Front yards make strong first impressions. Taunton's Front Yard Idea Book gives you the tools you need to make your yard's first impression spectacular. The first outdoor book in Taunton's popular Idea Book series, this book is filled with practical ideas on everything from creating an inviting entry and driveway to lighting for mood and safety to designing the right foundation plantings. Dozens of site plans and creative solutions to common landscaping problems make this an invaluable hands-on guide that puts curb appeal within reach of every home.

Taunton's Front Yard Idea Book is packed with...

• creative landscaping plans for all site shapes and sizes -- from tiny, in-town lots and homes on steep slopes to traditional suburban neighborhoods and country farmhouses
• everything you need to know about how to improve curb appeal
• innovative solutions to common landscaping problems, such as poor drainage, unwanted views, limited parking space, and lack of privacy

"An excellent introduction to a much-neglected aspect of American garden design."

-- Michael Weishan, Host, PBS' The Victory Garden

About the author
Jeni Webber is a residential landscape architect and garden designer in Oakland, California. Several of the gardens she designed, along with her writing and illustrations, have appeared in Fine Gardening magazine.

Introduction

1. Getting Started
Take Stock of Your Situation
Make the Most of Your Space
Take Cues from Your Architecture
Designing a Master Plan
Budgets, Schedules, and Priorities

2. Entries
Stoops and Landings
Porches
Courtyards

3. Paths and Steps
Main Paths
Secondary Paths
Sidewalks
Steps and Handicap Ramps

4. Driveways and Parking
Driveways
Parking Bays, Pull-Offs, and Parking Courts
Street Entries

5. Property Boundaries
Fences
Walls
Hedges
Periphery Plantings

6. Foundation Plantings
Architectural Cues
Bed Layout
Three-Dimensional Plantings
Plant Selection

7. Ground Covers
Lawns
Alternative Ground Covers
Nonliving Ground Covers

8. Plantings
Beds and Borders
Container Gardens
Cottage Gardens
Woodland Groves

9. Lighting
Lighting Paths, Steps, and Driveways
Lighting Entries and Activity Areas
Accent Lighting

Credits

Wherever you go in America, the houses and landscapes look so familiar. In the last half-century or so, houses were mass-produced, and front-yard landscapes were simplified to little more than a lawn, a few evergreen shrubs, and perhaps a specimen tree or two so that they could be installed quickly and affordably.

Although this long-standing lawn-and-foundation-shrub model may have been good for developers, it has done little to enhance the residential landscape. Instead, it has resulted in a homogenous landscape in which it is difficult to tell one home from the next, and where families spend less time than ever before in their own front yards. It has also had serious environmental consequences. Lawns, though they certainly have their benefits as open spaces or as play areas, have greatly reduced the natural habitat for far too many species of plants and animals. They have also been forced on regions that cannot naturally support them due to seasonal patterns of rainfall or other environmental constraints.

When lawns were first introduced, yard maintenance was based on an organic model of farming and gardening. Compost and marsh sludge were applied seasonally to lawns; weeds were tolerated or pulled by hand; sheep took care of mowing; and rainfall supplied all the water needed. Since then, however, we've raised the standards for lawns -- putting up with fewer weeds and requiring a more manicured appearance. As a result, we've developed a strong dependence on chemical fertilizers, herbicides, and pesticides, and frequent irrigation has begun to strain many local water sources. Rainwater runoff is riddled with these chemicals and has become a major source of pollution in our waterways.

New Trends in Landscape Design
Fortunately, times are changing. Individual homeowners, entire neighborhoods, and even many developers have begun to realize the personal and environmental benefits, as well as cost-effectiveness, of designing more suitable front-yard landscapes. Lawns are getting smaller and, in many cases, have been replaced by alternative ground covers and native plants. Homeowners are also beginning to use their front yards again and are finding creative and socially acceptable ways to distinguish their homes from those of their neighbors while still fitting them into the surrounding landscape. In many cities, front-yard gardens are now almost commonplace.

There are also new types of residential communities being developed. Narrow, tree-lined streets keep these neighborhoods cooler, and natural drainage swales reduce the amount of water carried away in storm drains and make that water more readily available to plants. A network of pathways and shared green spaces support neighborhood activities--everything from potluck dinners to baseball games. Front porches and courtyards serve as outdoor rooms for reading, dining, and visiting with neighbors. It is a pleasure to wander through these neighborhoods--to see the diversity of plantings, discover homes with personality, and see children playing games and people sitting on their porches.

It only takes one person to make a difference. I've seen it in the landscaping projects I've been involved with, and in the dozens of neighborhoods across the country that we visited while creating this book. As soon as one homeowner updates a front yard, others follow suit.

In this book, I hope you'll find some new ways to think about front yards, as well as practical, hands-on advice for dealing with everything from foundation plantings and parking spaces to designing spaces for family activities. May it spark your imagination so that you can start a new revolution to reclaim the front yards in your neighborhood.

Customer Reviews from Amazon

This book is great if you are looking for new ideas for your front yard. It is loaded with great color pictures and covers all areas of front yard remodel including entries, gardens, ground covers, driveways, paths and steps, stonework, and lighting. It includes directions on how to design a master plan to make the most of your space and help you determine your priorities and budget. A must have book for anyone considering relandscaping a front yard.

This book is help on our design of our new front yarn garden. NO LAWNS NOW!
I will hope to post again with a video of how it comes out but it will be a while until we finish. This book is very helpful. So is the other book Front Yard Gardens, Growing More Then Grass by Primeau.

This book helps change your perspective on the front yard in general. It talks about the wastefulness of large lawns and tells you how to cover ground in a way that is not only functional for your family but better for the environment. Her advice of what to do if you live in a track neighborhood with only plantings left by the builders is great. She talks about how to transform your yard in such a way that neighbors follow suit instead of looking at you like you've ruined the golf course aesthetic of the neighborhood. Her perspective that the front yard is a semipublic space and how to respect the neighborhood while inspiring them was good. The pictures are great and most of the ideas would blend in with other neighbors while still being origonal and attention getting. Thumbs up.

I love elaborate front yard plantings, but this book just isn't the inspirational guide that Liz Primeau's similar "Front Yard Gardens: Growing More Than Grass" is.

It's a fairly pedestrian, utilitarian book, nothing special. The Primeau alternative actually conveys a sense of the excitement and adventure inherent in de-lawning your front, and the examples shown are more interesting than the bland gardens depicted here in Taunton's offering.

I've read through this once, then returned it to the library. "Front Yard Gardens" I bought, and I've read through it three times. Buy it instead. Do redo your garden, but don't expect Taunton's Front Yard Idea Book to inspire you.

Note: a 3 star ranking from me is actually pretty good; I reserve 4 stars for tremendously good works, and 5 only for the rare few that are or ought to be classic; unfortunately most books published are 2 or less.

I can't begin to say how much I adore this book!! I'm telling you now, if you read this book from cover to cover & allow yourself to digest each & every picture, you'll never look at a front yard the same again. Literally, American is stuck in a rut. I look up & down my street, & all I see are blank, bland, boring lawns!! Wretch! This book has made me realize something that took me directly out of that silly, traditional mindset: I PAY AS MUCH FOR MY FRONT YARD AS I DO MY BACKYARD! This book has motivated me to "reclaim" my front yard for my own use, & I can't wait to have it all in & done! It won't be my neighbor's front yard anymore! It won't look like public domain anymore!!!

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