Nine ways to give your front garden a makeover
For your front door paint colour does make such a massive difference and sends a strong signal, writes
The front garden, and the area directly around the front door, is often a neglected, under-utilised space. If you’re planning to sell your home, this prime space really counts, so it’s worth putting in a little effort to ensure you make it look as good as possible.
POSITION YOUR PARKING WISELY
Cars, tarmac and heat-exchange units are too often the most dominant features at the front of the house. If drivers are able to pull their bumpers up to the threshold of the front door, they will.
If you design it so that this is not encouraged, and people are forced to walk a few metres to get to the door, your scope for creating a welcoming façade widens massively.
My ideal is to try to keep the front elevation clear and tuck the cars behind something, be it trellis, planting or a wall.
CHOOSE A SURFACE THAT SUITS
The surface you choose for the area outside your house is key. Tarmac is practical but it really shrieks “car park”.
Gravel is Marmite – some love it, some hate it – but usually, the latter reaction is due to its being incorrectly laid, often so deep that you have to wade through it, and frequently made up of rounded (rather than angular) particles, so it does not knit together.
Choosing the best size of gravel is important. It’s not straightforward, but I tend to go for 18mm down (the down indicates it has smaller particles in it too, which helps it to bind), angular particles (for better cohesion), and have them laid about 25mm deep.
SOFTEN THE SPACE WITH PLANTING
Planting within the gravel softens it, and the plants will self-sow and establish in the areas where the tires tend not to roll. Adding in a pattern of stone setts or bricks laid flush with the gravel immediately allows you to create a strong shape within a gravel area.
You can create a rectangular, oval or square shape – or whatever shape complements your house best – using the setts, and fill the inside of the shape mainly with gravel.
DEPLOY COLOUR
My daughter changed the colour of her front door recently, to a bold pink, and it transforms the look of her early Victorian Stamford terrace house; strangers even stop her in the street and admire it. It also makes her house very easy for visitors to find: no one misses the one with the snazzy pink door.
Paint colour does make such a massive difference and sends a strong signal. The basic rule is that bright white (that only came into being in the 20th century) really punches out.
So if you have windows or doors that are not appropriate to your house’s age or are just plain ugly, this is the worst colour to choose.
A pale sludgy grey/green really knocks back ugly window frames and works well with brick and stone. There is no shortage of subtle lichens, greys and the like to choose from.
USE POTS AND PLANTS
Pots in front of a property are like candles on a cake. They can also help to signal to visitors where to go.
I discovered a clever idea developed by Luke and David Hoskins of Lead it Be. Apart from making all things lead, they make lead planters with two or three sides so you can use them to disguise a plant in a not-toogreat pot.
This gives you great flexibility for wheeling out sequential pots of beautifully flowering bulbs, annuals or whatever, without having to repot each time.
Nearly all my pots are baseless, to remove maintenance and to give healthy plants. My house, like many, has various different ages and additions, from the 13th century to the 20th century.
PAY ATTENTION TO THE PORCH
Porches are often perfect places to sit in, and can really elevate a front door. Simple wood trellis ones with timber shingles on the roof look good, and wire trellis as an arch for a climber can really lift a front door.
Luke from Lead it Be transformed an old fire surround he found in a skip and upcycled it by adding timber posts to give it extra height. Now it is ready to give a distinctive touch to a doorway.
Old fire surrounds are inexpensive to pick up on eBay and the like, and adapted in this way, they can add a distinctive look to a doorway.
GROW LUSH PLANTING FOR PRIVACY
When I visited the actor Jim Carter’s house i, I was hugely impressed with the garden that he and his wife Imelda Staunton have made, especially the front garden.
The planting was generous and lush, enabling the two actors to sit out there enjoying a glass of wine without being ostentatiously “on show”: the Queen and the butler having a cosy chat! Even a couple of small trees can create a degree of privacy for both the garden and the house.
Other front gardens have become the perfect space to grow some veg. Good-looking raised beds kept well stocked throughout the year can look pretty impressive, so you don’t necessarily need to banish the veg to the back garden.
GET A GATE
Gates to the front garden can be really key to how you use it, especially if you have dogs and young children. Quite a few clients remark that putting in high solid gates really does allow them to use their front gardens very differently.
Incorporating a bell that rings in the house when the gate opens alerts you to the fact that someone is there.
DON’T FORGET SCENT
The one place I really love fragrant plants is by the doors.
I have two ‘Jacqueline Postill’ by the kitchen door; they have been in four years and grown to almost two metres in height from the tiny plants in three-litre pots that they started as, and are bushy and smothered in pale pink, highly fragrant flowers. It’s a stunning scent that even permeates the keyhole.
I make sure I have a great supply of scented plants to nestle by my kitchen door, whatever the time of year. Favourites for the summer are night scented stock, Zaluzianskya ovata (the night phlox) and tobacco plants, which come and go to make sure you always have a scented greeting.
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