Curb Appeal with a Self-Serving Twist: Design for Your Own View

Garden curb appeal is laudable, but what's in it for you? When did a stranger last stop, knock, and compliment your garden? Thought so. What if you could impress guests and passersby while directing the lion's share of the eye candy toward yourself?

BEFORE: Most gardens are designed as a wedge sloping toward the street—taller plants against the house, lower perennials, ground covers, and grasses tapering toward the curb. Fine if you only care about others' opinions, but where's your reward for the time, money, and imagination invested?

AFTER: Build a ridge into your front-yard garden—a fence, wall, or medium-height shrub grouping that serves as both a backdrop for street-facing plants and a generous composition visible from your front windows. My rule: direct one-third of the composition toward the street, the rest for indoor viewing. After all, you spend more time looking at your yard from inside than from across the street.

This garden is totally about the owners' view. A stout white fence acts as a neutral foil for colorful flowers high along the fence, dipping toward the lawn.

A narrow grass strip leads the eye to uniform daylily massing. The rustic wood fence serves as backdrop and divides public and semiprivate spaces. Inner plants arranged en masse block curb view from the house without being unneighborly.

An aerial view reveals the plant massing also provides intimacy for a gravel conversation area.

Where space is limited, replace lawn with dense shrubs and perennials that greet visitors and say "hello" when you open the door for the morning paper.

Setting the front yard entrance to the side creates a courtyard feeling while allowing street-side garden space.

A side view shows the inner courtyard enriching the arrival view for guests and acting as art when viewed from the porch and inside.

Tour more of this Washington farmstead

Lawn alternatives are a strong trend, especially in low-rainfall climates. In Santa Barbara, the designer created an abstract creek interpretation using ornamental grasses and colorful succulents. Street-side plants become denser, providing a backdrop for broad foliage swaths.

With only 12 feet between sidewalk and garage wall, Cape reed (Chondropetalum tectorum) forms a vertical screen, while yellow poker plant (Kniphofia 'Malibu') and germander sage (Salvia chamaedryoides) add color. Burgundy foliage of Forest Pansy redbud (Cercis canadensis 'Forest Pansy') adds drama and will eventually arch over the path.