FRONT OF HOUSE
A south-facing front garden in a seaside town has been transformed into a perfect spot to sit and watch the world go by
Front gardens tend to be functional spaces, enclosed by hedges or fences for privacy and safety, with a path and some pots – packed with kerb appeal, but not much more. Sarah Morgan’s front garden, however, is a little different. A gold medallist six years ago in the Feel Good Front Gardens competition at RHS Hampton Court, Sarah has put her prize-winning talent to work in designing the frontage of her bungalow in Whitstable on the Kent coast.
She moved there three years ago with her husband, design consultant Marcus Rigg, and their daughter Milla. The 1960s property is built in the grounds of a grand manor that can be glimpsed over the fence, and is backed by a railway line. Sitting between homes with front and back gardens of similar size, it’s the front that faces south and gets the sun, and although neighbours along this quiet cul-desac pass by, it’s an unusually quiet and private space, with cars parked away from the houses.
‘We use our front garden a lot,’ says Sarah. ‘It’s not just a route to the front door. We sometimes have our breakfast out here, and it’s somewhere to sit and enjoy the sun. We often leave our front door open.’ Faced with the prospect of redesigning the garden,
Sarah didn’t clear the space to create a blank canvas, although she admits the old garden was a bit of a mess.
‘It’s a mid-century house, but it had a cottage garden, and the two just didn’t seem to go together,’ says Sarah. So she cleared a few dead, redundant and downright ugly plants, then set about lifting canopies and pruning trees and shrubs. Once that was done, she gradually added the newcomers she loves: self-seeders such as Verbena bonariensis, centranthus, love-in-a-mist and bleached grasses, including deschampsia, Stipa gigantea and S tenuissima, all the time learning what would feel at home in this seaside location, and keeping a backdrop of greenery.
‘I felt the garden needed more shape and structure, so I added the black wooden paling for privacy, straightened the hedges and re-shaped the path,’ explains Sarah. And when Milla wanted a space to practise gymnastics, Sarah carved the lawn into a circle