This question comes up frequently and it doesn't really have a simple answer. Much is dependent on your neighborhood - established neighborhoods with a mix of architectural styles and with various remodels and new construction thrown in tend to lend themselves to a variety of landscapes as well. This is in contrast to newer, development-type neighborhoods where the houses share an architectural character and arise from a similar construction date - these tend to share a similarity in landscaping as well. These too tend to be more often governed by neighborhood associations or residential covenants that sometimes dictate what the landscaping should or should not include.

Curb appeal may have some influence in the choice. A front garden devoted entirely to a cottage style - by definition a bit exuberant and cluttered and often rather lacking in winter appeal - may come across as messy or unkempt. There is also a lesser consideration of resale value - uniquely different landscapes may catch the eye but have mixed results when the time comes to put pen to paper.

Personally, I would reserve my most eclectic tastes and design choices for the privacy of the back yard and strive for something a bit more middle of the road for the more public front yard. That doesn't have to mean boring or trite - this is where your garden design creativity comes into play - but something that compliments your home AND your neighborhood as well as saying something distinctive about you as the owner.

When we built our home and landscaped I designed the front yard and garage area
our neighbors on both sides had 2 totally diffenrent yards so i was lucky did not have to match the theme of neighborhood
I went with what i like and it all blends, personally that would be BORING if everyones yard blended
have fun with your yard

I'm going to try. My backyard is totally me and I've spent the past 10 years playing with it. Unfortunaly, I've neglected the front other than the entryway to the backyard. I've decided I just can't tolerate a row of boxwoods (as just about every house has). I'm still trying to settle on plants but probably some combination of viburnum sargentii 'chiquita', muhlenbergia capillaris, spirea, and a variety of junipers.

The theme in my neighborhood is mainly how green you can keep your grass. I've got centipede - it'll be brown until April.

Thanks all!

Heather

It often seems as if the best looking front gardens are not necessarily those that refelct the styles and mores of the locale area, but those which reflect and engender passion in the owner/occupier. If you're motivated to care about it then it'll probably look better than if you 'have' to maintain it in some way that's not actually self-motivating and if it's a total (as opposed to partial) compromise.

Also, a neighbourhood character is what its residents make of it - tis not some impersonal fource outside any of the residents in it.

Plantings should be chosen that compliment your house, same as if you were going to do something to the building itself, like add a room. Unless their houses all happen to be the same style and shape as yours, what the neighbors do to their yards is irrelevant. Some properties or even entire blocks have hedges or other tall plantings around the edges that block out the adjacent yards, making it unmistakable that each house has its own little domain within which it is viewed in isolation.

Each house in our cul-de-sac is definately unique to some extent. A few have the most amazing green lawns but just a typical row of boxwoods along the front. We've got one that never mows the lawn and their Christmas tree is still lying in the side yard filled with toys and clutter. I figure just about anything I do will look complimentary to our street compared to some of the other homes.

H.

Having lived in the Florida Keys and Texas I'd have to say it depends on the neighborhood. In the Keys no two lawns (or two houses) were the same, though few people had what you would consider a lawn. Where I live in Texas everyone has a Saint Augustine lawn and either a tropical or evergreen look. I might go with something different in terms of landscaping, but would feel like a traitor if I didn't have Saint Augustine grass (there is someone that has buffalo, and it certainly sticks out).

I'm one for going with the crowd. If the crowd is going separate ways, I will too. If we're all together, I'm not going to be the person sticking out.