Front Gardens

Ours is inside a local stone wall with huge, deep hedges. We have a tamac drive, beds of plants, a path and pots immediately in front of the house. Our problem is that everything thrives far too much so I am always out with the secateurs, hedge trimmer and, hopefully, after Christmas a chainsaw!

Ours is North facing and across the road from the sea. There is a low brick boundary wall with flower bed in front. A flower bed in the middle of the lawn with a shrub rose, bulbs and bedding plants.
Given the geography you wouldn't expect much to grow but DH struggles to keep it under control. Especially the 30 yr old rose which looks lovely every year.

I think large pots or planters would be a good idea, kitty so long as they're firmly fixed down so they can't be stolen.

Our back was paved several years ago keeping the Apple and plum trees.

The front garden has just kerb edging. Permeable membrane was put down last year tucking it well under the many horizontal conifers, euonymous, (sp?) And covered with several inches of bark chippings - great labour saving job.. shrubs only need a tidy up once a year. I keep pots of arum lilies, daffodils, tulips, astilbe, oriental poppies, ready to move to the front when in bloom.

Here is mine, it is postage stamp size and still planted as it was when the house was built 20 years ago. It tends to be neglected because I concentrate on the back garden.

I think dramatic pots/ containers is the way to go kitty

Looks nice Shysal.

A few big pots sounds good Kitty. Nobody's going to run off with them. Camellias like shady spots and don't need a lot of looking after. Use the right compost and do some research on what kind of camellia to buy. They vary hugely in shape, speed of growth and whether they are early or late bloomers. Water in the summer using specialist fertiliser for acid lovers.

What I would say àbout pots is that watering is a pain especially in the summer.

We already have a xamellia Jess which would go and I would like to replace it.

Sal, your garden looks very welcoming. Ours is not really 'part' of the house and neither use nor ornament and is really only seen by the people opposite and passersby. We have a strip containing shrubs and bulbs by the front door but also two parked cars!

My victorian flat is on a slightly elevated corner site so the tiny garden wraps round. From house wall to boundary railing is about six feet so it's mostly gravel and pathway. There are a few large shrubs - rose of sharon, skimmia, lilac and lavender. Two large half-barrel planteŕs. The ten window boxes sit at tall sash and case windows and are the best feature with lots of colour in summer and now underplanted with miniature daffodils, iris, crocus and tulips, courtesy of DGCs.
Looking forward to seeing them in spring.

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Would agree with whitewave about the watering. When DH lost all interest in the garden I had the back garden made low maintenance with shrubs and bushes in pots. Easy care but needs watering daily in summer. This is a section. I have no better photos and a corner of the newly planted front early this year, it looked much more established a few months later.

Stand on your heads please!!!

A mess at the moment. I cut all the perennials back to the ground a while ago. The great hedge trimmer massacre. They will rise again in spring.

This is my front garden plot dividing Amelanchier hedge this spring.

Wow, Nellie, the Amelanchier is stunning!

Annsixty, I love that part of your front garden! Do you have a problem with bits of grass blowing onto the stones when you mow? I have gravel under my front window next to grass, and despite the mower having a box, bits of grass always blow across. I sometimes clip the grass by hand to avoid this, but as can be seen, I have not done it for a while as primroses are growing there (that's my excuse).

When I moved into this end terrace, there was just a small muddy patch with nothing much in it so I had the front yard and the side entry paved over with imprinted concrete which now makes me feel guilty because there has been much criticism about how this increases the risk of flooding, not that there's much chance of that on my sloping plot. The back garden makes up for it. I like to keep a couple of pots - geraniums and/or begonias - in the front. The old man three doors down always has a stunning display of begonias in his front garden every summer.

As I never do the mowing I can't say shysal I have a handy son for that he is the one who did all the work for me and I know he cuts the "cut out wave bit" by hand.

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I've got a north facing front garden and decided to make it a jungle garden! it's low maintenance with membrane down first then planted and covered with bark chippings.
the photos were taken in 2010 and it's grown a bit since then but it's mainly troublefree [apart from the bamboo which runs amok every year - easily dealt with and a supply of bamboo canes!].
I often get comments about my lovely garden and most people don't realise it's meant to be a jungle!!

I have a new build house, with a wide but very shallow strip along the front. I know next to nothing abut gardening and don't know where to start. At the moment it's filled with hideous shrubs (all the same) which the builders put in. I want low maintenance but can't have stones or shingle as I have large beech trees overhanging, so the leaves and beechnuts would lodge there. So any ideas would be welcomed.

Lupatria - I love your garden. Did you get yours done professionally, or did you do it yourself? If so could you name some of the plants for me?

Re watering pots.
I had to leave my beloved pot plants, some of which are 20- years old, this summer for 3 months.
Mr A very kindly bought an automatic watering system which attaches to the outside tap and then little pipes run off to the pots. You can set it to water as frequently and for as long as you like.
They all survived.

I love front gardens. They set off a house, I think. Yours looks lovely lupatria

Gorgeous lupatria. Yes builders bung in any old thing in front of the house. Laurel is an obvious choice don't you think, (not) - which we had last time we bought new. Our best front garden plants were: Fuchsia Mrs Popple - bloomed and bloomed, lambs ears - spreads and keeps out weeds.
I don't have one now - doorstep right on pavement. Plenty to be getting on with at the back though.
I do love admiring the front gardens of other people. They can be a huge enhancement to a road.

Very taken with your mini-jungle, lup . I don't have a front garden - just a very scruffy long wall right on a lane, with a garden door set in. Our house is completely enclosed, but the back garden is big enough not to feel hemmed in. I love the privacy.

2old4hotpants, we had a similar problem, but with a large cedar tree which meant no grass would grow near it. We tried gravel and it gradually silted up and looked awful. I asked at Wisley and someone came up with the simple suggestion of wood chip under the tree's shadow. It works really well and any odd weeds can be pulled up easily. A new bag or two of chipped bark spread around each year keeps it looking neat. We could put pots of plants on it if colour was required, but luckily there is enough from borders not under the tree to make this unnecessary. Lovely jungle Lupatria.

Shysal It was the best it has ever been this year but its actually planted in thin soil and builders rubble.

I understand that people need space for cars and prefer low maintenance- but for me, consideration for wildlife, bees, butterflies, birds, hedgehogs and all the small critters that keep the soil alive- is always paramount in making decisions.

I feel truly sad when I see all the front gardens that used to be full of bushes and lovely plants when I first lived in the UK, turning to concrete and block paving one by one. If you have to, try and mitigate this by providing some areas to hide and feed, please. Hedgehogs and birds are in sharp decline and so are bees, partly due to this 'desertification'.