First thought is yes to the gutters.

Second thought is that a darker shade of your house colour would be perfect for your railing and posts and it wouldn't require you to change your trim colour.

Third thought is that fence would break bylaws in my community (too close to the sidewalk) so before you invest much into prettifying the picket fence wait to see what the bylaw officer says.

Gutters will certainly help. Beyond not dripping directly on the rail, there will be less volume of rain water splashing mud up on to it.

Pea stone or other small rocks all around the plantings will let the water in but keep the mud splash back way down. I like your green and white home too

You're quite right about the house colors looking lovely! I really, really like it! If you paint the fence around the porch, I think the house color or a shade darker would look as nice.

lindsey, this neighborhood began to be developed in the 1920s, there are no “bylaws.” There are city zoning laws for front yard fences regarding height etc, which this easily is within the law, and the location of the fence next to the sidewalk is standard for the neighborhood.

great!

Why don’t you fence in all sides of the yard, using the scalloped fencing, and add a gate?

Sammy, would Have it if I could have. That was the original intent when I bought the house. But after living there I realized how narrow the driveway was ( built for cars sized in 1939). if you tried putting a fence to the left side of the driveway you wouldn’t be able to open the car door unless you put the fence nearly in the middle of the grass — it would look odd. Option two would be to put the fence on the far side of the driveway which actually abuts against the neighbors house and then I would also need a fence going across the driveway if I did that, which is a pita on a daily basis to deal with.

Wait, where’s your driveway—on the left or the right? I mean, we gotta find a way to make this work... this house is SCREAMING for a full picket fence!! :-D

I kind of like the openness of your bit of fence. Welcoming and airy, but with boundaries

The driveway is to the right. The flagstone you see at the edge of the picture is actually what we call around here driveway extension making the driveway wider. The driveway was around 8 feet or a little less wide. At this stage having spent a fair bit of money on the two fences I have I’m definitely not going to be putting any more fences in. I could fence the whole front yard but there are pros and cons to doing so and I really don’t need it fenced as I have a fenced in backyard for my dogs.

You could definitely use a darker version of the house color or even something close to the roof color. A natural medium wood would be lovely and great for hiding dirt, but probably difficult since its already painted. A color consultant would be a good idea here to find the perfect shade to both go with the house and hide dirt. I like the idea to add rocks to the edge of the garden. That might fix your dirt problem along with the gutters.

i actually think the white is perfect. if you had to go dark, then a deep forest green for the porch fence might work. Pea gravel, as mentioned, or mulch, would keep the dirt from splashing the skirt.

what I would concentrate on is the walkway. this is such a cute yard, but that walkway is underwhelming. for a little DIY on your part, you could find some old bricks (craigslist) or spring for some pavers, and build up that walkway a bit so that it's even w/the grass.

if you want to keep the flagstone, lay a layer of sand/gravel, tamp it, and re-lay the flagstones (maybe putting in a few more). fill in the joints w/tiny gravel or polymeric sand.

I love white picket fences but I think that its short/partial length makes it look a bit like an afterthought and that its wider and curved slats don't ideally complement the narrower and straight profile of the railing and vertical posts on the home so I would forego the fence and enhance the landscaping.

Gutters will help a ton, but putting mulch over the top of your dirt will eliminate the dirt splashing.

We had a white picket fence around our pool for many years, and it also was impossible to keep clean. My husband was forever bleaching and repainting it. We finally replaced it with a natural cedar and wire fence. While I wouldn't recommend that for a front yard, I wonder if you would consider painting or staining the fence a dark green? Dark green is a natural, organic look, and doesn't show as much dirt or dust. We used BM Black Forest Green on our backyard fence and it looks great--just blends in with the landscape and we've never had to clean it.

Here are some examples:

Beth H it only looks bad now because I am having done renovations to the house so there’s no point trying to keep the path up. I actually plant annuals along the edges and it looks really nice, but the workmen would destroy them. The flagstone path goes with the flagstone of the side driveway extension, brick would look out of place.

ok. no prob. I posted one w/the flagstone too.

I'd do a few more since they look so nice. i'm sure w/the annuals it's very pretty.

Elle, 1) fence is done so there is nothing to forgo at this point, 2) you are only seeing a part of the fence so it does look funny seeing that one piece. It makes more sense when you see the entire front yard vs what you see shots here