Tips and ideas for creating a front garden

The front garden is our calling card, and it is usually seen by more people than the traditional garden behind the house. It shows passers-by our taste, our sensitivity and our relationship with nature. We can lay out a front garden in many different ways: modestly or generously, in a riot of colour or in a uniform style. However, the first things passers-by notice in the front garden should certainly not be crumbling tiles on the base of the house, an unkempt lawn or a dying shrub.

What to put in a front garden?

In front of a house entrance that opens directly onto the street, we often cannot fit more than one small bench and perhaps a nice letterbox (although that can also go on the door or next to it). What can lift a front garden from a small patch of land to an experience, however, is:

• a rockery

• ornamental flowers

• trees and shrubs

• the choice of materials for the steps

There are, of course, no strict rules for laying out a front garden, but we are limited by how well plants get on with one another, and by choosing trees and shrubs according to their soil and site requirements and the height and width they can reach. And of course by the basic rules of gardening, which simply cannot be broken and which apply to plots of any size. And if you simply do not have a front garden, you can at least brighten up the entrance to your house with flowers in movable containers placed along the wall of the house or hung up.

Which plants for a front garden?

Choose plants that will keep the front garden looking charming and attractive all year round. So do not forget the details. Besides ornamental trees and shrubs, use annuals, biennials, perennials, bulbs, tuberous plants or ornamental grasses.

If you have a small garden like this facing north, you will struggle with a lack of sun. So choose plants that like shade or partial shade: ivy, bleeding heart, rhododendrons, fuchsias.

If, on the other hand, it faces south, it will be bathed in sunshine. Perennials, annuals, herbs, Mediterranean shrubs and ornamental grasses will all thrive here.

Deciduous trees

The absolute number one for front gardens is ornamental cherries and apples, usually three to seven metres tall. They are undemanding, yet they need a sunny spot, and they can tolerate the polluted air of city streets. A big advantage is that they change through the year: they flower beautifully and profusely, and in autumn they turn shades of red, orange and yellow. They also have decorative ornamental fruit. You can also try catalpa, Matsudana willow, bigleaf hydrangea, witch hazel or various roses.

Ornamental grasses

Large clumps of grasses are very effective. Miscanthus, available in many cultivars, is beautiful. In our conditions, it is better to choose this grass over the exotic pampas grass, which does not do very well here except in the warmest regions. Other interesting grasses include sedge and fescue.

Front garden accessories

A front garden is certainly also a good place for paths, gravel, stone, wood, garden sculptures and similar decorations. When creating or improving a front garden, we should be careful that, in trying to make everything as beautiful as possible, we do not go to the other extreme and end up with a cluttered space.

A front garden can be styled as a Japanese garden, or you can build a gravel rockery in it.

Once you have read our article, take a look at, for example, 10 tips for interesting garden ideas, how to paint a botanical watercolour or what the Sirtfood diet is.