Front Yard Home Ideas for Ranches

Southwest Style

• If you live in a warm and dry climate, give your ranch home a southwestern treatment. Use cactus plants such as the round-shape Emory's barrel cactus, prickly pear and jojoba to establish the southwest look. Make a rock garden around the cactus plants with gladiolus, western dayflower, brittlebush and the California poppy. Look for a vintage relic such as an old wheelbarrow for a landscape accent piece or to use as a container for planting flowers. Create an arch trellis over the driveway, adorned with climbing roses. Border the property line with a rustic and ranch-style looking split rail fence. Hang garden accents along the fence such as a lasso, cowbells and horseshoes to add character to give the landscaping design a hacienda effect.

Southern Style

• The long and low structure of a ranch style home creates an attractive backdrop for a southern style landscaping treatment. Plant dogwood or magnolia trees in the front yard to establish a look of the South. If the home has a rocking chair front porch, landscape the area in front with azaleas and rhododendrons -- no "respectable" southern style home would be without them. Mailboxes are another Southern landscaping "must do." Grace the area around the mailbox with sun-tolerant plants such as Echinacea, petunia, lavender, sedum and black-eyed Susan.

Tropical Styles

• Ranch style homeowners in southern California, south Texas, Georgia, Florida, Louisiana and the southeastern areas of the Carolinas can give the landscaping a tropical flair. The climate is just right to create a habitat that's reminiscent of the Caribbean, the Gulf of Mexico or the South Atlantic Ocean. Establish the tropical style with most iconic of all trees -- the palm. Select dwarf palms such as a banana, windmill, dwarf palmetto, yucca or bird of paradise to use as a shrub planting. Dwarfs are the better choice because they won't overpower the short stature of a ranch style home. And yes, if you want to add a kitsch effect to your garden beds, by all means go ahead and add a few pink flamingos.

Japanese Garden Inspired

• The short height and angular roof structure that is typical of ranch style homes will work well to create a landscape design based on Japanese garden principles. Incorporate the three fundamental design elements of reduced scale, symbolization and borrowed view. Select dwarf varieties of shrubs and trees to honor the aspect of reduced scale. Incorporate religious garden statuary features to fulfill the symbolization design principle. Add stones or a water feature to fulfill the final design principle of a borrowed view. Use gravel and stepping stones so you can stroll along the garden path and enjoy your Japanese garden setting.