Corner House Landscaping Concepts

Landscaping a corner house lot presents unique design opportunities and challenges. With excellent planning, corner landscaping can enhance curb appeal, provide privacy, and create multifunctional outdoor living spaces. This comprehensive guide covers key considerations, layout concepts, plant choices, and specific ideas to help homeowners and gardeners conquer corner property landscaping.

Unlike standard rectangular lots, corner properties have extra visibility and access from multiple sides and angles. Landscape designs must flow attractively along both street frontages and highlight the home's best architectural features.

Common corner landscaping challenges include:

• Greater exposure to pedestrian traffic and pets cutting across the yard
• Increased sunlight, heat, glare, and winds causing soil dryness and erosion
• Difficulty defining separate spaces due to unusual angles and proportions
• Finding the right balance between privacy, security, and curb appeal
• Restricted placement for trees, fences, sheds due to sightline requirements

However, a thoughtfully planned landscape helps corner homeowners conquer these realities. The key is leveraging the lot's unique strengths to build multifunctional, aesthetically pleasing outdoor spaces that benefit the whole neighborhood.

Corner Landscaping Design Concepts and Layouts

Well-designed corner landscaping complements the home's architecture and flows attractively along both street exposures. Layouts typically incorporate some combination of hardscapes and softscapes.

Formal Symmetrical Designs

Symmetrical corner landscapes with mirrored plantings and garden structures on each side create an orderly, stylish look. For example, matching trees, hedges, flower beds, stone accents, and pathways provide harmony. This balanced appearance works well for Colonial, Federal, Greek Revival, and similar architectural styles.

A benefit of formal symmetry is making large spaces feel well-proportioned. Repetition of shapes, textures, and colors also allows corner landscapes to turn the corner gracefully.

Informal Asymmetrical Designs

Informal asymmetric designs allow more creativity in working with challenging lot shapes. Varying widths of planting beds, meandering pathways, and eclectic plant groupings make the landscape more playful.

The key is repeating colors, textures, and materials across different zones to create a unified flow. For instance, echo the front walkway paver pattern in a back patio border.

Blending Hardscapes and Softscapes

Strategically integrating hardscape and softscape elements prevents stark, uninviting spaces. Interlocking pavers, crushed stone, river rock, pea gravel, and wood can elegantly border plantings or divide activity zones. Consider porous materials that allow rainfall to nourish nearby greenery.

For cohesion, mimic home exterior elements like shingle colors and textures. Modern designs may incorporate sleek metals, etched glass, or concrete finishes as contemporary abutments to plantings.

Choosing Plants and Building Materials

Select plants suited to corner lots' sun exposure, wind tunnels, reflected heat, soil conditions, and irrigation access. Evergreens like spruce and arborvitae provide year-round visual screening and privacy buffers. Heat-tolerant succulents, native wildflowers, petite flowering trees, and ornamental grasses inject multi-season color. Strategically placed shade trees cool the house while allowing filtered views between branches.

Building materials should withstand environmental stresses. For instance, choose weather-resistant woods like cedar and tropical hardwoods. Seek out composite decking containing recycled plastic polymers, wood pulp, and other inorganic materials resistant to cracking, mold, and mildew. Higher quality construction prevents splintering, warping, and rotting, saving maintenance costs long-term.

Specific Corner Landscaping Ideas for Front, Back, and Side Yards

With smart space planning and zoning, corner landscapes balance aesthetics, leisure, security, and privacy across various exposures. Here are examples of excellent corner landscaping ideas to try.

Front Yard Corner Landscaping

• Welcoming entry gardens with arbors, trellises, and stepping stone paths
• Stone retaining walls and hillside rock gardens
• Evergreen privacy hedges/shrubs bordering the secondary street
• Carefully clustered trees to frame views of the architecture
• Graceful planting beds curving around driveway entrances

Back and Side Yard Corner Gardens

• Multi-level decking, patios, and dining nooks
• Built-in corner hot tubs, fire-pits, pizza ovens
• Corner water features like ponds, fountains, mini waterfalls
• Gazebos, pergolas, and garden pavilions
• Outdoor kitchens and bar areas
• Custom play areas and sports courts
• Pool house changing rooms with sundecks

Side Yard Corner Planting Beds

• Evergreen foundation shrubs for screening
• Espalier fruit trees against walls and fences
• Cutting flower and herb gardens
• Vegetable gardens conveniently located near kitchens
• Compost piles tucked away from view

Driveway and Walkway Landscaping

• Brick driveway pillars echoing architectural detailing
• Gently curving borders with lavender, lantana, daylilies
• Strategic fences/plantings to discourage cut-throughs
• Durable paver walkway and patio materials
• Ornamental tree groupings highlighting entryways

Enhancing Curb Appeal and Embracing Beauty

Well-designed corner landscaping invites admiration from passersby while creating an intimate sanctuary for residents. Creative elements highlight architectural details while providing multifunctionality and elegance.

Garden Focal Points

Draw the eye toward captivating corner garden features like multi-tiered waterfalls, vertical flower towers, glinting metal sculpture columns, classic sundials, and unique specimen trees. Anchor these focal points with radiating pathways made from brick, stone, or repeating garden pavers.

Vertical Elements and Accents

Vertical accents prevent squat, unbalanced appearances on wide open corner spaces. Try narrow Italian cypress, Korean lilacs, or columnar oak trees. Trellised vines, low wooden fencing, pergolas, obelisks, and post lanterns all help extend sightlines gracefully upward.

Seating Areas and Decorative Touches

Repurpose corner nooks and crannies as perfect spots for backless benches, bistro dining sets, resting porch swings, container plantings, glass garden art, and whimsical decor. These intimate spaces tucked amidst blossoming landscapes invite relaxation.

Well-placed lighting transforms corners into magical, moonlit spaces. Try uplighting certain trees, shrubs, and architectural elements to create natural glow. Creative low-voltage pathways can safely guide evening strollers. Hang attractive lanterns from pergolas and gazebos to enjoy long summer nights outdoors.

Corner landscape designs can handle these unique challenges. Embrace creative solutions to carve intimate, verdant spaces that benefit the whole neighborhood. Soon your innovative corner lot oasis will stand out as the garden showcase destination on the block!