Front Garden Ideas - Give Your Home Some Kerb Appeal

The front garden is surprisingly, often, the most neglected part of the garden, despite it being the area which is most likely to be judged by the public. Your front garden also gives your house ‘kerb appeal’ if you are thinking of selling your house. Visitors can be made to feel welcome by an attractive front garden long before they reach the front door. People so often go for the easy option of paving the whole area, leaving it looking characterless and barren.

There are a few factors to think about when designing a front garden.

Style

Once the practicalities have been considered there is the style to consider. A front garden does not need to be high maintenance to look good. A contemporary look is not only easy to look after but also easy to maintain. If low hedges with sharp edges are created then a trim once or twice a year will be all that is required.

You may want to consider planting evergreen hedges such as Prunus laurocerasus, Taxus baccata (Yew) , Ligustrum ovalifolium, Ilex aquifolium (Holly) and Buxus sempervirens (Box). These will suit shady and sunny gardens as well as a variety of soils.

These hedges can be complimented with evergreen plants such ferns. Dryopteris felix-mas is a fern which will tolerate semi-dry conditions. Bergenia cordifolia will withstand a variety of shady conditions and it is evergreen.

The front garden needs to look good in the winter too, as you don’t want a mass of dead twigs for half the year. Shrubs such as Skimmia japonica and Mahonia x media are good choices as they are evergreen and flower in the winter.

The evergreen plants can be underplanted with spring and summer bulbs to give a seasonal flush of colour e.g. daffodils, lilies and tubers such as dahlias.

A front garden with ‘cottage-style’ appearance is typically English and looks fantastic, but do remember this kind of style requires high maintenance to remain attractive.

Parking and Paths

There is always the battle of space and deciding how to proportion the area between parking for cars and planting. Flowerbeds or lawn within the parking area make the front drive attractive and assists with drainage of rainwater during heavy storms.

From October 2008, there was new government legislation in place, which affected all driveway surfaces over 5sq m. Planning permission is required if you are going to cover more than this area with a non -permeable surface that allows water to run off onto the public highway. Either choose a permeable surface or design the garden to include borders, into which the water can drain.

In larger properties, the style of the drive needs to be thought of carefully, in terms of how many cars are going to be parked and how they are all going to manoeuvre around the space. An idyllic planted island in the drive can often take up unnecessary space and can limit how cars are manoeuvred around the drive.

A clear path needs to lead to the front door. If you don’t want it to be the shortest route to the door, then you need to guide visitors with an edging of planting.

Security and Lighting

Lighting in the back garden may play a decorative role, but in the front garden it adds to the security of the property as well as being decorative. A motion- sensor light is probably the most practical option to improve security.

In addition, you may not want to design dark corners into the design of your front garden, where intruders can hide.

If ornamental pots are placed in the front garden then they need to be weighed down with bricks or stones, so that they cannot be carried away easily. Statues will also require securing if you don’t want to see them disappearing overnight.

Boundaries

Properties with small front gardens such as those in front of terraced buildings often benefit from clear partitioning from the neighbours. These boundaries can be defined with low hedges or fences. To improve security, gates can be placed within hedges or fences. Hedged boundaries also serve to absorb the light and sound from passing cars, and reduce the amount of light directed straight into the house.

Wheelie bins

The wheelie bins in the front garden can be unattractive and therefore, you may want to consider wheelie bin enclosures to hide them, or planting a hedged enclosure to hide the bins.

This is the time of the year to think about the design of your front garden as it is an ideal time to establish new planting. If the task seems overwhelming consider employing a garden designer to assist you with the details of the design.