Don't Forget Your Front Garden

With garden space at a premium, especially within city suburbia, we often forget that there is often a decent sized plot of neglected earth between our front doors and the curb stone. Often paved or gravelled over for use of off-road parking, or simply left to a neglected tangle of weeds, the front garden can look as glorious, modern, and inspirational as the back. Yes, you may not want to put out your sun lounger, or entertain your friends with a jug of pimms, but it'll certainly have curb side appeal. This will not only increase the look, and possibly the house price in your area, but it give you that extra lift every time you step out the door, and might even shame a few neighbours into renovating their look to.

I'm certainly not one to speak of a beautiful front garden. My space is approximately 4m x 2m sq, not exactly a garden in which to wander through on a hot summers evening, and definitely not a place to throw out my deck chair. It started as grass, was then transformed - rather half heartedly I must admit - into a rock garden, but other than the odd good willed clean up, it's spent most of its life as a tangle of weeds. Not very good marketing for a gardener!

Many fail to develop their front gardens because they don't like gardening out the front. But it needn't take very long, it can be very low maintenance, and surely, you pass this patch of green every day so shouldn't you take pride from it?!

You can take your front garden inspiration from anywhere and anyone. Use gravel, low clipped box or lavender hedges, ornamental grasses and small potted shrubs for the modern, changeable and low maintenance look. Strongly scented roses, jasmine or honeysuckle's with give a rewarding drift of smell on even the stillest day. A patch of grass, needled with year round flowering bulbs will give a striking and easy look. Use crocuses, daffodils, tulips, alliums, all of which will bloom year after year, and provide an ever changing landscape. Wildflower meadows don't have to be done on a huge scale; an area simply set aside and planted with native, natural beauties will cause gasps of originality. Or stay simple and use just one plant, an entire border of lavenders creates a modern, colourful and wonderfully scented garden. Close clipped into a hedge, or left to fill the neighbourhood with their heady scent, they prove determined in bad soils and low upkeep.Space is often in considerable shortage in the front garden, so stay simple and use either a few key plants, or key colours. This will maintain a striking, modern and carefully thought out look. Even on the hardest landscaped of driveways, a simple border of colour, or a pot of scrambling green, can take the shabby urban, to the residential chic.