Simple and Cheap Front Yard Landscaping Ideas

It’s that time of year to get outside and spruce up that curb appeal. Today I am sharing simple and cheap front yard landscaping ideas that you can do to make your home look amazing!

We all want our homes to look good not just on the inside but on the outside. With Spring coming up it’s time to get out there and clean up after the Winter.

Once that’s done there are some simple things you can do to really make the front yard look better. I know, landscaping can get really expensive. But it doesn’t have to!

Front plants to hardscapes I have tons of amazing ideas for you to implement to make your yard the envy of the neighborhood.

DIY Front Yard Landscaping Ideas – Fixing What You Have

One of the best things you can do is to spruce up what you already have. For example your front door or existing hardscapes (such as patio, front porches, and any decking).

Step one is to clean up.

Cleaning a patio, front porch, or walkway is the first thing you can do. A power washer is a great investment and can clean not only these hardscapes but also any mildew you might grow on your siding.

The first step in sprucing up anything is to give it a good scrub. It’s amazing the difference cleaning these hardscapes can make. You will find that once you do this you have already improved your curb appeal immensely.

Another great way to spruce up what you already have is to give your front door a makeover. Here Abbots at Home really spruced up the curb appeal by giving their front door a whole new look. This is so cheap and easy to do but makes a huge impact.

Front Yard Landscaping Ideas – Update with Paint

Another great way to improve just about anything is with paint! Paint covers a multitude of sins and is not only a cheap way to improve the look of anything it’s so cheap! Green with Decor shows the difference it made in its curb appeal.

If your front porch needs some sprucing up you can give it a coat of paint like The Honeycomb Home did. She used concrete paint to give it that look and durability. If you have a wood front porch you can use wood stain or porch paint to spruce it up as well.

If you have a front porch railing that has seen better days then it’s a great idea to give it a modern makeover. Check out how Where the Smiles Have Been updated her front porch railing. There are simple steps that don’t take a ton of time or money to make sure it’s done right.

Front Yard Landscaping Ideas – Add an Architectutral Feature

A great way to improve your front yard is to add an architectural element. The grass is expected, so are plants. But an architectural feature really is something that can elevate your landscaping to the next level.

When doing a major front yard redo last summer we uncovered several very large landscaping rocks. The kind that you use to make everything look good. We raised them up and are in the process of adding plants around them.

These rocks had sunk over several years from landscapers just throwing mulch on top of mulch and covering them up. It’s happening all over my neighborhood and it’s really frustrating to me because these stones aren’t cheap.

If you want to add one to your yard you can do it for less money just by adding one. If you add one stone and add several plants around it you can make a big statement. Plus these stones take up a lot of space so it’s fewer plants you need to add. That saves you money in the end.

Another way to add interest is with a small water feature. Water is a great way to add something that is not only an architectural element but a very calming one.

Something about the should of water really helps create a calm. I sometimes listen to a rain app at night when I am having trouble sleeping.

Landscaping Ideas – Add something fun and unique!

Add something fun and unique to your front yard. A Crafty Mix added this barrel with a hand pump to make it look like an old water pump. It’s creative and unique and I bet it’s something none of your neighbors have in their yard!

Bigger than the Three of Us added this adorable free little library to their front yard. It’s something that is perfect for your kids and it also helps out the kids of the neighborhood.

I have seen a lot of people start doing this when the pandemic first hit and there were so many lockdowns. It helped kids have something else to read when the libraries were closed.

Adding something like this to your yard is not only good for you and your home but also your whole community.

Create a Path with Stones or River Rock

If you have a ton of grass and want to create a walkway to get to the front porch or maybe the back yard then it’s really easy to create a path with concrete. You can easily make them look like large stones but for a fraction of the price!

Artsy Pretty Plants created this stone-stepping path using concrete! It looks like incredibly expensive stones but was made for a fraction of the price! What a pretty and cheap way to create a path to get around your home without having to walk through the grass or mud.

If you have a low part of your yard or want to create a path then river rock is a great idea. River Rock is great for that area that is constantly wet and grass won’t grow. Creating a path for water to run and drain helps everything in your yard.

But if you need to create a path you can use River Rock too! Just make sure you have good edges so the rock doesn’t go into the grass.

River Rock can be purchased at any of your local hardware stores for a couple of dollars a bag.

Add a bench to your front garden or walkway.

Adding a bench in your garden gives you a place to sit and look at your beautiful plants and the pretty birds and insects that will come to pollinate your plants.

You can build a bench or buy a bench, totally up to you. But in this post, you can see how Juggling Act Mama built a bench and added places for plants to increase the curb appeal of her home.

Create a Barrier for Your Flower Beds

Green with Decor created a beautiful flower bed with wood. I have seen this done with raised planter beds too for gardening.

As you can see she has a sloped yard which makes planting flower beds a little tricky. By adding these wood pieces you can elevate one end and make it level which makes it so much easier to plant.

You don’t need to have a sloped yard to accomplish this. If you like the look you can create a flower bed with wood for a lot less than stone walls are.

The Kitchen Garten created this great DIY Brick Edging around their flower beds. Bricks are very inexpensive and the way they created this edging allows the lawnmower to easily go along the edge without the need for a trimer.

Anything that keeps me from having to do more work is okay in my book!

How to Hide an Eyesore

Life on Kaydeross Creek has an old well pump in their front yard. It’s not a functional well pump and frankly wasn’t something they wanted to look at on a daily basis.

By creating a flower bed and covering the pump with a faux rock they were able to disguise the well pump without having to go to the expense of removing it.

Front Yard Landscape Lighting

A fantastic way to not only add form and function to your yard is to add landscape lighting. Lighting not only elevates the look of your yard but it also makes it a lot easier to find your front door in the dark!

Salvage Sister and Mister was able to add landscape lighting to their yard by themselves. It’s not nearly as hard of a project as some think it is. It’s one of those DIY projects that is totally doable for an average DIY’er but makes a professional type impact.

Improve Your Front Yard Landscaping with Plants

Hopefully, you have gained some exciting new ideas on how you can landscape your front yard simply and with little investment.

Other Outdoor Yard Posts:

• Horizontal Fence Ideas
• 48 Cheap and Easy Outdoor Furniture Ideas
• 8 Amazing DIY Outdoor Accent Wall Ideas
• Make Your Backyard Awesome with these Easy DIY Backyard Projects
• 8 Ways to Create a Relaxing Porch and Patio That You Will Never Want to Leave
• 10 Cheap Patio Ideas for a Sensational Outside Space

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