Something like a deck or shrubs along your exterior wall facing the front of your home will hide home’s foundation. Shrubs would be more affordable than building a deck. Maybe even adding a row of small shrubs or low-to-the-ground flowering plants along the walkway to the curb.

Also definitely red teen your porch and get new bigger address numbers. Maybe shutters for that one window or a window planter under that window? You need to update your lighting also.

Sorry ***definitely re-screen your porch.

Landscaping will make a huge difference.

Yes, I agree with the above comments. Give the storm door and window trim a fresh coat of white paint. Add some white lattice as a foundation cover, replace the address numbers and the light with something spiffy. Mark out a nice, curvy, foundation planting area and add a variety of plants. Finish it with a large pot of colorful flowers near the door. Make sure that window coverings look good from both the inside and outside.

What zone are you in? How many sunny hours per day? What kind of soil is the yard? Do you want flowering plants or not? Do you want evergreen plants or plants that lose their leaves/die or look dead in the winter time? How much time do you have to take care of plants?

In a very general way... If it were me, and I could, I would definitely plant shrubs to hide the foundation (or latticework that you might install). The chain-link fence could also stand some camouflage. Creating privacy both from the road and from the neighbors would probably be next on my list.

If time is not a factor--that is, if you are willing to grow shrubs from seeds then you might grow them from seed in large quantity at a fraction of the cost. It will take a couple years, but it can be done. A faster way would be cuttings. If you know people who have shrubs you like, you can find out how to root cuttings of them.

In terms of flowers, some grow very quickly. Many poppies, for example, are self-seeding annuals meaning that every year they grow from seed into a full plant and flower. I've had perennial delphiniums that I start inside in the late fall flower before I get them outside, though they remained relatively small until the second year.

I agree with grapefruit1_ar about the storm door and window trims.

If you're very handy and you can afford it, a light post by the sidewalk might be nice. Presumably that's where your mailbox is.

Barbara, I love your idea of adding shrubs and low flowering plants along the walkway, but you have to help me understand what "red teen" means. The shutters are a great idea, but have to decide on a color. And yes, the porch will definitely be re-screened along with a new screen door.

Grapefruit1, I thought about adding lattice to the front left for easy access under the house and maybe adding some evergreens to the front right, but I didn't want it to look awkward. It seems as if the look would be "off-balance"? I do not have a green thumb at all, but if I knew what type of flowering plants to get that's hard to kill and does not produce a lot of weeds, I would go for that.

Addison, I live in the South, central standard time zone. It gets a pretty good amount of direct sunlight on the front facing wall and the soil is pretty decent. I need something spiffy to spruce up the look because right now it's just boring looking. Like Laura said, I believe the landscaping would really make a difference . Any recommendations on the type of lighting? Would you keep the light fixture where it is or move it. It's pretty dark at night being that it's at a dead end street with limited lighting next to a large empty field.

Thanks for the suggestions!!!!

Definitely plant in front of the house--in nicely sized beds-- but not along the walk way. Planting along the walk way will only make it look even narrower.

Not a fan of 'front decks'. Where does a deck end and a porch begin? It's probably in the design. Landscaping is a DIY and this time of year can be done fairly economically. I would beef up your front stairs, put in some planting beds something with a nice curve.

I would put a couple of good sized potted hibiscus plant on either side of the door. Also one on the opposite side corner for balance. Mark out a nicely rounded bed for the right side of the house and plant low growing, carefree plants such as liriope, foxtail fern, bromeliads that would withstand sun. Plant the same on the left... a little bed of it. Keep us updated...would love to see what you decide.

I realize the ground is sloped, but I would stagger left and fall down if I had to walk up that sidewalk drunk. It should somehow connect to the parking area, and a gentle curve could help distract from the slope.

Laceyvail 6A, I do think it would make it look narrow. Thanks for mentioning that.

Arcy, you're the second person that mentioned curvy flower beds, but I just don't know where I would put them. I'm really not a fan of front decks and I was thinking about adding some railings on both sides of the steps.

Orchidrain, thanks for giving me more choices of carefree plants. The hibiscus are really beautiful plants and I think the liriope would be easy to maintain. Would you suggest spacing them out when planting or close. There is actually a tree right in front of the house. I added a picture of it. I'm not really sure where to put the curvy flower bed because of its location.

ShadyWillow Farm, so are you suggesting that I connect the driveway and walkway together somehow?

jbama8909''s ideas · More Info

Side view of the house. There's a field on the other side of the fence. The house is in a low lying area and the soil gets really soggy. However, I think the soil may be great for planting. I'm planning on removing or repairing the fence that has fallen over. It separates the property line.

jbama8909''s ideas · More Info

ShadyWillow Farm, so are you suggesting that I connect the driveway and walkway together somehow?

Driveway and walkway · More Info

I would replace the front steps. What you have wouldn't be to code where I am (you need a landing at least as wide as the door and at least 3 feet deep in the direction of travel), and they don't look very substantial or welcoming. New stairs would be on my to-do list, wider than the door by at least foot on each side, with a landing. Could be wood or poured concrete. A covered porch seems like it would be ideal, but probably falls outside of "thrifty."

Beyond that, landscaping, as has already been suggested. Shrubs to conceal the foundation, definitely.

Yes, connect the driveway to the sidewalk so you don’t have to walk through wet stuff when it rains. And you do need at least a 3x4 front stoop so when you have a bunch of stuff in your hands you can set some down and open the door. It’s awkward to be standing one step down and open the storm door and hold that open while you unlock the front door.

In terms of a lamp post, something like this, perhaps: https://www.houzz.com/products/solar-lamp-post-cast-aluminum-white-prvw-vr~62696549. If the mailbox is on one side of the walkway then I would put the lamp post on the other.

As far as plants go, you are way outside of my zone of familiarity. My preference would be for easy, flowering shrubs and perennials. If you don't do the lattice work then definitely some dense evergreens against the house. Along the sidewalk (not the walkway) I would also add shrubbery. Dense evergreens. I'm a big fan of some old-school privacy. It makes me feel more like my home is a sanctuary.

I would not keep the light over the door but would probably get something that points down at the steps/landing and shields a person from viewing the lamp directly as s/he is walking up to the house.

Edit: I just noticed that you have no sidewalk! So, please, substitute "street" for "sidewalk". Plant privacy along the street.

jbama...you're welcome! You can do a little curve bed that extends out to behind the chair in the picture. It's hard to tell how much space there is, but maybe 3 feet away from the house. Don't plant anything too close to the house though....I've made that mistake in the past. As far as spacing is concerned, bromeliads will multiply, so I wouldn't put them too close. Liriope you can put close together. I also just thought of African iris if you don't want to do the hibiscus. Apostle plant is another beauty that is carefree and will multiply.

You need Dig Doug to drop by!

What about a willow tree? I think they like wet ground. And trim back the tree branch that droops in front of the house.

Suugestion for light fixture above the door.

Check Dig Doug's Designs idea at topic https://www.houzz.com/discussions/5992126/curb-appeal-spanish-style-brick#n=36

some ideas:

jbama8909 has a small yard and you would suggest she occupy it with more walkway, and that milk toast vegetation?

I am not in your zone, like I said, but here are some specifics of what I might do in zone 4--just to give you an idea of what i would create.

Do the trellis work to hide the crawlspace under the screened porch. Fix-up and paint all the trim. Re-screen the porch if that's something you feel comfortable doing or can afford, because screen is cheap and it would make a big difference from what I can tell.

If you can then create a landing at the door.

Replace the flood lights with a barn light as suggested. (Ideally keep the flood light. Move it to corner of the screened in porch--so that you can point it toward the road in case of unexpected night time visitors.) Match the barn light to a light at the street--if you install a lamp post at the street, which I would do.

If you can afford it then make a walkway connecting both strips of concrete upon which you park with the walkway from the street. This connecting walkway should be at the top of the driveway. Ideally, great to get rid of the strips and create a slightly wider driveway in their place so nobody is ever walking in mud. Then, again, create a walkway to the door.

I'm kind of a minimalist, and I find uniformity soothing. Especially because the area is small, don't plant a mishmash of stuff. Against the house--and as indicated, this is really a few feet from the house--stick to one kind of plant. You might even continue this all the way around the house. These might be like rhododendrons, or azaleas, or roses, or yews, or privets, or pyracantha... There are some wonderfully easy roses. These could be similar in form but the color could vary. You could plant red, white, orange, whatever strong color, against the blue-grey house. It would be beautiful and easy to keep neat and tidy with a pair of Felco 2 pruners because roses are easy to prune--and some don't get that big anyway.

No mulch. Don't make the beds very wide so you've got to go crawling around between bushes. That's not carefree.

You might plant flowers around and amongst your background planting, but you don't need to.

Along the road, plant evergreen shrubs that grow about 8' tall or can be very easily pruned to about that. Make sure it's a type that will grow from old wood in case you get behind on the pruning. An example of the kind of thing that would be bad: Thuja occidentalis (this is no kind of suggestion: it would probably do terrible in southern heat) these are very popular in my area, but if the pruning gets away from a busy person, it cannot be properly remedied because it won't grow from where it is bare.

Plant rhododendrons, azaleas, hydrangeas--something like that along the chain link fence. You might mix in some small tree like a Stewartia pseudocamellia--the stewartia would be very difficult to grow from seed or cutting, so don't bother trying. Just buy it.

As far as the the side with the field. I don't remember if you said that it is yours or not, but if it isn't yours then, again, create some privacy with--again--rhododentrons, azaleas or something similar.

This is just a base. When you have done these things then you can take a look at what a lovely base you have and plant more color if you so choose. You sound like you like carefree. Stick to that. You don't need annuals that must be replanted every year. There are many beautiful perennial flowers of all different heights shapes and sizes. But you have a lot to do, don't overwhelm yourself worrying about that until the other is done.