Landscaping for Townhomes

Contact your homeowner's association to find out if there are landscaping restrictions.

Give your front yard a welcoming, polished look with a few low-growing perennials and shrubs. Frame your front door with two flowering shrubs and line the walkway with smaller flowers. Examples of low-maintenance plants that add color and texture to a landscape include hostas and evergreen dwarf Alberta spruce trees.

Establish a sense of privacy in your backyard. Install a fence that meets your association's requirements. If you're not allowed to build a fence, install a piece of lattice as a privacy screen. Add honeysuckle, beans, sweet peas or other climbers at the foot of the lattice. Set a chair behind the screen for a quiet place to read or relax.

Plant small annuals or perennials that will add a few different colors to your yard. Make sure the growing conditions of your yard meet the needs of the flowers you choose. Aster and poppies are examples of multicolor perennial flowers that thrive in full sun. Miniature roses produce colorful blooms without taking up a lot of space.

Grow vegetables in containers instead of planting a vegetable garden in the ground. Set container plants on a rolling cart with multiple levels, allowing for more elbow room in the yard. Tomatoes, broccoli, carrots, cucumber, peppers, and turnips are a few types of vegetables that grow well in containers.

Add hanging plants near your back door for a splash of color. Small fruit tomato varieties, impatiens and English ivy are a few examples of plants that grow well as hanging plants.

Edge a small garden or row of hedges with bricks or stone. Edging adds definition to a landscape and protects your plants from erosion and yard traffic.