Gardening Your Front Yard: Projects and Ideas for Big & Small Spaces

A front yard can be more than a neat stretch of grass: it can grow vegetables, welcome pollinators, collect rainwater, or make room for a place to sit. In Gardening Your Front Yard, Tara Nolan brings garden planning and practical DIY projects together to help readers imagine what that often-overlooked space could do.

Organized around six aspects of front-yard gardening, the book moves from early planning and outdoor living to planting, food gardening, eco-friendly choices, and finishing features. Its ideas address both big and small spaces, with attention to the everyday constraints that make front-yard gardening its own kind of project.

Reconsider the space between house and street

Nolan looks at how front yards can serve the people who live in a home—not simply conform to a traditional lawn-first idea of curb appeal. The planning section considers inspiration, grass removal, foundation planting, slopes, privacy, security, and the practical decision of whether to bring in a landscape professional.

Make room for living outdoors

Ideas for patios, benches, planters, and other features show how a front garden can become a place to pause or spend time with others. The projects include built elements such as a live-edge bench, a raised bed, a privacy plant stand, and planters designed to make good use of available space.

Choose plants for the conditions

Flower, foliage, and groundcover chapters explore planting around foundations, adding window boxes, and creating interest across seasons. There is also guidance on pollinator-friendly planting, wildflower meadows, and dealing with challenging spots such as salty soil or a narrow boulevard strip.

Grow food—and garden with care

Vegetable gardening has a place in the front yard, too. Nolan covers ways to fit edibles into a visible landscape, use containers and raised beds, and make productive use of compact areas. Other topics include rainwater collection, rain barrels, gardens for insects and wildlife, permeable paving, and lower-maintenance alternatives to conventional lawn.

Projects for a garden with purpose

Across the book, practical structures—among them trellises, arbors, paths, hedges, and edging—sit alongside planting ideas. That combination makes the guide relevant to readers who want to rethink not only what grows in the front yard, but also how the space works day to day.

For home gardeners looking for grounded inspiration and build-it-yourself ideas, Nolan offers many ways to turn a front yard into a more personal, planted part of the home.