cacti.

Here's a tip: If you plant against a south- or west-facing wall, you'll want to select plants that can stand up to the extra heat the wall reflects.

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Plan for All Seasons

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This street-side garden keeps going all season. In spring, it benefits from a burst of color from bulbs and crabapples. Then perennials, such as Oriental poppy, come into play. Prolong the season with other easy favorites, including peonies, daylilies, coreopsis, coneflowers, and black-eyed Susans. In fall and winter, grasses take center stage.

Here's a tip: Another great way to help deter weeds is to plant densely. The closer together your garden plants are, the less room there is for weeds.

  • Crabapples are great small trees—learn about other top picks

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Solve a Slope Problem

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If you're stuck with a sloping front yard, a retaining wall and sidewalk garden can be the perfect garden idea and solution for tough mowing. Here, a simple concrete retaining wall is dressed up with a variety of beautiful blooms. A charming white picket fence helps distract you from the blandness of the concrete wall, and gives the whole landscape a quaint cottage character.

Here's a tip: Vines like this ivy—or trailing plants, such as many varieties of campanula—will help cover walls as well.

  • Get inspired with more flower-filled front yards

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Utilize Containers

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A great sidewalk garden doesn't have to be limited to planting in the ground. You can create the same effect with containers. This garden relies on a series of container gardens that line the sidewalk in front of this cute cottage. The biggest chore is watering—and that can be a breeze with a simple drip irrigation system.

Here's a tip: We love the cool, chartreuse color theme this gardener picked. Even a single-color garden can look great.

  • The chartreuse flowers spilling between the pots and over the gravel walkway are lady's mantle—learn more about this great perennial

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Add a Splash of Color

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This charming home, with its shrub-filled front yard, felt a little bland, so the homeowners added curb appeal with a simple garden between their fence and sidewalk. Filled with fragrant red nicotiana, red-leafed Acalypha, and coleus, it's a treat for passersby and a practical garden idea.

Here's a tip: Don't forget about the importance of foliage color when you select plants. The red-leaf plants create just as much interest as the flowers—and look good from spring to fall, since they never go out of bloom.

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Update Your Entrance

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We love how sidewalk gardens instantly make a home more welcoming and inviting. In this front garden, a few flowers tucked along a split-rail fence create a boundary from the street, while adding charm and character. A similar planting (filled with easy-care annuals and perennials) between the street and the sidewalk creates an extra layer of interest.

Here's a tip: The curved walkway from the sidewalk to the home adds visual interest. Think about creating eye-pleasing curves in your landscape when possible.

  • A great gate can also help make the entry to your yard more showy—check out our great gate ideas

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Create Cottage Charm

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Planting along your sidewalk can help accent your home's architectural style. In this garden, a lovely Victorian home is made all the more charming by a little cottage-style garden filled with roses and other great flowers for cutting. A white picket fence completes the scene. We love how the garden makes a big impact, but takes up hardly any space.

Here's a tip: Check your city's rules about planting in this space; some areas have restrictions on how tall plants can grow.

  • Learn more about cottage gardening

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Make Your Yard Feel More Intimate

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If your house is set back from the street and feels isolated, a pocket of colorful flowers along the sidewalk can help it feel more inviting by creating color and interest up close. In this front garden, a colorful border, planted with daylilies, perennial geraniums, sedum, and other easy-growing varieties, looks good all season long and is a great accent to the house.

Here's a tip: If you have a deep front yard, planting along the sidewalk will also give you a beautiful, colorful view from inside your home.

  • See more landscaping ideas for the front yard.
Front Yard Sidewalk-Garden Ideas (2024)

FAQs

How do you landscape between a sidewalk and a house? ›

Los Angeles' long-standing guidelines state that between curb and sidewalk, homeowners should plant only turf, and a revocable permit is required for deviations, says Lance Oishi, a senior landscape architect for the city.

What to plant between curb and sidewalk? ›

Go for enduring plants like perennials, shrubs, and bulbs that are native to your area, don't need much water, and stay below 3 feet tall without obstructing passersby's path. You might choose a small fruit tree to provide food for the community and wildlife.

How to beautify a sidewalk? ›

Check out these 9 stunning walkway ideas to enhance the exterior of your home!
  1. Brick Pavers. Brick has been a favorite in landscape design for years. ...
  2. Gravel. Gravel isn't just for driveways. ...
  3. Stepping stones. ...
  4. Patterns. ...
  5. Wood. ...
  6. Large tiles. ...
  7. Walkways with steps. ...
  8. Textured Walkways.
May 6, 2024

How to plant along a walkway? ›

Designate the areas for the new garden bed. The areas nearest the ends of the walkway should be the widest. The lines of plants and bushes will draw guests into the house and accentuate the walkway. When choosing your plants, consider the amount of sunlight the walkway gets; one end may get more light than the other.

How to landscape around a sidewalk? ›

Most plants are acceptable for sidewalk landscaping; however, ivy and other invasive groundcovers should be avoided as they can provide protective cover for pests. Tall, dense bushes and hedges should also be avoided as they can limit visibility and accessibility. Thorny and spiky plants are also not allowed.

Can you plant between a sidewalk and a street? ›

To grow and plant anything successfully in the sidewalk strip, you must address two primary concerns: soil and plant selection. Knowing that soil in the sidewalk strip is compacted, salty, drought-prone and hot, start landscaping by focusing on improving soil to make your plant care routine easier and more sustainable.

What is the area between a sidewalk and a street called? ›

Parkways, the area between the outside edge of the sidewalk and the inside edge of the curb which are a component of the Public Right of Way (PROW) – that the landscaping should require little or no irrigation and the area produce no runoff.

How close to sidewalk can you plant? ›

For example: A tree that grows up to 30 feet tall should be planted at least 3 feet from the edge of a concrete slab. 30- to 50-foot trees should be planted at least 5 to 6 feet away. Trees over 50 feet tall should be planted at least 7 to 8 feet from the sidewalk or driveway.

What to put next to a sidewalk? ›

If you have trees close to the sidewalk or walkways, you can add a garden bed around them. It's a natural space to remove grass and create a garden. It can add interest to your front walkway and again, is a good way to achieve less maintenance.

What can you put over a concrete walkway? ›

It's possible, and totally doable, to cover old concrete with pavers. There's just a few caveats: #1: Your surface needs to be intact and solid. If you have a crumbling surface, this project won't work without some extra prep work.

How to decorate a concrete walkway? ›

Acid, or chemical-based, concrete stains are an economical and highly versatile way to color both new and existing concrete walkways. Stains can be applied by hand after the concrete sets, giving contractors the ability to add subtle hints of color or bolder design accents.

What are the best low maintenance border plants? ›

Euphorbias and succulents like creeping sedums or hens and chicks are an easy way to have a lush, low- maintenance border. These plants spread quickly but not aggressively and there are many flowering varieties.

Do lavender plants spread? ›

Keep in mind that although lavender has a large, spreading root system, it prefers growing in a tight spot. If you are growing your plants in containers, select those that are just a few inches larger in diameter than the root ball.

What plants are good for afternoon sun? ›

Sun loving coleus and bronze leafed wax begonias may work. Just keep the soil moist. Purple Heart (Setcreasea purpurea), pentas, and four o'clocks are other annuals to consider. For perennials try dwarf Mexican petunia (Ruellia), lilyturf, daylilies, and speedwell (Veronica).

How much does a walkway around a house cost? ›

Installing a concrete sidewalk usually costs between $6 and $12 per square foot, but most homeowners will pay around $9 per square foot. So for a typical 200-square-foot walkway, you can expect to pay around $1,800.

How do you grade landscape away from your house? ›

Soil Grading Around Your Home

Ideally, the ground should drop one inch for every one foot that you move away from the house for the first 5-to-10 feet around your house. While this is not always possible, the ground should never be sloping upwards as you move away from your house foundation.

What is the difference between a sidewalk and a walkway? ›

"Walkway" is a more comprehensive term that includes stairs, ramps, passageways, and related structures that facilitate the use of a path as well as the sidewalk. In the UK, the term "footpath" is mostly used for paths that do not abut a roadway.

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