Traditional front yard garden design — formal hedges, sectional

Traditional Dutch Row House Front Yard with Hedges & Sectional

Traditional Front Yardformal hedgessectional2025-08-03

Traditional Dutch row house front yard featuring brick paving, formal boxwood hedges, dark sectional sofa with cushions, dark planters, white hydrangeas, and a parked black SUV.

This is one of 9 traditional garden designs in the AI Garden Design library and one of 9 front yard designs. Browse the full gallery or jump straight to more traditional designs.

What defines a traditional garden

Traditional gardens follow centuries-old principles: symmetry, formal hedges, structured planting beds, and a clear hierarchy of spaces. Boxwood parterres, manicured lawns, and classical statuary anchor the look.

Palette

deep green, soft pink, white, stone, polished black

Materials

natural stone, old brick, wrought iron, lead, hardwood

How to recreate this traditional front yard

Lay the bones in symmetry, a central path, balanced beds on either side, paired specimen trees at the entrance. Clip boxwood into spheres, cones, or low hedges to define each bed. Plant within those beds in a controlled palette: roses, peonies, hydrangeas, and lavender, repeated rather than mixed. Finish with a focal point on the central axis: a sundial, a stone urn, or a bench.

Designing a front yard

The front yard is curb appeal. It is also the first thing you see arriving home, every day. A well-designed front yard does both jobs without becoming a high-maintenance burden.

Lead the eye from the street to the front door with a clear path and balanced planting on either side. Evergreen structure (boxwood, low hedges, conifers) reads from the kerb; flowering plants and grasses add seasonal interest. Avoid foundation plantings that grow over the windows in five years, check mature size on every label. A single specimen tree placed off-centre lifts the whole composition.

Plants that work in traditional gardens

A reliable starting palette for this style — full growing guides on each.

Roses

Rosa

The queen of flowers. Modern roses are easier to grow than ever, with disease-resistant varieties that bloom continuously from spring to frost.

Boxwood

Buxus

The foundation of formal garden design. Boxwood provides year-round evergreen structure, takes shaping beautifully, and defines spaces with elegant precision.

Hydrangea

Hydrangea macrophylla

Spectacular flowering shrubs with massive bloom clusters that last for months. Hydrangeas offer blue, pink, purple, and white flowers in shade or sun.

Lavender

Lavandula

The ultimate garden multitasker: fragrant flowers, silvery foliage, drought tolerance, and pollinator appeal. Lavender thrives in poor soil and full sun.

Wisteria

Wisteria sinensis / W. floribunda

The most spectacular flowering vine in existence. Wisteria produces cascading curtains of fragrant purple, blue, pink, or white blooms in spring.

Want this style for your garden?

Upload a photo of your front yard and get a photorealistic traditional redesign in under two minutes.

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Frequently asked questions

How much does a traditional front yard like this cost?

Real-world traditional front yard builds vary enormously by region and finish level — budget jobs land around $5,000 to $15,000, mid-range builds with quality hardscape and mature plants sit between $20,000 and $50,000, and full luxury builds with premium materials, lighting, and water features can exceed $100,000. The AI Garden Design redesign itself takes minutes and costs nothing to preview before you commit to a build.

Can I recreate this traditional design in my own front yard?

Yes. Upload a photo of your current front yard and pick the Traditional style, or use this exact image as a style reference. The AI keeps the structural elements of your space — house, fence, hardscape — and reimagines the planting, furniture, and finishes in the chosen style. You get a photorealistic redesign in under two minutes that you can share with a landscape contractor.

What plants work best in a traditional garden?

Traditional gardens lean on a tight, repeated plant palette. The plants suggested on this page — paired with the design tips above — are the reliable starting set. Choose three to five and repeat them in mass rather than mixing many varieties; this is what separates a designed traditional garden from a busy collector's plot.