Designing a Front Garden
July 14, 2012
There are many things to consider when designing a front garden. A well designed front garden is very important and becoming more so. The garden is the public face of your house and creates the first impression to anyone visiting or passing by. If you're trying to sell your house you need to create the right first impression and give your property that all important kerb appeal.
Where I live street parking near to my house is almost impossible and I know this is a common dilemma. So another important question these days is should you sacrifice some or your entire garden for parking? This is a very emotive subject – gardeners like me blench when they see rows of concrete pads along streets where there used to be lawns and plants. Turning your front garden into a car parking space does not create any more parking - there are usually one or two spaces on the road outside a house and paving over the front garden will also produce one or two spaces. The difference is that these spaces can only be used by the person/persons living in the house. I totally understand the attraction of this - I get very irritated when I have to carry heavy bags of compost from my van to my house because I can't park directly outside.
Another consideration when paving your front garden which has come to light in recent years is the issue of drainage. Water that had previously been absorbed into the soil is now being run off hard surfaces into the public drainage system which is unable to cope and this is one of the main causes of the catastrophic floods which are becoming more and more common. This has resulted in the SUDS (Sustainable Underground Drainage Systems) laws coming into effect, which means that you may need planning permission to pave over your front garden – check with your local authority.
An ideal compromise is if your front garden is large enough to incorporate some hard standing for cars and some planting. I always try and put the parking spaces out of view of the house windows and plant in around them. Sometimes it is possible to screen the parking with trellis – I saw one solution where the car parking space was screened by an arbour which looked very pretty. However, I think this might lead to a situation rather like that of parking under a tree, where you car ends up splattered because the arbour is a convenient perch for roosting neighbourhood birds! I designed a small front garden in Crowthorne in Berkshire that had parking for 2/3 cars, plus a small lawn and some planting, plus some planted pots that could be moved when guests were expected to create even more parking space.
When designing a front garden you can introduce informality and interest by providing an indirect pathway to the front door. Use a straight path, regular borders, and some simple clipped box topiary to create a more formal look. If you are using an indirect pathway make sure there is no easy way to cut across the garden – people will always take the most direct route (postmen, delivery drivers) and will soon create an ugly informal route through your lovely new scheme. You can use planting or hard landscaping to help with this – sometimes a few well-placed, spiky plants will do the trick.
Provide a generous hard standing by the front door so that people can wait comfortably, preferably undercover and out of the elements. Mark the entrance to the house clearly by framing the doorway – Box topiary works well in a formal/modern scheme, a pretty climbing Rose may be enough in a less formal scheme and have the added benefit of providing scent as you enter the house. Remember to support climbers well and keep them pruned otherwise they'll get untidy and make the entrance uninviting. If you are including a lawn keep it mown during the growing season and – nothing creates a worse first impression than a neglected lawn.
Don't forget to include some lighting. Wall-washers either side of the front door create a nice warm welcome, and are much better than security lighting which is unnecessarily bright, can shine directly into people's eyes and is rather harsh. If your garden is particularly dark add some pathway lighting to ensure that visitors can navigate your garden safely at night. You can include some decorative spotlights, but be careful there's a fine line between highlighting the garden and creating that airport landing strip effect!
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