I’m sorry readers, I’m late posting this blog as I was in Bath for a long weekend with Mr F-W. But the good news is that my trip to the gorgeous Georgian city has given me additional inspiration for this blog, which is on very small front garden ideas. So as I sit down to write it, I’ll be able to share a few pictures from Bath with you too. Don’t say I’m not generous!
Small Front Garden Ideas – The Challenge
For many of us a small front garden is all we have. As a result it has to fulfill many roles. It needs to provide seating, storage, attract wildlife, provide colour, perhaps personality/drama, some privacy and enhance the front of our home. That’s a lot to ask of a small area.
For those of us lucky enough to have a back garden as well as a front one, the privacy, seating and storage can all be fulfilled by the garden to the rear. As a result, we often forget about our front garden all together! It ends up being a bit of an after thought. Somewhere little used, where we pop random containers and plants without much planning.
I know I’m definitely guilty of this, which is why my New Year gardening resolutions include sorting this part of my garden out. My front garden is a jumble. I’ve roses, agapanthus, irises and geraniums growing in the gravel driveway. These look ok-ish, but add to this picture an array of mismatching pots and you end up with a shambles!
To avoid this, I think most of us need small front garden guildines. Some rules to help us get this important but tricky part of our garden right. So having looked at small front garden ideas which work – and those which don’t – I’ve distilled the following list of do’s and don’ts.
1.Wholehearted & Simple
When it comes to your small front garden, select a style and commit to it. Don’t be tempted to try a bit of this and that. For impact, less definitely seems to be more. For instance, have a pretty focused colour palette when it comes to the plants. The cottage above manages this brilliantly. It favours a colour scheme which I don’t tend to go for, with masses of yellow and orange flowers. The colour scheme may be limited but the differing flower forms and heights provide variety. The taller plants also provide some privacy without blocking out the light for the cottage.
2.Think Materials
When weighing up different small front garden ideas bear in mind the colour of your property, and the materials it’s made from. Part of the reason why the cottage above’s garden works so well is that the hot colour scheme complements the cool blue colour of the front door and the building’s white walls. If the front door was red I don’t think it would work so well.
It’s also important to think about the materials your property uses. These should influence what you use for areas such as paths and walls. For instance, the paving in the property above works well with the colour of the walls. That said, I’m less keen on the yellow colour of the woodwork!
Again the cottage above has a limited colour palette for the planting, with hot pink roses and fox gloves – yet it looks anything but boring.
3.Get to the Point
If you have a pathyway to your front door, and your garden is small, don’t try to make the front garden area look bigger by giving the path a bend it doesn’t need. Creating an awkward route doesn’t work. The front door is ultimately a highly functional thing. People want to get to it as quickly as possible. They will inevtiably start taking a short cut and walking straight – whether your path is there or not!
4.Small Front Garden Ideas – Soften and Use Hard Surfaces
With a front garden you have lots of hard surfaces to think about – and possibly incorporate into your design. A front wall perhaps, gates, porches, the walls of the house, steps and a pathway. Not only do you want the materials used in these to complement each other, but where you can it’s a good idea to use and soften such surfaces.
For example, the planting above neatly echoes the shape of the front door of this property . And look how even the front of the first step is being used.
The railings in the tiny front garden below, provide valuable extra planting space. And the consisent green theme, including the planted up container, mean this modest planting has real impact.
Similarly I love the way ivy is creeping up the step wall in this front garden I spied in Bath. I’d possibly choose a more variegated variety to provide a softer looks with the property’s stone, but I’m probably just being picky!
For context, this garden is a basement front garden. It belongs to one of the incredible houses which make up the stunning Royal Crescent in Bath. If it looks familiar, the gorgeous curving crescent (below) is used in oodles of historical dramas – especially films based on Jane Austen novels. Though obviously they have all the cars removed when filming them!
Meandering along the crescent this morning gave me the perfect excuse to glean a few more small front garden ideas. Though these gardens are all inevitably in shade, limiting the planting choices for the owners.
5.Small Front Garden Ideas -Symmetry and Formality
If the front of your house is symmetrical, with a central front door, you may want to accentuate this by using box hedging, or matching topiary shapes. They quickly create a formal small front garden with lots of va va voom.
For instance, if you look at the house above, its front garden is absolutely tiny. There’s barely a metre of space before the pavement begins. But what it lacks in size it makes up for in attitude. Topiary enables the symmetry of the house to be beautifully accentuated.
If you haven’t the patience to create this, simply placing a large pot either side of the front door would inexpensively create a similar, symmetrical effect.
Even if your property isn’t symmetrical, box hedging and topiary balls, instantly create a distinguished small front garden. For instance take a look at this Bath front garden below. Again, the gravel carefully reflects the honey stone colour as per my rule number 2.
6. Use Containers
Containers are really useful for front gardens. For instance the two bay trees in matching containers in the Bath property below provide a little extra interest. I imagine that when you are down in the area, at eye level, the effect is rather smart.
Such an effect is so easy to create. It’s just two pots and plants. You can of course use more. But if you are using lots of pots in a small front garden, to avoid looking bitty, choose containers made with the same material. If you do this you can really mix up the sizes of your containers – and the shapes. For instance, there’s a real mix of pots in the display below, but because they’re all terracotta, they provide a cohesive display.
Again, see how the colour of the pots chimes with the colour of the brickwork and the house’s front door.
7. Don’t Be Afraid of Trees
My final tip is around trees. Even if you only have a small front garden to work with, that doesn’t mean you should avoid trees. Many of the courtyard gardens in Bath have trees. I rather like the formal container wih the box surrounding the base.
If you want something more colourful, in a small space you can have some lovely tree and container combinations, like this acer which I have in a bright blue pot.
So that’s it. A few small front garden ideas and rules, to help us all turn that often neglected bit of our garden into something a bit more special. Happy gardening x