Big solutions to a small front garden. Don’t let size hold you back!
It can be a bit difficult to know how to make the most of a small front garden because of its size. It may be too cramped for a lawn or too shady, making plants struggle to survive. Having colour ful plants in a front garden is not only cheer ful for people coming to the door but it gives an uplift to people passing by. I often look at front gardens when walking down a street and I find it sad when they are paved over or have no plants in them.
A good solution for a sunny front garden is to grow plants in gravel. Rain can filter down through the gravel so you are not adding to the flooding risk – as paved over or concreted areas can do. I use gravel a lot in my garden because it is such a lovely background to plants. It keeps weeding at a minimum and, in drought conditions, it holds moisture in the soil so you generally don’t have to water too often.
Plants that come from the Mediterranean, such as lavender, sage and thyme, grow ver y happily in gravel. Grasses look good in it too and these are ver y easy to maintain. Alpine plants such as saxifrages and sedums or coastal flowers such as sea pink do very well in gravel and you can add small bulbs as well.
Pots of succulents can be put outside for summer, delightful with their symmetrical patterned leaves.
One of my top plants is California poppy. These day-glo orange flowers are incredibly easy-to-grow annuals as well as being good for pollinators. Mine seed themselves year to year and a favourite combination, shown in this photo (right), is with Sisyrinchium striatum (common name is pale yellow-eyed grass). I love the effect which, even on a dull day, looks like the sun is out!