The old axiom is, "You only get one chance to make a good first impression."  For your home, that impression is usually made at your front door.

Here are 5 Secrets To Inviting Entryways, all demonstrated in this handsome Texas garden.

1. Use taller plants off to the sides to frame your house.  In this case, it's a pine to one side and a yaupon tree to the other.  No large, shrouding shrubs near the gate.

2. Use curves rather than long, straight lines.  What a glorious example in this aggregate concrete walk.  Even the beds have gentle sweeps.

3. Focus attention with color.  Green is the foundation color of any good landscape.  Use colorful annuals and perennials to put an exclamation point near the door.

4. Every element of your design brings its own inherent colors.  It's no coincidence that the orange of the tile roof is mirrored in the orange of the impatiens beneath it.

5. Use a variety of textures, also for interest.  While you don't see the drama of elephant ears or aspidistra in this part of this garden, there still is a nice variety of textures.  From the fine-textured ferns to the coarser-textured tropical hibiscus, there is a nice assortment.