5 Front Yard Landscaping Ideas You Can Actually Do Yourself
Do your own front yard landscaping without hiring a pro! These 5 DIY landscaping ideas are easy for any skill level and will increase your curb appeal and create a beautiful front yard.
Be sure to also read 25+ Ways to Increase Curb Appeal and Beautiful Colors to Paint Your Front Door.
5 Easy Front Yard Landscaping Ideas
Landscaping is hard. It takes knowledge, sweat, and a lot of muscle to add landscaping to your front yard.
However, there are some landscaping DIY projects that are entirely feasible for you to do yourself, with a bit of help from your partner or a friend.
Each of these 5 front yard landscaping ideas are perfect for beginners and can be done in a weekend.
1. Build a retaining wall flower bed planter.
A retaining stone or brick wall in your front yard will help your home look more polished.
See our tutorial here for installing a retaining wall flower bed; the process is similar to building a stone block block fire pit. This tutorial shows you how to DIY a retaining wall around a tree with step-by-step pictures.
Plant flowers around your tree for even more curb appeal.
Related Reading: 20 Creative Flower Bed and Planter Ideas
2. Define and streamline your walkway.
Do you have a walkway that is often obscured by overgrown grass and weeds?
Re-define your walkway and make it easier to maintain by digging out the grass and adding lava rock! Use an edger regularly to maintain the clean lines.
If you don’t have a walkway in the first place, you can grab concrete stepping stone squares from your nearest home improvement store and easily create a similar walkway to the one shown.
Related Reading: How to Trim and Edge Your Grass Like a Pro
3. Create a long flower bed along the sides of your house.
When improving your curb appeal, don’t forget about the sides of your home. These areas are often shaded and are breeding places for weeds and can be hard to trim down using a lawnmower.
Put flower beds with edging along the sides of your home and you’ll be amazed at the difference it makes.
Related Reading: 27 Beautiful Garden Edging Ideas
4. Build a planter box for the front of your home.
A wooden planter box filled with flowers and plants along the front of your home, near your front door, can look modern and beautiful. You could even plant herbs in it to make it a mini-garden of sorts.
The inspiration image here could be modified from this easy to build tall wooden planter, or see more planter box DIY ideas here.
Related Reading: How to Choose Flowers for a Porch Planter
5. Give your mailbox (and the area around it) a makeover.
A dinky, old mailbox doesn’t do very much for your curb appeal. Get inspired by these 10 DIY mailbox ideas and give your mailbox an upgrade.
Go ahead, go outside this weekend and get dirty! Your house (and your neighbors) will thank you for it.
More DIY landscaping ideas:
- 13 Ways to Hide Outdoor Eyesores
- Beautiful Garden Arbors to Build or Buy
- How to Create a Relaxing Backyard
- 9 Ways to Make Over a Concrete Patio
First Published 25 May 2015 // Last Updated 26 Feb 2021
I’m Elisa and I live in Austin, Texas with my husband and our two little girls. I used to teach reading and writing, but now I stay at home with my two kiddos and read and write in my spare time. I also love to undertake DIY projects, find new recipes on Pinterest, and dream about someday finally completing our home. Above all, I love to learn about new things and sharing my new-found knowledge with others.
It’s extremely irresponsible to advise building a retaining wall around an existing tree. This WILL eventually kill the tree. You CANNOT pile up soil or mulch around the trunk of a tree that’s higher than the original level of soil. The tree will choke. The ONLY time this should be done is when putting in a new tree which can be planted at the higher soil level within the ring.
Thanks for the info, Deb.
Thanks for sharing your ideas & photos! I just bought my home last month, and I am having a landscape architect redo my front yard. I’m going to show the long flower bed and stepping stone walkway photos to them because I’d love to have something like this included in my yard’s design.