5 Front Garden Ideas for a Practical Pretty Space

Why 5 front garden ideas?

Do you have practical, neat and bee friendly passage between you and the outside world? Or do you have a weed ridden, sadly neglected wilderness? Because whether its only four steps or forty steps or even more, you see your front garden every time you walk out of the front door or return home.

It is all too easy to forget that the front garden is more than a depository for recycling boxes and dirty trainers. The eye tends to gloss over the bits that require effort and anyway, how much time do you spend looking at your front garden? Possibly you avoid looking because it’s a mess?

Your front garden should please you when you walk out of your door and when you return home. It is the first thing about you that visitors notice; it is the outward face you show to passers-by.

Let’s see whether these ideas for a practical and pretty front garden (with a bit about legal requirements thrown in) can give you the feel-good factor. And then we can walk out of the front door and down the garden path ready to face the outside world once again.

Front Garden Ideas #1 The Front Door

Make a focal point of your front door. Welcome family and friends with pots and planting that lead their eye and their feet towards the house. If you have very little space for planting, making a feature of the doorway is the often the best area to focus on.

A pair of topiary cones or standard olive trees in lead planters are rightly popular, but are not the only choices. For example: –

Why not have a bit of fun with colourful pots and contrasting summer bedding plants such as pelargoniums (aka pot geraniums)?
An old chimney pot each side of the door with a pot inside gives you the option of seasonal changes. Try strawberries for summer; foliage plants such as coleus for autumn; a small sarcococcca (Christmas box) for scent in winter; miniature bulbs for spring.
Do you love hostas but have a slug and snail problem? Try growing them in pots by the front door. I can’t promise a lack of gastropods, but using a biological control such as nematodes will help. And at least you’ll be able to regularly check the hosta, doing a bit of cultural control (picking off!) as you walk past.

Front Garden Ideas #2 Driveways and Parking

Parking for cars and motorbikes. Remember that the 2008 legislation prevents English householders from paving over your whole front garden with an impermeable surface. This is a surface where water is not able to soak through into the ground underneath but runs off onto the pavements and roads, causing more likelihood of flooding and overflowing drains. (The 2007 floods were a driving force behind this legislation)

It is advisable to check whether planning permission will be needed before starting work on a new driveway. I will return to this topic in in another blog, in an effort to simplify it and suggest alternatives, as I’m aware it is a frequent concern with homeowners.

However, there are practical and attractive surfaces suitable for parking that are also permeable (and I’ll be considering these in that separate article) With many of these, it is the sub structure, the bit you don’t see, that is critical for permeability. I have known block paving (a popular driveway choice for many) laid on impermeable concrete rather than sand or crushed granite.

I do appreciate that making enough space for cars can be a major headache, whether you’re in the town or the country. We’re a multi vehicle household as we each need them for work, so I do feel your pain!

Motorbikes of course require less space, but a security in the form of a concreted in bolt to lock the bike to is a good idea.

Briefly, the hub of the matter is drainage and flood resilience. The effects of which can be ameliorated with the correct hard surface for the situation and a good range of planting in the ground. Which also has the advantage of giving you a pretty and practical front garden.

Front garden ideas #3 trees and Shrubs

Trees can be a stunning addition to a front garden design, even in smaller areas. The critical thing is to suit the size of tree to the size of garden; which includes:

Knowing how large the tree will become when mature and how many years that will take; also remember that many shrubs can grow to a large size.
The nearness of the tree to the house; also whether you are in an area prone to subsidence.
Whether the tree is deciduous or evergreen – especially with regard to leaves; wet leaves can make paths slippery, and certain leaves, lime for example, can make a mess of car paintwork.

Trees can be coppiced or pollarded to keep them small and encourage attractive bark, for example birch trunks (Betula) come in a range of colours, most notably white. Or for decorative juvenile foliage, as found with Eucalyptus and Catalpa bignoides.

Other trees can offer a long season of interest with spring blossom, summer fruits, autumn leaf colour and attractive winter bark or branch structure. Sorbus, aka Rowan or mountain ash is a good choice, as is corkscrew hazel (Corylus avellana contorta).

Or you could choose a large shrub with long lasting coloured berries to match your car!

Front garden ideas #4 Rubbish Bins and Assorted Clutter

Rubbish bins and recycling boxes can be an unwanted focal point in smaller urban and suburban gardens. Boxing them in is one solution but then leaves you with a wooden or concrete structure as a focal point instead. Sometimes a custom made solution is best for these structures, so they fit the area you have available and look like part of the overall front garden design.

Why not turn the bin store into a new planting area with a green roof? Another practical yet pretty solution – good for tidiness, good for pollinators!

There are both shade loving plants and sun worshippers that are happy in shallow soil. Succulents such as Sempervirens (house leeks) and Sedums offer textural interest and don’t mind if you sometimes forget to water them. Miniature daffodil bulbs and cyclamen will also be happy in this situation.

Bicycles, scooters and the like can also be kept in a front garden store. You’ll want to keep them secure and not obvious. An internal locking cycle rack may be useful as well as a padlock on the door. But a green roof, locating next to the bin store which looks identical and plenty of planting will also distract from the contents.

On a practical note, when deciding where to place a bin store or a cycle store, bear in mind accessibility.

Front garden ideas #5 A Productive Plot

Would you like to grow your own fruit and vegetables but there’s no room in the back garden between the goalposts and the trampoline for anything?

Why not turn your front garden into a decorative productive plot? This is not a good idea of you live on a busy road, but otherwise has definite possibilities. For example: –

A couple of espalier fruit trees against fences and step over fruit trees edging the path will provide quite a bit of fruit.
Rainbow chard is an attractive leafy vegetable that can stand all winter.
A wrought iron obelisk will give you height in the winter and support for runner beans in the summer.
And courgettes winding their way through an ornamental border will keep weeds down during summer.
Or perhaps edge the flower borders with strawberry plants.

If you’re concerned about passers-by seeing and then wanting to eat your produce, why not grow less obvious food plants? Most people wouldn’t know that quince, medlar, sweet almond and hazel all provide tasty fruit and nuts. New Zealand spinach, purple flowered mange tout and globe artichokes could easily be mistaken for ornamental plants.

More ideas and thoughts

Budget constrictions often mean that the front garden is a low priority, being the space least time is spent in: it is often compared to a hall. But a hall can be a showcase for treasured pictures as well as a practical utility area for essential coats and shoes. Likewise, a front garden can be eye-catching and still accommodate recycling boxes as part of the scheme.

The smaller size of front gardens can be an advantage as a small budget for a front garden can achieve a big result. Have a look at our Front Garden Design Portfolio for inspiration and some of those we’ve designed while you finish your cup of coffee. And then if you’d like to discuss your front garden needs further, get in touch!

And for further gardening advice and inspiration, check out Plews Potting Shed blogs, including the selection below and our monthly Tipsheet – You could come and find us on Instagram Pinterest and Facebook too!