Landscape Ideas for a Colonial Front Yard

Adapting Colonial Landscape Styles

• Colonial settlers were attached to various European garden styles; but they adapted to conditions around them. Colonial landscaping is marked by formal layouts, but settlers took advantage of the materials around them, too, such as stone and gravel, and planted what they needed first. Choose between the formal layouts of the country estates or the modest dooryard gardens of the urban settlers, and blend the style with local and contemporary materials, according to your own preferences.

Small Front Yards

• Small urban lots with limited space are especially suited to the dooryard garden style Raised beds, divided by walkways, were planted with vegetables and herbs mixed with favorite perennials. Substitute turf with raised beds arranged around a central walkway in a symmetrical geometric pattern, with secondary walkways providing access to the beds. A common feature of Colonial gardens was a picket fence to keep out livestock. Choose a fence style that complements the house architecture.

Suburban Front Yards

• In the country, wealthy landowners borrowed from the natural styles of English garden designers, with open lawns, natural slopes, and groves of trees for the grounds. But near the house, formal parterre-style layouts were preferred. Plan a formal walkway for the front entrance, framed with beds filled with ornamental plantings. Avoid foundation planting. Highlight strong forms by following the line of walkway or patio with low boxwood hedging, brick edging, borders of colorful annuals or a groomed lawn.

Hard and Soft Landscape Materials

• Materials for Colonial walkways were often simply gravel or compacted earth. The more upscale use of interlocking brick or exposed aggregate concrete fits with a Colonial theme, or use local stone for landscape construction. Planting styles can follow either the eclectic mixes of the dooryard gardens or the clipped, groomed plantings of the larger rural lots. Plant trees sparingly. Colonial gardens were open, so that the patterns of the walkways and beds dominated the view.