A Guide To Front Garden Design

Your front garden is the public face of your house. It creates the first impression of you and your property and it frames the property. Here are a few tips on how to design a front garden and give your property an all-important kerb appeal.

The main purpose, the main practical purpose of the front garden is to provide easy access to the house without getting drenched or scratched by prickly plants on your way in. Now, the front garden is often used for more practical purposes as well like storing wheelie bins, the bikes, the car parking and wheelchair access. Balancing these sometimes conflicting requirements is a bit of a skill and the best tip I can give you is to keep the design simple.

Simple layouts with some stout planting will look great and below maintenance, you may spend your whole time looking after it. Don't use too many different hard materials. You can use the planting to create interest.

Provide a straight, wide path that gets you to the front door without having to navigate the growing plants. The house entrance should be obvious and welcoming. Use some box topiary to frame the door way.

It looks elegant, timeless and is always smart and is easy to keep it looking tidy. If you do have a climber in the front door, keep it tied back and well-pruned, otherwise, it will become a damn, sticky, prickly construction. If you have a lawn, keep it mown.

A scruffy lawn ruins an otherwise good garden. Think twice about having a lawn in a front garden, they can really make a difference. Design using simple geometric shapes and avoid fussy details.

A formal scheme with strong crisp lines always looks good and is easy to keep tidy. This scheme looks bland and flat. Create interest by putting in some raised borders.

Use plantings to create interest, texture, colour, and soften hard edges. If your front garden is your only piece of outside space and you want to use as the seating area, consider creating a sunken area which will give you some privacy. About the feature can also add interest but make sure it is in scale with the garden and in keeping with the style of the garden.

Having provided a straight path from the gateway to the front door, you may still have a problem if there is another shorter route into the garden, for example, over a low wall. Human nature dictates we will always try and take the shortest route and regular callers who soon create an ugly informal route through your lovely new scheme. Some strategically placed spiky plants like some ornamental Hollies will help stop this.

Discourage burglars by avoiding high hedges which provide ideal cover to someone breaking into your house. Use movement sensors for lights so that they are activated once someone approaches the house. To avoid people running off with your new garden features, secure pots or sculptures by either cementing them in place, attaching them to the house or ground spike with chains.

You can include some suckle lighting wall-washers, either side of the front door creates a nice warm welcome and are much better than half security lighting which is unnecessarily bright, and pathway lighting you can include, decorative spotlights, but be careful not to over-light the garden. So, here are my top tips for creating a welcoming stylish front garden. .