Your front garden plays a crucial role when creating a welcoming and inviting home. A beautifully landscaped front garden enhances your property’s curb appeal and provides a relaxing and enjoyable outdoor space for you and your family. In this article, we’ll explore 15 perfect front garden ideas, including small front garden ideas, low maintenance front garden ideas, and front garden path ideas. No matter the size of your garden, we’ve got you covered with plenty of ideas and inspiration to help you create the front garden of your dreams.
- 1. Light It Up
- 2. Choose A Cohesive Colour Scheme
- 3. Go For A Retro Picket Fence
- 4. Plant Up Your Borders
- 5. Swap Out Your Fence
- 6. Enjoy The View With A Small Bench
- 7. Grow A Natural Arch
- 8. Plant In Raised Beds
- 9. Create Interest With A Unique Path
- 10. Include A Range of Textures
- 11. Don’t Neglect The Lawn
- 12. Include Potted Plants
- 13. Plant For Privacy
- 14. Build A Decking Porch
- 15. Update Your Garden With The Season
- Put Our Front Garden Ideas To The Test
- FAQs
- Sources
1. Light It Up
Lighting may be one of many things you consider when looking for front garden ideas, but it should be a priority. Highlighting specific elements of your garden, such as your porch, front steps or fencing, will create a welcoming ambience for guests and make your front garden feel more secure and safe. Naturally, you should always try to use eco-friendly, energy-efficient lights. Here are some of our top suggestions for your outdoor lighting:
- Solar lights
- LED string lights
- Low-voltage landscape lighting
- Spotlights
- Lanterns
Read More: Eco-Friendly Garden Ideas
2. Choose A Cohesive Colour Scheme
When you put your front garden ideas together, you want the result to be cohesive and visually appealing. One of the vital steps towards completing this goal is to assemble a coherent colour scheme. Once you have chosen your colour scheme, almost everything you put in your garden should fall under it, including garden furniture, plants, boundaries and decor. With a cohesive garden colour scheme, you can create a coordinated, visually pleasing space with little maintenance.
Here are some pretty garden colour schemes you could consider:
- Blue and yellow
- Purple and pink
- Green and white
- Red, orange, and yellow
- Grey and blue
3. Go For A Retro Picket Fence
You shouldn’t neglect coming up with front garden fencing ideas, as the boundary of your garden is just as crucial as the flowerbeds and accessories. One of our favourite front garden fencing ideas is installing a sweet, traditional picket fence and painting it to fit your colour scheme. Picket fences are standard in cottage gardens, and you can bring some of that conventional, rustic beauty to the city by bringing one into your garden.
Try these invigorating picket fencing ideas to shape up your picket fence.
4. Plant Up Your Borders
Garden borders provide a wealth of opportunities when it comes to planting. However, you’ll want to go for more than colour and beauty when considering front garden ideas. Naturally, these things are lovely in a garden, but to make your front garden even more welcoming, you should consider planting for scent and appearance. Growing scent-rich plants, like primrose, lavender and sage, will make your garden look and smell beautiful.
5. Swap Out Your Fence
On the other hand, you could skip front garden fencing ideas and remove your fences altogether. Fences are standard in city and town gardens, but you can go against the grain and grow hedges, install bamboo screening, build a wall or grow a vertical garden along your boundary. Not only will these options ensure you still receive your privacy, but they will also add interest and beauty to your front garden ideas.
6. Enjoy The View With A Small Bench
Admittedly, front gardens may get little of a view, but if your front garden ideas create a haven, you should enjoy it! One of the more intimate ways of doing this is with a sweet bench by the front door or alongside your flower beds, allowing you to enjoy the view you’ve created. You may want a traditional wooden garden bench to complement a cottage-style front garden or add a contemporary twist with a cast iron bench. And, if you’re looking for small front garden ideas, you could go for compact garden bistro sets or foldaway chairs instead.
7. Grow A Natural Arch
Arches look fantastic in back gardens, but have you considered them for your front garden ideas? Growing a natural arch is a simple feat once you know how to do it, and plenty of tips and tricks can make the process easier. For example, you could create a romantic seat for two, complete with an arch of climbing plants across the top of a garden arbour. On the other hand, you could train some of your favourite climbing plants to create a natural arch over your porch or front door, providing beauty and shelter effortlessly.
8. Plant In Raised Beds
If low maintenance front garden ideas are more what you’re after, then raised beds could do the trick. Planting in raised beds lessens the maintenance you’ll have to put into planting and also brings many benefits to you, improving ease of management and access. The only tricky thing about raised beds is installing them, and you can get a landscaper to do that if you don’t feel up to it yourself. Here are some of our favourite plants to grow in front garden raised beds:
- Daylilies
- Coneflowers
- Black-eyed Susans
- Petunias
- Impatiens
- Marigolds
- Snapdragons
Read More: Low Maintenance Garden Ideas
9. Create Interest With A Unique Path
Front gardens are often smaller than back gardens, so you should make the most of your space with your front garden ideas. So, don’t leave the ground untouched! Even if your garden is small, creating a unique path will bring it to life. One of our favourite front garden path ideas is tiling, which is easy to install and maintain. Plus, there are plenty of different designs and colours of tile, perfect for all and any gardens.
However, although some tiles are deemed suitable for outdoor use, they may still get slippery. So, ensure that the type of tile you pick will be safe to walk on during bad conditions.
10. Include A Range of Textures
Mixing colours is a natural go-to when designing any indoor and outdoor space, but mixing textures can have just as big an impact. Including different textures will help bring your front garden to life, and there are plenty of options. For example, you could mix and match plants with other foliage or plant trees with exciting bark textures.
11. Don’t Neglect The Lawn
There’s a traditional layout of lawns that gardeners often like to stick to – that classic square-shaped, neatly trimmed patch of grass. However, just because everyone else does it doesn’t mean you have to! So why not mix things up with a more curved lawn or by planting a meadow of wildflowers for bees?
There are so many options when it comes to growing a lawn, but if you want to remain traditional, stay on top of maintenance to keep it looking tip-top.
12. Include Potted Plants
Another excellent solution for low maintenance front garden ideas is to opt for potted plants and, or instead of, flower beds. Potted plants are a great way of creating a striking, colourful display without too much effort or maintenance. In addition, we’d recommend hardy plants for pots, like Hosta and Hebe, that will survive in a less-sheltered position.
13. Plant For Privacy
Often, front gardens don’t offer much privacy, so you should factor this into your front garden ideas. Fortunately, there are plenty of plants that you can include in your planting scheme to give you the privacy you deserve. Topiary is a great, classic way of giving you privacy and your garden interest, or evergreen shrubs like Arborvitae will do the trick too.
Here are some more of our favourite plants for privacy that you could include in your front garden ideas:
- Arborvitae
- Bamboo
- Boxwood
- Holly
- Privet
14. Build A Decking Porch
You see decking porches in almost every American movie, but they look so nice that who can blame Hollywood?! Fortunately, this quintessentially American extension doesn’t have to stay across the pond. Many landscapers can build you a decking porch, or you could even put one together yourself if you are so inclined. Just add a nice porch swing, like wooden hanging chair, and you’ve got a look the neighbours will be jealous of.
15. Update Your Garden With The Season
Once you’ve used all your front garden ideas, you don’t just have to maintain the flowers and furniture and leave it at that. A front garden is the perfect opportunity to decorate and change for the coming of each season. For example, you can hang some festive wreaths come winter or keep outdoor planters updated with seasonal blooms to make your garden feel fresh.
Put Our Front Garden Ideas To The Test
There are many ways to create a stunning front garden that reflects your style and taste. By incorporating some of our front garden ideas, you can also make your front garden a practical and functional space that you can enjoy for years to come. So, whether you want to create a relaxing outdoor retreat or boost your home’s curb appeal, these 15 front garden ideas will inspire you and help you create the front garden of your dreams.
FAQs
What Plants Are Good For A Front Garden?
Dogwood
Redbud
Maple
Fountain Grass
Blue Fescue
Maiden Grass
Roses
Peonies
Daffodils
Boxwood
Holly
Hydrangea
How Do I Make My Front Garden Look Good On A Budget?
Use inexpensive materials – You can use many inexpensive materials to bring your beautiful front garden ideas to life. For example, you could use recycled materials to create garden beds or gravel instead of expensive paving stones.
Grow from seed – Growing plants from seed is often less expensive than buying established plants from a nursery. You can also save money by dividing plants you already have in your garden.
Shop around – Don’t be afraid to shop around for plants and materials. Compare prices at different nurseries and garden centres to find the best deals.
How Do You Divide A Front Garden?
Install edging – Installing edging will separate the different areas of your garden. You can use bricks, stones, or plants to create a boundary.
Prepare the soil – Prepare the soil in each area for the plants you want to grow. This may involve removing grass, adding compost, or adjusting the pH level of the soil.
Plant the areas – Plant up each area with the plants you want to grow. You should use plants that are suited to the specific conditions of each area, such as sun-loving plants in a sunny area and shade-loving plants in a shady area.
Maintain the areas – Once you have divided your front garden, you should maintain each area separately. This involves watering, fertilising, and pruning the plants in each area as needed.
Sources
Royal Horticultural Society. (2023). Raised beds. Retrieved from https://www.rhs.org.uk/garden-features/raised-beds (Accessed 26th April 2023)
Jackons. (2022) Different Styles of Picket Fencing. [Accessed 25/05/23] Retrieved from: https://www.jacksons-fencing.co.uk/the-edit/different-styles-of-picket-fencing
Ryan Jenkins is a professional gardener and has been working in the gardening industry for over 25 years. This has allowed Ryan to accumulate a vast wealth of gardening knowledge which he shares on the Sefton Meadows blog.
