Landscaping Ideas for Front of House: A Layered Plan
Landscaping ideas for the front of a house are really foundation planting decisions, and foundation planting has constraints that the rest of the yard does not. Mulch has to stay 6 inches below the siding. Shrubs have to sit far enough out that you can still paint the wall. Nothing can crowd a gas meter, a crawl space vent, or an air conditioning condenser. Work inside those clearances first, then design, and you get a planting that looks right in year five instead of one that has to be ripped out.
Look up your zone before you shop. Our free frost date and hardiness zone lookup confirms which shrubs below are hardy where you live and when to plant them.
Updated September 2026
A note on numbers. We do not publish prices. Nursery, bulk material and contractor pricing varies by region, by season and by the specifics of your yard, and anything printed here would be wrong somewhere and out of date everywhere within months. What this page gives you instead is the quantities, the clearances, and the questions that make three local quotes comparable.
The classic failure here is a row of identical evergreens planted 18 inches from the wall, all the same height, all the same distance apart. It is the most common front of house planting in America and it does nothing for the house, because a straight line of one thing at one height only emphasizes that the wall behind it is also a straight line at one height.
Landscaping Ideas for Front of House, Organized by What the Facade Needs
| What the house looks like now | What to do | What sets the size of the job | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Blank wall, no porch | Anchor both corners, keep the middle low | Two corner shrubs plus a low run between them | Corner height about one third of wall height |
| Tall two story front | Deepen beds to 7 to 9 ft, add a small tree | Bed depth times frontage, plus one tree and its planting hole | A shallow bed looks like a shelf |
| Long low ranch | Break the horizontal with two vertical accents | Two upright specimens, everything else stays low | Do not plant an even row |
| Symmetrical colonial | Match left and right, vary the center | Everything bought in matched pairs, so plant count is even | Symmetry is the style, honor it |
| Craftsman or cottage | Informal drifts, mixed heights, no shearing | Drifts of three and five, so perennial counts climb | Straight rows fight the architecture |
| Split level | Plant the low side taller to level the eye | Two different plant lists for two different heights | Do not mirror the roofline |
| Windows blocked by shrubs | Remove and replace with dwarf cultivars | Removal and disposal first, then replanting | Sight line, not shearing, is the fix |
| Concrete stoop, no landing | Widen the landing or add flanking beds | Concrete work, and whether the stoop is structural | Hardscape is the priciest option here by a wide margin |
The plant rows are all within reach of a weekend and a car trunk. The stoop row is not, and it is worth separating in your own head: everything above the last line is planting, which you can phase over two seasons, and the last line is construction, which you cannot.
The clearances that come before the design
These are not style preferences. Ignoring them causes moisture damage, failed inspections, and service calls.
| Item | Required clearance | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Mulch or soil to siding | 6 in below the siding bottom edge | Wicking moisture rots the sill and sheathing |
| Exposed foundation visible | 6 to 8 in of wall showing | Termite inspectors need a visible inspection band |
| Brick weep holes | Never covered | They drain the wall cavity |
| Shrub foliage to wall | 12 in minimum, 18 to 24 in better | Air flow, painting, gutter access |
| Air conditioning condenser | 24 to 36 in on the service side, 12 in on the others, 5 ft overhead | Manufacturer requirement, restricting it costs efficiency |
| Gas meter and regulator | 3 ft clear in all directions | Utility access and venting |
| Crawl space and dryer vents | Fully clear, never buried | Blocked vents cause moisture and lint fires |
| Downspout discharge | Extend 4 to 6 ft from the foundation | Water at the wall is the top cause of basement leaks |
| Window wells | Kept open and drained | Egress and drainage |
| Trees to foundation | 15 to 20 ft for a large species | Root and canopy conflicts |
Grade is worth checking at the same time. The soil should fall away from the wall at about 2 percent, a quarter inch per foot, for the first 10 feet. Adding a bed is the moment when people accidentally build the grade up against the house and create a leak. If the bed has to be raised, raise it away from the wall and keep the first 18 inches at the original grade.
Call 811 before digging. It is free, takes two to three business days, and is required in every state. Foundation beds sit right where the gas service, the water line, and the cable drop all come in.
Layer heights against the wall, not against each other
The planting should step up from the walk to the wall in three tiers.
- Front tier, 6 to 18 inches. Ground cover and low perennials along the bed edge. Creeping sedum, dwarf catmint, heuchera, or Pennsylvania sedge.
- Middle tier, 2 to 3 feet. The working layer. Compact shrubs and larger perennials, planted in groups of three or five.
- Back tier, 3 to 6 feet. Structure against the wall, and only at the corners or between windows, never in front of glass.
Below the windows, the mature height of anything you plant should be at least a foot under the windowsill. Measure the sill height, subtract 12 inches, and shop for plants whose listed mature height is under that number. This is the single measurement that prevents the shearing treadmill.
Plants for the Front of a House, by Sun and Zone
The list below sticks to shrubs and perennials that stay the size they are advertised at, which is what a foundation bed needs. Spacing is on center and matches mature width.
| Plant | Sun | Zones | Mature height | Spacing | Role |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Boxwood 'Green Velvet' | Sun to part shade | 5 to 9 | 3 to 4 ft | 3 to 4 ft | Corner or middle tier |
| 'Gem Box' inkberry holly | Sun to part shade | 5 to 9 | 2 to 3 ft | 2.5 to 3 ft | Under windows |
| Dwarf yaupon holly | Full sun | 7 to 10 | 3 to 4 ft | 3 ft | Southern corners |
| Dwarf fothergilla | Sun to part shade | 5 to 8 | 3 ft | 3 ft | Middle tier, fall color |
| 'Little Henry' sweetspire | Sun to part shade | 5 to 9 | 2 to 3 ft | 3 ft | Front of a damp bed |
| 'Little Lime' panicle hydrangea | Sun to part shade | 3 to 8 | 3 to 5 ft | 4 ft | Corner accent |
| Oakleaf hydrangea | Part shade | 5 to 9 | 6 to 8 ft | 6 ft | Two story corner only |
| Compact ninebark | Full sun | 3 to 7 | 3 to 4 ft | 4 ft | Dark foliage contrast |
| 'Soft Serve' false cypress | Full sun | 4 to 8 | 6 to 10 ft | 5 to 6 ft | Vertical accent |
| Heuchera | Part shade | 4 to 9 | 12 to 18 in | 15 to 18 in | Front tier |
| Catmint 'Little Trudy' | Full sun | 4 to 9 | 10 to 12 in | 15 to 18 in | Front tier, edging |
| Christmas fern | Shade | 3 to 9 | 18 to 24 in | 18 to 24 in | North side beds |
| Hellebore | Part to full shade | 4 to 9 | 15 to 18 in | 18 in | Late winter bloom |
North facing fronts are the ones people get wrong. A north wall in zones 5 to 7 is part shade at best and full shade in winter, and it is often a frost pocket. Skip lavender, most junipers, and anything sold as needing full sun. Hellebore, heuchera, ferns, oakleaf hydrangea, and inkberry all do well there.
South and west facing fronts get reflected heat off the siding and the driveway, which can push the bed one full zone warmer in summer and drier than the rest of the yard. Plants there need drought tolerance more than they need heat tolerance, because the soil dries under the eave line even when it rains. Anything within 24 inches of the wall sits in a rain shadow and has to be watered by hand or by drip for its whole life.
Test the soil in a foundation bed rather than assuming. Construction backfill is often subsoil and rubble, and concrete washout can push the pH above 7.5 close to the wall, which is why acid loving plants like azalea and blueberry sulk there. A garden soil test through a state extension lab is one of the cheapest things you can buy in this whole project, and it settles the question before you spend money on plants that will sulk.
The entry itself
The door is the focal point, and most front of house work fails at the last 6 feet.
- Keep entry plantings under 3 feet. Anything taller narrows the door visually.
- Two matched containers, 16 to 20 inches in diameter minimum. Smaller pots dry out in a single hot day and read as clutter. Two large pots beat six small ones.
- House numbers at least 4 inches tall, lit or contrasting, and visible from the street. Many municipalities set a minimum size and a contrast requirement in code.
- Light the door and the walk. Two sconces flanking the door look right at about 66 inches to the center, sized roughly one quarter to one third the height of the door. Path lights every 8 to 10 feet, not every 3.
- Landing size. A stoop needs 4 by 4 feet of level landing for a door to be comfortable to open with hands full. Anything smaller feels cramped no matter what is planted around it.
- Walk width. Four feet lets two people walk side by side. Three feet is the practical minimum. If widening the concrete is out of budget, a 12 inch gravel or planted shoulder on each side achieves most of the effect.
Quantities and a Worked Example
You cannot price a front of house planting from an article, but you can count it exactly, and a counted list is what turns three vague quotes into three comparable ones. Take a common layout: a bed 6 feet deep running 32 feet across the front, with a 4 foot gap at the walk, so about 168 square feet of planted area in zone 6, full sun.
- Structure: 4 shrubs in 3 gallon pots at the corners and between windows.
- Middle tier: 6 compact shrubs at 3 foot spacing, 2 gallon.
- Front tier: the shrubs occupy roughly 90 square feet, leaving 78 square feet. At 18 inch triangular spacing, 78 divided by 2.25 is 35, plus about 15 percent for the stagger, so 40 perennials.
- Mulch: 168 times 3 divided by 324 equals 1.56 cubic yards at a 3 inch depth. Add 10 percent for settling and edge loss and order 2 cubic yards. The 324 divisor is the same one our soil and mulch volume calculator uses, so the two always agree.
- Edging: 36 linear feet, or none at all if you cut a spade edge instead.
- Drip line: 168 square feet of bed, which is one zone off a hose timer.
That is the whole shopping list: 10 shrubs, 40 perennials, 2 yards of mulch, 36 feet of edging, one drip zone. Write it down, and every nursery and every contractor is now quoting the same bed.
What moves the number, up and down
| Factor | Cheaper | Pricier |
|---|---|---|
| Pot size | 1 and 2 gallon stock, planted small and given two seasons | 5 and 7 gallon stock for instant effect |
| Plant choice | Common cultivars a local grower produces in volume | Named dwarf selections, grafted forms, anything trending |
| Timing | End of season clearance, bare root, fall planting | Spring rush, when demand peaks and stock is fresh in |
| Mulch supply | Bulk by the yard, hauled yourself | Bagged, or bulk with a delivery minimum you do not meet |
| Edging | A cut spade edge, redone each spring | Steel or aluminum edging, installed |
| Removal | You dig and haul the old shrubs | Contractor removal, stump grinding, dumpster |
| Labor | You plant it over two weekends | Full install, which multiplies a planting job several times over |
| Access | Truck can pull to the bed | Everything wheelbarrowed through a side gate |
The single biggest lever is pot size. A 1 gallon shrub and a 5 gallon shrub of the same cultivar reach the same mature size, and in three seasons you often cannot tell which was which. What you buy with the bigger pot is time, not a better plant.
The second biggest is who plants it. Foundation planting is genuinely DIY work. There is no code inspection, nothing structural, and the only skills are digging a wide shallow hole and reading a plant tag honestly.
Getting comparable quotes, if you do hire it out
- Give every bidder the same counted list: species, pot size, quantity, mulch depth, linear feet of edging.
- Ask each one whether removal and disposal of the existing planting is inside or outside their number.
- Ask what plant guarantee comes with it, for how long, and whether it survives you doing your own watering.
- Ask who is responsible for the drip line and the timer, and whether winterizing it is included.
- Ask them to price soil amendment as a separate line, because "amend the bed" can mean a bag of compost or six yards of imported topsoil.
The overage rule matters on materials. Bulk mulch settles in the pile and spreads thin at bed edges, so a 10 percent addition on mulch and gravel is a real quantity, not padding. Plants do not get an overage. Buy the count you calculated and no more, because the extras end up crowded into the bed and you spend the next five years pulling them back out.
Removing an overgrown foundation planting
Most front of house projects start with taking something out.
- Cut the shrub back to about 18 inches so you can see the base and get tools in.
- Cut the roots in a circle roughly 12 inches out from the trunk with a sharp spade, then lever from two sides. A wheelbarrow tipped on its side makes a ramp for heavy root balls.
- For a stump that will not move, a reciprocating saw with a demolition blade cuts through roots faster than a mattock, but expect to ruin the blade in the soil.
- Backfill the hole with the excavated soil plus 2 to 3 inches of compost mixed across the whole bed, not concentrated in individual holes. Amending single holes in clay creates a basin that drowns roots.
- Let the bed settle for a week and water it before planting, so you are not planting into a void that sinks 3 inches later.
Disposal is a real line and people forget it. A dozen mature yews fill a small dumpster, and renting one is far pricier than hauling the same load yourself to a municipal yard waste facility, where green waste is usually accepted for a modest drop off fee or free to residents. Check what your town takes and in what form before you start cutting, because some facilities want root balls shaken clean of soil and some will not take them at all.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the best landscaping ideas for the front of a house on a budget?
Do the work in this order: remove what is overgrown, widen the beds, cut a clean edge, mulch to 2 to 3 inches, then plant one drift of perennials at a time over two seasons. A clean cut edge and fresh mulch are the cheapest two moves on the list and they change the look more than any plant purchase, which is why they come first. The full low budget approach is laid out in cheap simple front yard landscaping ideas.
How far from the house should I plant shrubs?
Take half the mature width and add 18 inches. A shrub that matures 4 feet wide goes 3.5 to 4 feet from the wall, measured to the center of the plant. That keeps foliage off the siding, leaves service access, and means you never have to shear it to walk past. Trees go 15 to 20 feet out for a large species and at least 10 for a small one.
How close can mulch be to the house?
Mulch can run right up to the foundation wall but must stay 6 inches below the bottom edge of siding, and it should never cover brick weep holes. Keep 6 to 8 inches of foundation visible so a termite inspector can see the wall. Some pest control companies recommend an 18 inch band of gravel rather than organic mulch directly against the foundation in high termite pressure regions. Our guide to mulch types and depth covers the material choice.
What can I plant in front of a north facing house?
Hellebore, heuchera, Christmas fern, hosta, oakleaf hydrangea, inkberry holly, and Japanese forest grass all perform in a north facing foundation bed. Avoid lavender, most junipers, coneflower, and anything whose tag says full sun, because a north wall in zones 5 to 7 gets under three hours of direct sun for much of the year. Check your own conditions and zone with the growing zone lookup before ordering.
How many plants do I need for a foundation bed?
Divide the planted area by the square of the spacing in feet. A 150 square foot bed planted entirely at 18 inch spacing needs 150 divided by 2.25, or 67 plants in a grid, and about 77 staggered. In practice shrubs take most of the area, so a realistic count is 4 to 8 shrubs and 30 to 45 perennials for that size. Our plant spacing calculator runs the numbers both ways, and the layout logic is explained in our main landscaping ideas guide.
Should the front of the house be symmetrical?
Match the architecture. A colonial, a Georgian, or any facade with a centered door and evenly spaced windows wants symmetry, and breaking it looks like a mistake. A ranch, a craftsman, a split level, or a cottage wants informal massing, and forcing symmetry on those flattens them. The rule that applies to every style is that the two corners of the house need anchoring, and the entry needs to stay low and open.
When should I plant the front of the house?
Early fall, about six weeks before your average first frost, gives roots a full season to establish before summer. Early spring is the second best window. Foundation beds are the driest beds on the property because of the rain shadow under the eave, so summer planting there is riskier than elsewhere. Get your local dates from the frost date and hardiness zone lookup, and if deer browse your street, cross check your list against deer resistant shrubs before you buy. The broader yard context is in front yard landscaping ideas.
