Have you ever thought about what to do with the most-seen but often-forgotten part of your home? With summer fast approaching, it’s never been a better time to transform the entrance to your home. We’ve compiled our favourite front garden ideas that work with any budget.
Before you read our full list below, take a look at the plants that will thrive in difficult weather and temperature conditions, or just add a beautiful scent for visitors to your home.
Perennials: New Zealand flax, Rozanne geraniums, lady’s mantle, catmint.
Drought-tolerant plants: Periwinkle, dead nettle, green sheen, Japanese spurge
Shade-loving plants: Bear’s breech, fairy bellflower, knotted cranesbill
Scented plants: Lavender, rosemary, witch-hazel, winter honeysuckle
Small front garden ideas
Ideas for front gardens with no grass
Ideas for front gardens with a driveway
Ideas for front gardens with gravel
Small front garden ideas
Create an arch - Create a dramatic entrance to your small front garden by building an arch on top of your front gate. Cover it with your favourite climbing plants and transform the path into your house. Scented climbers like Poet’s Jasmine, Star Jasmine and Chocolate Vine will add an extra sense dimension to your design.
Cottage life- Replicate the look of a quaint cottage at home. Build a wooden picket fence and plant various coloured roses to create that quintessential countryside look. Choose shrub roses as they are easy to train as a low-growing hedge. Varieties like the Grace, Chinatown and Burgundy Ice are perfect for mixed borders with other plants.
Don’t forget your walls - If you’re looking to cover your walls with life, choose evergreen or semi-evergreen climbers that are fast growing and long-blooming. Potato vines are quite hardy and will bloom in late summer and through into the autumn, while the sausage vine will flower early in the spring and doesn’t mind a bit of shade.
Take it all in - If you love the thought of watching the world go by as you sit among your beautiful plants, simply place a small bench into your space before sitting back to enjoy the view.
Shine a light - Hang lanterns to create a glow effect during the summer. Choose an Outdoor Candle Holder that matches your interior style and bathe your front garden in candlelight all evening.
Hide your bins - If there’s not much space in your front garden, then big bins can dominate the entire area. Use wood to create a bespoke planter and cover them up with a shallow planter filled with perennial outdoor succulents. Just remember to allow for easy access to your bin.
Ideas for front gardens with no grass
Repetition, repetition, repetition - Group together as many small pots as you see fit and fill them with the same plant to create a beautiful pop of colour that will give life to your front garden. For shady fronts, perennials like the double pink Oscar Shoaf or foxgloves are ideal. If you have a sunny front garden, pentas and flosslowers love the heat and will encourage pollinators too.
Break it up - Break your pathway up, dig and mix the soil so it’s plant friendly and create a central flowerbed. Low maintenance herbs like rosemary are ideal for planting as they give off a burst of scent for anyone walking past, plus you can use it for cooking.
Stand to attention - Flank your door with potted clipped bay trees. These topiaries create a smart entrance to your home with minimal maintenance needed. They come in a range of sizes that will fit right against your wall, just make sure to keep them out of very windy conditions.
Rewild that space - Plant lots of nature-friendly herbs and flowers to attract pollinators (and some birds) into your front garden. If space allows, add a woodpile to encourage more insects to make their home too. Find out more about how to rewild your garden here.
Raise them up- If you want to create a dramatic look but don’t want those high maintenance plants, choose raised planters or tubs with perennial herbs or flowers. Plant a mix of mint, coriander, shiso and tarragon, just ensure you have good drainage as Mediterranean herbs don’t like wet soil.
Ideas for front gardens with a driveway
Switch to slate - A slate paved driveway is a perfect way to complement your garden. This stylish (but expensive) material comes in a range of colours and sizes and will draw the attention of anyone that visits. Choose a colour that contrasts with your plants to help both material and nature stand out.
Go permeable - Permeable driveways are better for your area in order to help drain away any excess rainwater, whereas fully paved driveways have been known to cause flooding. It also allows grass to grow through the gaps in the material, making your drive kinder to nature.
Take it away - You can simply use two rows of paving for your tyres (providing you’re an excellent parker). Plant low growing hardy herbs like echeverias, dwarf daffodils, sedums, and creeping thyme between the slabs so that there’s a fragrant scent when your car isn’t there.
Blend it in - If space allows, extend your driveway material and match it to your path so there’s a seamless flow from your drive onto your garden. At the higher end of the budgetary scale, a cobbled driveway and path can last for up to 100 years if laid properly, plus they’re the easiest to repair.
Break it up - If space allows and you have more than one car, plant a hardy bush between them to prevent as much dust getting into the garden as possible. The common yew or Korean boxwood are both resistant to various temperature and drought conditions, while the latter is excellent for pruning into whichever shape fits best in your front garden.
Ideas for front gardens with gravel
Let it grow - If you choose the right base layer, self seeding plants can thrive in shaded areas of gravel that you won’t use. Low-growers like the New Zealand burr or Californian poppy will add a stunning but unusual shade to those sometimes-neglected areas. Let them thrive, don’t plant a weed barrier where they grow to ensure their health.
Everything matches - If budget allows, you can match your gravel to the colour of your house or the plants in your front garden. Just remember that once you’ve laid it, weeding will be the biggest and most intense job for the first few years of having a gravelled front garden.
A trip to the Med - Mediterranean plants thrive in a gravel garden. Euphorbias, santolina, cistus, lavender and phlomis are ideal for attracting insects. Just be sure to check that your soil is not too clay-based or plants won’t be able to grow healthily at all.
Go big - Large pebbles and stepping stones create a bold look that provides maximum textural contrast. The bigger the size, the more likely they are to deter cats from using your front garden for creating unwanted mess. Go big with your plants as well and transform your space by planting large ferns.
The Japanese look - Soothing grey or blue gravel matched with brightly coloured acers and deep green wisterias will create a Japanese-style garden. The silver grey or Zen gravel is used for Karesansui style gardens to represent water where there is none, complete the dry river look with a gravel rake to create flowing patterns through your garden.
Create a border - Reclaimed brick is an ideal low-cost way to create neat edges and clean lines in a gravel garden. It will also hold back any plants you have and enhance your colour scheme thanks to the natural brown-orange terracotta tones.
Discover more of our latest collection here, find your perfect outdoor candle holder here. If you want to read more about garden lighting ideas, click here.