The front garden is the business card of the house and as such should be designed with great attention. But what counts as a front garden? The front garden is the area between the street andthe entrance to the house. This is the first thing guests see when they come to visit. So it should appear friendly and inviting. At the same time, the front garden fulfills several functions: It offers space for the garbage can, the mailbox and the bicycle garage, borders the garden path and the driveway and shields the house from prying eyes.
If you want to make your outdoor area beautiful and practical at the same time, choose a lawn. There are numerous ideas with a green space and various possible combinations with other garden elements. We will show you several planting plans for a front garden with lawn and explain how you can implement them.
How can I landscape my front yard with lawn?
Frequentlyrepresents the front garden designrepresents a big challenge for the hobby gardener - for example because this outdoor area is rather small and has to fulfill several functions at the same time. A lawn offers a low-maintenance solution. Depending on the style of the house, the size and the location of the property, the green area can be decorated with flowers, hedge plants or modern garden sculptures. Here are several tips on what you should keep in mind:
1. The front garden should reflect the style of the house. For example: a front garden with gravel, paving stones and lawn suits a modern new building. An old building with a gable roof includes a playful front garden in country house style, a cottage garden or a classic garden with hedge plants.
2. Depending on how large the property is, you canDesign your lawn differently. In the large front garden you can frame the lawn with trees; in the small one, the green area creates a transition between the flower bed and the garden fence or the street.
3. Choose the plants so that you have an eye-catcher in the garden all year round. Leafy perennials and evergreen plants look beautiful even in winter.
How do I create an easy-care front garden?
An easy-care front garden doesn't have to look boring. Plant flowers, foliage shrubs and ornamental grasses that require little care. Various evergreen hedge plants are well suited and you only need to cut them into the desired shape at the start of the gardening season. Succulents are ideal for sunny locations and various native flowers can be used for shade.
However, it's easiest if you...Flowers in potsPlant and then arrange around the lawn. In this way, you can create and redesign the container garden every year. You can also decorate the front garden with exotic plants such as palm trees, ferns or flowers from tropical areas.
When it comes to a small front yard, you should look for a simple solution. Many hobby gardeners make the mistake of planting densely in the front garden. The flowers, perennials and ground cover crowd each other over time. A densely planted garden is anything but easy to care for. Often the gardener does not have access to the plants at the back of the flower bed, the lawn has an irregular shape and mowing the lawn becomes a real challenge or the garden appears chaotic and confusing. To avoid this, divide the front yard into several areas. Low perennials and ornamental trees can separate the property from the street and neighbors, flower beds around the entrance to the house ensure blooms all summer long, and trellises on the house wall provide space for climbing plants. In the middle, a lawn is designed as a connecting element.
Which plants for the small front garden: combinations
Here is an example of a successful front garden design in a small format. In this garden, a pergola with a garden bench invites you to linger, and a curved garden path connects the driveway and the house entrance. These are the plants you need for this planting plan:
- A– Red maple or Oregon alder or silver birch: All three trees have a conical crown and grow to between 4 and 6 meters high.
- B– Judas tree or Japanese maple or Japanese flower dogwood. All three trees have a conical crown and reach a maximum height of 6 meters.
- C– Holly or serviceberry or black elderberry. The first two produce white flowers, the elderberry blooms pink.
- D– Farm hydrangea variety “Mareisii”. The flower produces pink flowers and has a round, compact habit. As an alternative, there are rhododendrons or the small-leaved boxwood of the “Winter Beauty” variety.
- E– Aronia berries or dwarf lilac variety “Palibin” or weigela variety “Red Prince”. The aronia berry produces fragrant lavender flowers and the weigela blooms in red.
- F– Summer spar variety “Magical Carpet” or broom heather or Irish bell heather. All three have an upright habit and medium-sized flowers.
- G– Small-leaved rhododendron or dogwood or mockberry. The foliage of the dogwood and the blackberry turns red in the winter months, the rhododendron is evergreen.
- H– Greenland Porst or blue dwarf juniper or small-leaved rhododendron
- I– Sedum or coneflower or lavender for pops of color in purple, pink or mauve
- J– Small periwinkle or ornamental fern or red veil fern as a gap filler
- K– Jasmine or clematis exude a gentle scent and attract bees and butterflies.
- L– Climbing hydrangea or Virginia creeper or climbing snapdragon
Other design ideas for small front gardens
Terraced houses often only have a small front garden. Since the space there is limited to a few square meters, you should limit your planning to a few garden elements. A small lawn makes the garden appear larger, a bench offers space for shopping and a comfortable place to sit in summer. Two flower beds add a splash of color.
There is another idea for an easy-care design for the city villa. A small lawn that then turns into a bed of conifers and evergreens. Ground covers and low flowers create a seamless transition between lawn and perennials.
Design a large front garden with a lawn: planting plan
Landscaping a small front yard can prove to be a difficult task. But even the large front garden can pose a challenge for the hobby gardener, depending on its shape and orientation. The design principles are the same as for allotments, only the number of plants is larger. On a large property there is also enough space for tall trees and bushes, for flowers with vigorous growth and even for hedges. Below we offer you a planting plan for large front gardens.
Which plants for the large front garden?
The following plants are suitable for the large front garden:
- A– Red maple or sugar maple or Hungarian oak, all three trees grow up to 15 meters high.
- B– Colorado fir or coastal fir or silver fir. The first two trees reach a maximum height of 15 meters, the silver fir grows up to 30 meters high.
- C– Hawthorn (forms red flowers) or aspen (its foliage turns yellow in autumn) or viburnum (dark red to purple autumn color). All three grow up to 10 meters high.
- D– Crabapple tree or dwarf blood plum or viburnum.
- E– Columnar juniper or thuja.
- F– Hydrangea of the “Annabelle” variety or coral pod or rhododendron. All three plants have a fairly compact habit and dark green leaves.
- G– Ornate spar or pipe bush or dwarf lilac
- H– Creeping juniper or Sade tree or hybrid yew
- J– Perennial ground cover of your choice or hostas, ferns, Christmas roses
- K– Annual plants and flowers of your choice
Design ideas for large front gardens
Experiment with colors and shapes. If the front garden is large, you can use scented plants to attract bees and butterflies. Mediterranean plants are particularly suitable for a large, easy-care front garden. They are fairly easy to care for and create a casual Mediterranean look.
Designing a front garden on a corner plot: planting plan
Designing a front garden on a corner property is not an easy task. With these useful tips you will be able to transform the property into a cozy oasis:
1. Most of the time half of the property is in the shade and the other half is in the sun. In this case, place the lawn in the sun and a flower bed in the shade.
2. Plan the garden so that the plants do not cast any shadows on the windows and that you can see the entire front garden from the window.
3. Plant in the corners and along the fence to make the front yard appear more spacious.
3. Choose plants that get along well and have similar soil and location requirements.
Garden planning for a corner plot: an overview of the plants
Design a modern front garden with lawn
Low-maintenance front garden design with gravel and lawn is particularly suitable for minimalist houses. The possibilities are endless and there are no limits to your creativity. In principle, gravel is placed as a lawn border. But be careful: what looks very easy to care for at first glance can quickly turn out to be a tiring task. Because without a boundary, gravel and lawn will quickly mix. A possible variant is to lay the lawn on a raised bed made of Corten steel.
Gravel itself is not exactly easy to care for. Especially in autumn, when the trees shed their leaves, they can end up on the gravel surface. Then the gravel becomes very slippery and the autumn leaves can only be removed by hand. Insects can also move individual stones back and forth in the garden, making mowing the lawn a particularly big challenge. So if you want to save yourself the effort, it is better to use gravel as an accent in the modern garden.
