Ranch houses are known for being single-story and low to the ground, typically boasting a front or back patio area. Even larger Ranchers can easily appear smaller due to their stout architecture, which can create some complications when choosing the landscape. Taller and fuller plants can hide your house and block your windows. Still, that doesn't mean you have to limit your creativity to get the beautiful landscaping your Ranch house deserves!
We've researched ways to help you make the most of your Rancher, yard, and landscaping, no matter the size or space you have to work with.
1. Quick And Easy
There are lots of reasons why you may not want to break ground and create brand new landscaping. It can get expensive and time-consuming, you could be renting your Ranch house, or you could be indecisive and prefer the option to change out your plant life with the seasons. The quick and easy solution to sprucing up your Rancher is by using potted plants. Tall, short, colorful flowers or decorative grasses can all be used to create the landscaping you want without a permanent decision.
This will prevent your landscaping from dying through the winter, as you can replace your spring and summer plants with cold-weather-friendly ones!
2. Add Curves
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When you have a smaller Ranch style home, large landscaping in the front can hide your home and make it look bulky and cluttered. This house uses curves in the landscaping to highlight the important points of the home. Although the ends of the landscaping are wider and fuller, it curves inward at the front of the door. Using shorter landscaping in front of windows and saving trees for areas that won't block the view of your home allows you to add more landscaping in front of a smaller home.
3. Argentinian Charm
Large yards with outdoor seating allow you to be more creative with your space. This Argentinian Rancher uses lower bushes around the porch. These are low maintenance and won't block the view of the yard or light from your spot on the porch. To break up a larger yard, adding some rustic or country elements, like this old wheelbarrow or cart, will add decor without looking out of place. Carts and wheelbarrows are also creative places to add small flower gardens for a touch of color.
4. Desert Approved
Not all yards and landscaping need to be bright and full of greenery. This Arizona home adapts to the natural landscaping and Arizona's climate and uses varying shades of lava rock to create a unique yard and landscape. If you live in an area where the sun, heat, or lack of rain prevents you from enjoying a lush green yard, you can consider an alternative like this!
5. Bright Mulch
Larger homes can create extended landscapes and often stick to dark-colored mulches as it doesn't distract from the home or the landscaping. However, Ranch homes and landscaping tend to be smaller, which allows for a bit more adventure. Red mulch is the perfect way to brighten up your landscaping, especially when sticking to a more basic plant-like of bushes and ground cover.
6. Tropical Hideaway
You can stick to tropical plant life like palm trees or Century Plants for landscaping that creates beautiful privacy. If you don't live in a warmer climate that can sustain these types of plants, Butterfly Bushes, named for the way their leaves look like butterfly wings in the wind, and Spirea, which are covered in gorgeous white blooms, create coverage for privacy.
7. Raised Landscape
Raised landscapes built from stone are a great way to highlight a stone face on your Ranch style home. These landscapes look clean and manicured and are the perfect way to elevate even the simplest of landscaping.
8. Mix-Match Shrubbery
For landscaping that is easy to care for but still looks lush and vibrant, bushes and shrubs are the way to go. Flowers often need to be maintained year after year, which can involve even re-mulching and replanting an entire flower bed. Bushes and shrubs can withstand the seasons and only require being trimmed if they are a type of bush that benefits from being shaped. This house uses a variety of bush-like foliage, only half of which have been trimmed and shaped.
9. Informal Garden
Informal, or Cottage, style landscaping is abundant in plants and may look a bit wild apart from a well-trimmed walking path or sidewalk. This is another low maintenance option and can create a bit of privacy depending on your chosen plants or small trees.
10. Perfectly Proportioned
When working with a smaller home, it can be difficult to find landscaping that looks proportionate without being too scarce. Especially with an updated or modern-built Ranch house, you want your landscaping to be as beautiful as your home. This updated ranch takes advantage of the space around the driveway and under the windows, utilizing mostly shorter plants that won't overpower the front of the house.
11. Unique Layout
If you're looking for a way to set your landscaping apart from the rest of the homes on your street, doing a unique layout is the way to go. This yard uses rounded mini-gardens that are perfect spots of color creations, far from the standard straight hedges and flower beds.
12. Charming Spring Flowers
Light coverage, bright flowers, and flowy hanging plants are the making of a cute and charming porch and walkway. This landscaping is pretty without being heavy and creates the perfect view for front porch sitting.
13. Modern Cottage
If you love the look of Cottage or informal landscaping, but prefer a more tame version, then a modern adjustment will help you achieve this. You can take advantage of the chaos of abundant and diverse foliage but keep it more confined to the area around your porch or another part of your yard.
14. Mixing Mediums
Rocks, stones, flowers, and potted plants are all ways you can create inviting landscaping to complement your home. This house has a bit of everything, complementing the bright front door with colorful flowers and large rocks that play off the stone at the base of the house.
15. Garden Path
Stone walkways are beautiful additions to gardens and landscaping. Creating a path through well-tended plants and flowers gives the walk to your front door, back door, or around your garden a bit of whimsy. This house takes advantage of low-set windows for bright red flower boxes giving the garden even more dimension.
16. Contemporary Lines
Contemporary homes are all about clean straight lines, even when it comes to landscaping. Not only does this Ranch house feature simple lined landscaping, but it also creates lines of plants in stacked heights along the front of the home.
17. Natural Accents
This updated Rancher uses natural woods and color tones that carry into the landscaping as well. Wooden window flower boxes and mulch that complement the wood tones of the house create a seamless aesthetic from top to bottom.
18. Ornamental Grass
If you're looking for a simplistic styling for a modern Rancher, consider lining your home with ornamental grass. These plants that tend to be taller, grass-like plants are usually intended as accent plants for landscaping. This Rancher uses these tufter plants to add texture and height to the landscaping but creates a unique styling by spacing these grasses in a way that won't provide full coverage of the landscaping.
19. Garden Bridge
If you have the benefit of a more secluded or hidden yard, a bridge through a thick brush of flowers and bushes is sure to wow anyone walking up to your home.
20. Gorgeous Corner
This beautiful corner landscape transforms what could be a drab and boring space. Adding a tree also creates height where Ranch houses are known for being shorter.
21. Don't Forget The Trees
If your yard holds trees that may look sporadic standing alone, you can incorporate them into the landscaping as well. This will give your yard a cohesive look, no matter how spread out or random the trees in your yard feel. Plus, tree flowerbeds add serious curb appeal!
Make sure your tree landscaping matches well with the rest of your landscaping around your house. If you use stones to line your landscaping, use the same stones around the tree. You can also use matching bushes and flowers you have in other areas to bring the look together.
In Closing
Ranch-style homes are known for being smaller, and their lack of height can make it difficult to balance landscaping that won't overtake your home. Choosing plants that complement the highs and lows of your build and highlight or outline the best parts, like your walkway or front porch, are perfect for creating a beautiful yard no matter the size of your Rancher.
Looking for more ways to upgrade your yard? Check out these posts for more inspiration:
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