As a Lowe’s Creative Blogger, this month’s challenge is beautifying curb appeal on a budget! I’m all for budget projects and can think of a million different ways to spruce up the curb appeal. The catch is that I can think of a million different ways to beautify curb appeal for “normal” houses…or should I say, houses in just about any part of the country except the southwest. You see, in most of the country, there are these beautiful and adorable houses like this:
They have color and flowers and front porches/steps/stoops and shutters and…grass! Are these what houses & front yards can look like in your area? Not mine! 
In the Arizona deserts, a huge majority of houses are neutral-colored stucco with gravel “desert landscaping” (including ours). Here’s a little sampling from our neighborhood:
A bit different from the first set of photos, huh?! There’s not a lot of color and with the hot summer sun, we don’t have quite the number of May flower options. So, our desert curb appeal is a bit different here! 
You’ll have to stay tuned to see what we come up with. In the meantime though, Lowe’s would like to help one of you beautify your curb appeal!!
GIVEAWAY! Has Ended
Lowe’s is giving one lucky Mom Endeavors reader a $100 gift card!!!
Congratulations to lucky comment #138!!! Kendra, hope you enjoy the gift card!! Can’t wait to see what you do with your desert landscape!
To Enter: CLOSED!
1. Just leave a comment telling me how you think we should beautify our desert space and/or how you would like to bring some curb appeal to your house!
Get extra entries (leave a separate comment for each):
(up to 5 entries per person: if you’re already following, thank you! Just make sure you leave a comment & let me know!!)Giveaway will end on May 31st at 10pm PST. Winner with a valid entry will be selected at random using random.org and be notified via email (winner will also be posted on this post). They will have 48 hours to claim their prize before a new winner is selected. Open to U.S. Residents, 18 years and older. Disclosure: I am a member of the Lowe’s Creative Ideas Creators & Influencers Network and received Lowe’s gift cards to complete my projects. As always, all opinions and experiences are my own.
We could sure use some “curb appeal” from Lowe’s!!
Our family currently lives in an apartment, so our “curb appeal” is VERY limited! But it would be so fun and such a blessing to be able to organize and “spruce up” our patio/balcony! Since our balcony is visible when people walk by or come to our apartment, it would be great if it looked a little nicer.
I love your home. I always figure if you live in a desert WHY try to grow grass. Lots of water then you have to MOW it! The stucco and tile roof look great. Looking forward to seeing what you do.
I’m in the same boat as you so I’ll be watching you for ideas lol!
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I love how the flower pots were used as the house number. That’s such a cool idea. I would possibly do something like that if I won!
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Our front ‘garden’ is terrible! It’s hard packed clay soil and some builder basic plants that don’t get enough sun so they look terrible
I think with a desert space, a few tasteful lawn statues might be cute.
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I would bring curb appeal by planting some flowers in my front yard
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We live in WI and have a ton of grass and plants, so I would be lost trying to spruce up a grass-free lawn.
Maybe one of those orb things? I would increase the curb appeal of our home by adding tulips. They’re pretty and they come back every year.
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I’d love to use the gift card to pretty up the old water pond. I had to remove it a while back. I’d like to put it back and fix it up. Or maybe put in some stepping stone pathways.
I have posted about this giveaway on twitter. https://twitter.com/#!/SueSmilesAlot/status/203878721055227904
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You should take out all of the desert landscaping and replace it with high maintenance and costly plants and grass. No? Ok, then my idea would be turn a small section of it into a patio. Within some pretty chairs, a small table and some potted plants, you could make a simple haven to enjoy during the cooler evenings!
We have a partially finished deck that I would love to finish off and be able to have some flowers and pretty lights!
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Thanks for the giveaway! I so need plants for my front yard, of course! But I also need some wood and shingles! Why!? Because we have four mailboxes in our front yard and the shingles are blowing off!
A rock labyrinth would look SO cool there… then you could relax or meditate while walking it, or just sit and enjoy it.
I’d love to get some flowers for my house.
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I would add some short palms to your yard. If you can’t add color, give it texture/depth. We’d love to add an apple to our yard (and re-stain the fence, which is prob the more likely purchase with the gift card — ho hum).
I would add low-watering flowers (if at all possible LOL) to bring some color to the desert. I understand you want to keep your water bill low, but you could use some color, or non-tacky yard adornments. Perhaps a nice bench?
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I’d use the gift card to buy flowers and create planters to decorate the entrance to my home.
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I would add some fun glazed planters to add a pop of color.
I think some colorful planters would help, or what about a water feature…?
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girl! my front yard needs some major help. we need to pull up the entire thing and start over. We have a big tree/bush that did not fare well after a blizzard a couple of years back and we have it bungee tied to our porch. Then we have overgrown shrubs and it is just a hot mess. This gf would get us on track with supplies and new flowers, shrubs that we would need to make the front of our house look appealing again.
Thanks for the chance and sorry for my novel:)
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Flowers or lawn would be great
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I think you can’t go wrong with any type of water feature to beautify your yard, a fish pond maybe. I am going to make some rain chains & stacked clay pots for my patio garden area, thanks
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I love the idea of painting the flower pots with your house number! I’d love to do that, and you could add color with flowers!
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Container garden.
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I would say a bench. I think having a bench near flowers always makes it seem more home like. That and hydrangeas!! They are my favorite !!!:-) thanks for the opportunity!!
I’m thinking a wood bench for the not-so-hot days might be a nice touch! It’s tough to get anything with color to stay alive here.
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There are some extra vibrant succulent plants that might liven things up…
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I love it! We are two months away from moving from the Very green Pacific Northwest to the very Not green Arizona desert
I hear that wood chips and rocks are a good way to create curb appeal, with some shrubs here and there.
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I get so tired of the tan stucco on every single person’s house in AZ. So I would maybe jazz it up by throwing in some color on shutters or fences or wood trim? Or you could add a bench with some bright throw pillows or something. PS Happy Birthday!
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For a southwest curb appeal, how about some containers with color pop, that hold some of the plantings? Statues or benches painted brightly would also look beautiful.
For our own home, I would love some picket fencing to go all around our front yard garden, that are right by the street!
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I could add curb appeal by planting some nice flowers
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I don’t know much about dessert spaces, but I think some color is needed.
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Curb appeal has been the name of our game of late. We’ve been working on as much as we can to beautify the very small area in front of our row house. We’ve planted urns, painted our home and stairs, built custom French doors with antique glass for our vestibule entry, and have recently upgraded our tree box with fresh and colorful plantings. We have one significant step left, we need to purchase and install a nice wrought iron or metal tree box fence around the tree. That will more or less be the cherry on top of our massive curb appeal undertaking. Once that’s in place I think we’ll be planting a whole bunch more colorful plants, and that’s where the amazing $100 Lowe’s gift card would come in very handy.
I think you could definitely make butterfly garden. A lot of wildflowers that love the heat would be pretty and attract those attractive butterflies. And instead of grass, you could throw down smooth pebbles and rocks. Its something we’ve been wanting to do for awhile (even though we don’t live in the desert).
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Awww, I love the desert landscaping in Arizona! It really bugs me when people in AZ have lawns!
I would add some flower boxes, flowers, and a lot of mulch for our flower beds.
I also live in Arizona and moved here from Minnesota so the yard possibilities here are so unique but still interesting to me. I like the yards that add lighting to trees, multicolored lantana, hibiscus, bougainvillea, agave plants, and rocks trailing like rivers all look great. Grass adds color but not sure its worth the cost to water and maintain it. I love the neighborhoods that have palms in front but we aren’t allowed.
We definitely need some curb appeal right now because we are trying to sale our house in the next month or two!! I’d love to plant some more flowers from Lowe’s!!
I wouldn’t have the first clue how to have a desert garden. I live in the pacific northwest and am always surrounded by green, lol. That being said I don’t have many colorful flowers except my purple lilac tree. I would love to get some colorful plants and containers to liven up the front door & yard area!
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I would like to improve the curb appeal of my apartment with some fresh flower planters!
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I would plant more grass.
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I really need to add more color to the front of the house. New annual would be lovely!
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definitly need some flowers to spring it up in front of the house.
thanks for the chance,
mary
I am a flower girl so that is my vote! I would love to have $100 to help spruce up my space!
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We could definitely use some sprucing up on our front porch. I’d love a colorful multi-level planter.
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I live in a Town House so it is kind of hard to get some curb appeal. The best I could do would be to get some planter boxes and flowers. I also need a rake. I have a maple tree in front that drops leaves all the time.
I have only been to AZ once, and we stayed at a resort. There was green grass, which is what we have at home in MI. However, we did drive through some neighborhoods, and the lack of green grass, and just color in general, was sad to me. I am used to color! Is there some way you could incorporate more plants with color in your landscaping? I don’t know what kind of plants grow well in your climate, but that is what I would do if I lived there. Thanks for the chance to win
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I just shared this on my fb profile. Not sure how to link that, but if I win, I can have you view my fb profile.
You should do what I would be doing, if I win the challenge, and that is put in an interesting walkway to the front door. I hate that we have to walk across the grass or on the driveway to get to the front door. And some flowering bushes, if you can get any to stay alive in this heat!
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I’m thinking large flower pots, maybe painted?. Is Cactus too obvious as desert decor? I don’t think so
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im one of those who like to put land to use and make it pretty at the same time, how about a garden?
Thanks for a super giveaway!
I think you need colorful stepping stones using stained glass. I’ve DIY’ed many of these and it really adds color.
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I think you should add a small pond or waterfall/fountain or even a gazebo
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i really want to pull together a succulent garden for our front porch! a lowe’s gift card would go a long way to doing that!
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Very nice! I always liked the desert landscape. I would love to bring some curb appeal to my home by getting some hanging planters for my front porch. Thanks for the chance to win!
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I think a fountain would look good in front of where you currently have the bench. that way you pass by it as you’re walking up the walk way
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I love Southwest style houses and decor! I’d just plant tons of cacti — some are colorful. Big ones, little ones, etc. with some rocks or whatever in between. Our neighbors have done something like this and it looks so cool!
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More flowers would improve the curb appeal here, plus new paint on several of the out buildings.
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Maybe you could add a small fountain some water features. I’ve seen some pretty little water ponds you can get. Kind of like a mini pool. I had one a few years back and had some waterlillies in it. It was about 4 feet by 2.4 feet. So it was small, but beautiful. It would be like an oasis in a desert!!
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I would love to plant some new shrubs or knockout roses in front of my home.
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If we won this, we would spend that gift card on mulch to replace the marble rock border around our house and add a few more shrubs to the area. We’ve done half of this project, but I think we could beautify our curb appeal by finishing it!
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Okay… though it’s not really “bright,” try groupings of containers with succulents — such as larger pots with “string of pearls” hanging off the side, and the bigger “tree-type” succulents to visually break up all that neutral ground.
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I would love to play some flowers, shrubs and a retaining wall for our curb thanks
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Help. My yard needs some grass! We bought some beautiful urns at an estate sale and some nice big flowers would really spruce things up. We bought two really nice bushes 2 years ago that have decided to die, along with the other cheap little bushes. We plan to be in this house for many years and really need to spruce things up!
My yard needs so much help it’s unbelieveable. My fiance and i bought a foreclosure, and are fixing it up little by little. We have been focusing on our yard for the last few weeks ago..but really can’t afford to do everything we can’t. This gift card would be sooo helpful! Thanks for the opportunity!!
The flower pots are really nice in the second picture. You should definitely go for that!
As for our home, we keep a summer garden so the gift card would be used towards some gardening tools and shrubs!
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Omigosh, we need shrubs in front of our house. We ripped out the ugly overgrown arbivita (SP?) and have yet to get something new. It’s so costly and we just put in a patio. Ugh.
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I would love to use this prize for some new flowerpots from Lowes
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My boyfriend and I are moving into our first place in a few months and I would love to buy some flowers and do my best at landscaping the yard!
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I lived in NM for a while and I brightened our landscape by using lots of brightly colored planters. My current house needs more curb appeal by replacing some of the old scraggly shrubs with new ones, and maybe some pretty landscaping stones. I would love to win this gift card!!
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I think it would look nice if you brought in some color by adding some colorful pots! Looking forward to seeing what else you do!
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Our tree in our front yard died. It was a beautiful white birch. I would love to re do our front with pretty new plants and maybe a new shade tree.
I’d love to get a fresh coat of paint on my house!
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Colorful benches and furniture and potted plants!
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One of my suggestions to brighten your “desert landscaping” would be “spray paint” one can never have enough and old pots of different shapes a sizes. The last couple of years I’ve been refurbishing my old pots and great garage sale finds to a to brighten and change my landscape. My kids love the bright fun colors and the new changes. Try this in the front and back your home, also use some metallic tones to enhance any embellishments the pots may have or create your own.
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Ice plant is great for dry, hot climates. It appears like a succulent but with bright flowers. Ice plant grows like crazy and really only need to be broken apart and put under some dirt to take off! I put it in my flower beds as a ground cover and it does great even when everything else has dried up. When i have a bare patch i can just break off a piece and start a whole new plant. It’s also perennial so it comes back despite MI winter. I think it would really brighten up your desert landscaping.
I would pull out all those old yucky bushes and plant a miniature Japanese Maple tree and some flowers.
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I love the changes you made to your front yard Sara! I would love to add some flowers on our porch and some more solar lights…(we have a couple, but I love what you did lining the sidewalk with them).
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Flowers and bushes are a great way to update a home’s exterior. So are new light fixtures!
I would suggest some yucca plants and other cactus that bloom.