Verge Of Success

Beautiful landscaping starts at the front gate.

Agorgeous front garden is a precious pocket of outdoor space. It performs double duty, providing homeowners with a slice of sanctuary and giving the home a sense of presence on the street. “The front garden is the first thing people see, so it’s an important statement about your home,” says Matt Leacy, landscape designer from Landart Landscapes in Sydney.

In real-estate terms, first impressions really do count. As Melbourne landscape designer Ian Barker puts it, “The space from the footpath to the front door is the most important component of any garden if you want to add value to your home.” Indeed, according to McGrath Estate Agents, investing $5000 in your garden could add as much as $25,000 to the property’s value by attracting stronger buyer interest.

But perhaps more important than lifting property values is the fact that a lovely front garden will lift the spirits of the garden’s owners and local residents alike. “I love front gardens because they become part of the fabric of the neighbourhood and can encourage interaction between neighbours,” says Scott Leung, principal designer with Melbourne’s Eckersley Garden Architecture. “I love chatting and sharing cuttings when I’m gardening out the front of my home.”

When designing your front garden, think outside the square – or beyond the boundary of your property, says Matt. “We always try to incorporate verge planting into any front garden we work on,” he says. “Why not start making a good impression from out on the street?” The key to a successful front-garden design, Matt explains, is to blur the line of the front boundary with textured and layered planting. “If you need a front fence, it’s much nicer to be able to hide the fence among plants so it’s less visible and softer in appearance from the street,” he says. “Ideally, you want to try and disguise where the property begins and ends. This will open the property visually and make it seem bigger, rather than creating heavily defined spaces.”

Scott also encourages his clients to incorporate verge planting in their front-garden designs. “In the long-term, a verge garden is easier to maintain than a patch of lawn and you get the year-round benefits of lovely textural and floral displays,” he says. You’ll need to obtain approval from your local council before planting the verge – and each municipality will have its own conditions for the types of plants allowed – but most are in favour of verge planting because it fulfils the wider community’s sustainability aims and improves the street overall.

“You’ll need to ensure the plant heights don’t block the sight lines of cars, and create safe pedestrian access,” says Scott. But with those conditions observed, the rewards are many.