Avoid This Common Entryway Eyesore To Make Your Home More Inviting

The first impression people have of your home happens way before they even set foot inside the front door. Therefore, one of the easiest ways to make your house more welcoming to guests is to have an attractive entryway. What everyone sees as they head down the walkway and how it makes them feel has a big impact on how they perceive you and your home. This is why you should avoid any entryway eyesores at all costs, and especially the notorious overgrown shrubbery. If you've postponed trimming your front-yard plants for way too long, just know that those overhanging vines, dense hedges, and oversized branches are working against you, creating an eyesore that'll make your guests (and even your own family members) feel like you put zero effort into preparing for their arrival.

Left unchecked, an overgrown landscape can make your home feel dingy and unkempt. To make things worse, those oversized trees and bushes tend to block any aesthetic features and architectural designs that would otherwise beautify the place. And just imagine the trouble everyone has to go through trying to sidestep their way through the walkway, pushing aside untamed vines, and ducking their heads to avoid getting scratched in the face by oversized hanging branches. Besides the lack of curb appeal, there's also the fact that some of the overgrown plants can create trip hazards and even raise safety concerns.

So how do you avoid an overgrown front yard in the first place? Well, there's no shortcut or magic hack – regular landscape maintenance is what will transform your home by eliminating this front yard eyesore. This includes seasonal mowing and edging the lawn, coupled with pruning, trimming, and cleaning bushes and shrubs. You can do this on your own so long as you're armed with the necessary tools, such as pruning shears and hedge trimmers. Alternatively, enlist the services of a professional to avoid pruning mistakes.

However, if you've already fallen behind on the landscape maintenance and now you're facing the overgrowth eyesore, then more aggressive measures might be needed to tame the overgrown shrubs, bushes, and trees. That means heavy pruning, chopping thick branches, and in some cases, completely cutting down or uprooting the offending plants. If you're not sure of the ideal curative measures to implement, getting a professional to handle it can be a good idea.

Keep in mind that before even getting to pruning and trimming, one of the first steps to avoid the eyesore of oversized plants on your entryway is to make the right choices at the planting stage. For example, avoid planting shrubs and bushes too close to the paths, and when selecting plants to grow, consider low-maintenance options and dwarf varieties to avoid excessively large plants blocking your entryway once they reach maturity.