A Small Front Garden

Our client was planning improvements to her house with a new front door and other projects and felt the garden let the property down. It was scruffy and uninteresting and reflected poorly on her nice home.

Some clients are very prescriptive about the design brief, on this occasion we were asked to simply get rid of the poor lawn and redesign the garden.

A central requirement for any front garden design is to provide easy, clear access ways so that visitors feel invited and drawn to the preferred entrance. In this case this suggested a need for paths from the drive and pavement to the front door. The front garden design was then created around this functional need.

The awkward irregular shape and diagonal slope gave the area an uncomfortable unbalanced appearance. To resolve this we overlaid the space with a simple clean geometric design which gave the space a more symmetrical feel and we built low retaining walls to level the main area.

A matching pair of specimen grasses (Miscanthus sinensis Gracillimus) reinforced the sense of symmetry. Simple bold planting further disguised the irregular shape and ensured the small area did not become fussy. The plants also served to define the garden space and give a sense of separation from the public footway and street.

By the end of the project our small front garden design had transformed her garden into a space she could be proud of which complimented the other improvements she had made