Inspirations & renovations - three front yard renovation ideas

Sunset, July, 1995 by Lauren Bonar Swezey

Three landscape architects share their plans for making over a typical front yard

What happens when you ask three designers with diverse backgrounds and from different regions of the West to renovate the same suburban front yard? The results are inspiring, as you see in the range of redesigns on these six pages.

Sunset selected a site with problems typical of many mature landscapes: an oversize lawn in poor condition, a lack of color or interest, and space not put to good use. The front of the house, dominated by a 1,500-square-foot lawn, has a Japanese maple near the front door, a large 'Modesto' ash in the parking strip, and a driveway wide enough for three cars. The owners enjoy flowering plants but are occupied with work and two children and have little time for gardening.

We gave each landscape architect a photograph of the garden, its dimensions, and descriptions of the neighborhood and family. Each was given the same guidelines: the cost of the project should run between $15,000 and $25,000; the garden should be fairly low-maintenance and water-thrifty, but should not have an arid look; and the lawn should be reduced in size or eliminated. We worked with the landscape architects as if we were the homeowners, discussing and making changes as they might.

A casual, bungalow garden

When Jana Ruzicka of Laguna Beach, California, works with clients, her goal is to reconnect them with their surroundings.

Ruzicka wanted a garden that would look as if it belonged with a traditional California bungalow. So that the family would have a place to sit and relax in the garden, she removed the front porch railing to give a more open, welcoming feel, then expanded the porch. She kept the garden open to the street so the family could still interact with neighbors.

She also beefed up the size of the porch posts, took off the screen door, painted the front door magenta to set off the colors of the potted flowers, painted the trim a dark green to blend with the garden, and used a neutral gray-brown color for the house.

Ruzicka designed low, curving walls to surround the front garden. "I decided they shouldn't look too perfect," she says, "but should be made of rammed earth, with rocks or bricks inserted into them here and there." In the tops of the walls, depressions with drainage holes would hold Sedum spathulifolium.

The front walk's rustic look comes from rough concrete shapes. Ruzicka even proposes that the driveway edge be chiseled away to give an imperfect appearance.

Ruzicka prefers indigenous plants appropriate to the climate - taller near house and walls, lower near the gravel path across the center of the garden. Her choices are simple and understated: a single-petaled climbing rose on the walls; foxgloves, geraniums, yarrows, and grasses along the gravel path; and bulbs popping up in spring.

Front entry yields to private patio space

Lisa Moulton of Redwood City, California, created a private space by combining two functions: a front entry and a patio surrounded by a fence. "I love the psychology of designing front yards," she says. "The transition from the hectic outside world into the home is complex - it's comforting to have a series of transitions."

The first is at the gate, where you go from a public space to a private world. The next is in front of the steps, which Moulton has identified with a brick pattern. There, visitors have the choice of entering the private seating area or continuing to the door.

The key to Moulton's design is the use of brick - a traditional material already on site - in a less traditional way, with a woven pattern set in colored concrete. "It gives the garden a more contemporary feel," she says.

Moulton widened the front steps, faced them with brick, and removed the old railings. Posts were enlarged to give the house a more substantial look. Raised planters and a low wall provide extra seating for parties. To meet city codes, the 5-foot-high fence is open across the top, with vines weaving in and out.

Plants also help the transition from outside world to home. Says Moulton, "Anyone sitting in the patio will feel surrounded by plants and lushness. The space also will feel larger than it does now, when you see it all at once." Two new trees on the southeast and southwest sides of the garden shade the patio for morning brunch and from afternoon sun. Perennials along patio edges provide seasonal color.

Moulton narrowed the driveway by 8 feet, gaining room for a planting bed to the right of the driveway.

A computerized view of a low-maintenance garden

Alan Burke, of Preview, in Seattle, designs his plans in the traditional way but also uses digital imaging, which lets him show garden concepts as "photographs."

A computer rendering (above) shows a casual, low-maintenance garden of ornamental grasses, shrubs, and natural boulders. To create a welcoming transition from both street and driveway, he designed a 6-foot-wide walk accented with brick steps and clusters of 24- and 36-inch-diameter terra-cotta pots.