Simple Landscaping Ideas for Houses with Covered Porches

A covered front porch can be a wonderful architectural feature that adds character and curb appeal to your home. However, incorporating the right landscaping around a porch can further enhance your home's beauty and take your curb appeal to the next level.

Thoughtfully designed landscaping that complements your porch can make your home more inviting, provide additional privacy, help manage water runoff, and boost your property value. Read on for some simple yet impactful landscaping ideas to try around your home's covered front porch.

Soften the Space with Greenery

One of the easiest ways to complement a covered porch is to soften the space by incorporating an abundance of plants and greenery. Flowers, bushes, trees, and other plantings can help frame the porch area and better integrate it with the rest of your home's exterior and yard.

Add Flowerbeds

Flowerbeds crammed with colorful blooms are a quintessential way to accent your home's front porch. For best results, opt for low-maintenance perennials that match your home's color scheme. Some top options include:

• Coneflowers
• Daylilies
• Lavender
• Black-eyed Susans

Plant them alongside walkways, in containers flanking porch stairs, or directly in front of the foundation. This frames the porch, draws the eye, and adds an infusion of color.

Incorporate Shrubs and Bushes

Similarly, strategically placed shrubs and bushes help enhance porch landscaping. Opt for low-growing varieties under windows, medium-height options along foundations, and tall plantings to anchor corners or edges. Some porch-friendly options include:

• Boxwoods
• Hydrangeas
• Azaleas
• Lilacs

Plant them in beds flanking the stairs or along a front pathway. The key is to build up heights and mass plantings to frame and highlight the architecture.

Add Small Trees

Small ornamental trees artfully placed around your home's covered entryway also help draw positive attention. Japanese maples, dogwoods, crape myrtles and other varieties with colorful leaves or blooms look lovely integrated into porch landscaping.

Plant them off to one side rather than directly in front of the porch for best results. This showcases both architectural elements simultaneously.

Define Spaces with Hardscaping

While plants primarily provide softscaping for porch-adjacent areas of your landscape, incorporating some hardscape features helps define spaces and tie everything together.

Add Pathways and Walkways

One of the best ways to complement a front porch is to install a pathway or walkway leading directly up to the stairs. Materials like pavers, stone, gravel, or brick help direct visitors to your front door while also adding visual interest.

For a truly inviting look, line the path on both sides with low hedges, flower beds, solar lighting or other eye-catching elements.

Build Planter Boxes or Containers

Elevated planter boxes, large pots or other freestanding containers planted with greenery also help enhance porch landscapes. Use them to frame entryways, edge staircases or highlight foundations.

For continuity, match materials to your home and porch. For example, whitewashed wood planters pair nicely with a farmhouse-style abode while sleek concrete or metal containers better suit contemporary spaces.

Add Finishing Touches

Finally, don't underestimate the impact small finishing touches can have for porch beautification. Items like yard art, planter boxes mounted to railings, outdoor throw pillows and decorative doormats infuse personality while complementing other landscape elements.

Design for Low Maintenance

While almost any plantings or hardscaping will boost your home's curb appeal, opting for low-maintenance greenery and materials around your porch saves time and money long-term. Some top low-care options include:

• Succulents
• Ornamental grasses
• Boxwoods
• Roses
• Peonies
• Pavers
• River rock
• Drought-tolerant plants

Pro tip: Install drip irrigation or a sprinkler system timed to water at optimal times to reduce maintenance needs!

Enhance Ambiance with Lighting

Outdoor lighting artfully illuminates porch landscapes while also providing added safety and visibility. Lanterns lining walkways, path lighting sunk into grass or pavers, spotlights to highlight architectural details or landscape features and porch sconces all lend ambiance once the sun goes down.

For stunning curb appeal after dark, install lighting to showcase specimen trees, bushes, container plantings or other elements framing your porch. Uplighting in trees creates intriguing shadows for an eye-catching look.

Opt for Solar

To simplify installation, consider solar lighting. Models with built-in solar cells absorb sunlight during the day then automatically power LED bulbs once it gets dark outside. Stake or mount them wherever desired without wiring hassles.

Add Accent Lighting

Don't forget about accenting your actual porch with exterior lighting as well. Sconces framing the door, overhead fixtures, stair rail lighting and even string lights overhead all lend character while better lighting the entryway once the sun goes down.

Add Inviting Outdoor Furnishings

Comfortable, weather-resistant outdoor furniture positioned on your covered front porch or in the adjacent landscape invites visitors to relax and enjoy the space. Sectionals, benches, rocking chairs, side tables and even a porch swing represent classic ways to furnish your outdoor oasis.

Aim for pieces made of all-weather wicker, powder coated metal, teak wood or durable HDPE plastic. Styles should complement your home's existing architectural details.

Place seating facing outward with optimal views, flanking outdoor entryways or tucked into porch-side garden nooks. Using weather-resistant cushions and throw pillows ups the cozy factor.

The most seamlessly designed porch landscapes utilize plants, hardscaping, furnishings and decoration that share common elements. Repeating the same shapes, textures, materials and colors throughout helps unify the look.

Some ideas to try:

• Echo house trim colors in planters or containers
• Pick up paint hues in flowering plants and greenery
• Mimic home materials like wood or stone for pathways and walls
• Stick to a style: modern, traditional, rustic, etc.