Your front garden is the very first thing that visitors or people driving past your home will see, and a neat entrance will definitely provide a warm welcome. Also, the front yard is what sets the mood for your entire home, and if it is not well maintained, it might give an impression of an unkempt home, and most importantly, a well-manicured front yard adds to the overall look of the entire neighborhood.
Designing your dream front garden doesn’t have to cost a fortune. With a bit of creativity and some effort, you can create a beautiful outdoor space at an affordable price point. Besides, there’s a wealth of design elements you can incorporate in your front garden, whether you have an expansive patio, a picket fence, or a stone courtyard.
Simple front Garden ideas
1. Consider a Minimalist Design
The front garden is usually a limited space, and coming up gardening ideas can be somehow tricky. As such, you will need to be creative to maximize on the space and, at the same time, avoid creating a messy space. The first thing is to keep flowers and other plants to the minimum. This will not only avoid cluttering the garden, but it will also be easy to maintain. You may want to keep the space neutral, and also you may want to hire a professional landscaper to advise you on the ideas that will work with your space.
2. Choose the Climbers Carefully
Planting a climber provides a great opportunity to enhance your front garden, especially where space is limited. A climbing rose, for instance, is the absolute cottage-garden favorite, and it is used to enhance your property or to hide unattractive architectural features. Others like wisteria provide a sweet scent while star jasmine, on the other hand, can be used on a sunny wall. Bear in mind that planting right against the house helps to blend your property into the garden and to soften the look.
However, you should avoid self-clinging climbers as they tend to have suckers that will eventually find their way into the guttering and finally into the windows. These climbers include climbing hydrangeas, ivy, and Boston ivy. Wisteria, roses, and clematis need support to grow, and as such, they are less likely to damage your house.
3. Make use of Pots and Containers
This trick will bring the garden right at your doorstep. Pots and containers provide color and interest at the exact place you want it. You can use rustic baskets to grow herbs, and because they are lightweight, they are handy to keep by the door or swapped about.
The good thing is the pots and containers can bring color to every season. For example, tulips for spring, alliums in summer, agapanthus in fall, and violas in winter. As you progress, you can get more creative with the containers and the colors to make more bold statements. You can opt to keep extra pots in the rear garden and wheel them as they start to start in each season.
4. Incorporate a seasonal table
If you have enough space by your entrance way, you can add interest in the available space by adding a seasonal table or any other old piece of painted furniture. This will provide an excellent opportunity to create an outstanding outdoor display for showcasing small pots and containers that need to be admired at proximity. However, ensure to keep it simple as possible, bearing in mind that understated colors such as grey help to create a harmonious first impression, and they are also easy on the eye.
5. Keep it neat with a Smart and Straightforward footpath
A simple and well-maintained garden path can be an attractive feature by itself other than keeping grass and soil from being walked over. When people walk to your home, the front garden should be able to direct them to the front door. As such, you should have a clear path and a signal such as two big pots on either side to mark the front door. Always link points of interest with a path.
You’ll need to use materials that suit your garden; for example, consider having brick edging and slate paving if you have brick walls and a slate wall in your home. Materials such as white pebbles illuminate your pathway as it gets dark, and at the same time, the crunching underfoot will let you know when someone is approaching. Don’t forget to give your walkaway a good cleaning to make it look like new.
6. Create an arch over your Pathway
There is something magical about passing under an arch; you will always feel compelled to walk under it once you place one over your pathway. You can hedge plants such as deciduous beech or yew to make an evergreen arch or simply buy a ready-made one. Other front garden plants such as hornbeam can also make a good arch, and they can result in a single arch or a tunnel when repeated several times. Also, their branches can add a strong structure to your entrance in winter.
7. Go for unusual Gate
Choosing a quirky rustic gate is a great way of adding individuality and uniqueness to your garden. You can go for greenwood for your country garden, where the natural and original shape of the wood remains unchanged. Most homeowners also prefer to use oak and chestnut to add a new life into the gate design.
8. Keep the lawns short and formal
Regardless of the size of your garden, a short and precise lawn, edged by smart paths, is one of the best approaches to create a garden with country shutters. Good structure and symmetry will give a perfect look, and as such, you should always go for well-defined flower beds and solid planting. You can also add a flower bed border to pretty up those plain flower beds in a flash. Using retaining walls will also go a long way in defining your flower beds, and in preventing soil erosion.
9. Keep trees off the front garden
If you grow trees in the front yard, they will be to be close to the house. Although this may not be a big problem at first, the trees will soon become big, and the roots might go under the foundations. This can risky, and trying to remove the trees can cause as much damage as leaving them in. As such, it is always safer to avoid trees in your front garden and anywhere near your walls.
Also, remember to use evergreens in the borders as they will go a long way in giving your garden shape and structure. Besides, they don’t grow too much, and once they are established, they don’t need staking and watering, and they will give your yard color all year round.
You may also Read: Gardening Problems Answered: 10 Biggest Gardening Mistakes and How to Solve them
The Bottom-line
If you are thinking about going whacky, then the best place to express yourself is the rear garden. As for the front garden, you’ll need to tone down when it comes to colors, types of plants to grow, and the ornaments to use. Consider your surroundings and your neighborhood to ensure that your home is not the odd one out.
Also, don’t make things complicated than they need to be. For example, if you need access to your windows, make sure the plants aren’t too big, and there is a path there. Getting a winding path or a fussy arch might appear attractive, but it might seem tasking and an annoying inconvenience to get to your front door, and most likely, people will tend to cut corners. Stick to straight paths to protect your lawn, which are also far more easy to maintain and install.
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William Phillips was born and raised in Keller, Texas. He is a licensed general contractor, and he has been a home improvement specialist for two decades. His passion for the trade led him to freelance writing to share his life experiences with his readers. Phillips enjoys thoroughly researching DIY tools and writing guides at ToolsHaunt as a way of giving back to the community.