Do you never have enough time to take care of your front garden and backyard? Gardening is not an easy thing and can really exhaust you. To give you more time to relax in the fresh air and admire your garden, you can try creating a low-maintenance front garden. That means: small tono lawns, fewer plants and more structure. And this can be achieved very easily by landscaping the front garden with gravel. You can find out what you need to pay attention to as well as many inspiring ideas and pictures in our article.
Designing a front garden with gravel: what's the point?
If you're looking for an alternative to green lawn for the front yard, consider gravel for a modern, low-maintenance landscape. Once you swap your lawn for a gravel landscape, the need disappearsconstant caresuch as watering, mowing and fertilizing. This means that weeding and the use of pesticides are a thing of the past. Reducing water and chemical usage benefits the environment, especially during the dry summer months. Plus, your front yard landscape will look well-maintained without all the hassle.
So if you have decided to design your front garden with gravel, then you can count on many advantages. Here are the most important ones at a glance:
- The gravel garden is easy to care for and looks well maintained even with little effort
- Modern look for the front garden
- Suitable for every garden style
- Gravel is cheaper as a floor covering compared to paving
- A layer of gravel compensates for temperature fluctuations in the bed and retains soil moisture in summer
- If installed correctly, no problems with weeds
The disadvantages of the gravel garden
Before you tackle a garden design with gravel, you must first find out about local building regulations. In some federal states there areGravel gardens are even forbiddenor inadmissible. At least when no or only a few plants were used. A gravel garden that consists exclusively of stones, gravel and gravel without any plants can be problematic from an ecological point of view. So what are the disadvantages of a garden design in which stones and gravel play the main role?
Here is an overview:
- Gravel gardens do not provide food or shelter for small animals and insects.
- Stones heat up a lot in summer.
- Gravel and gravel increase the noise from cars.
- Without plants, the dust in the front yard will not be filtered.
- Soil fertility is reduced.
Can I decorate the front garden with gravel?
Although garden design with gravel looks easy to maintain and structured, it is not permitted everywhere. In Baden-Württemberg and Saxony-Anhalt, for example, there is a complete ban on gravel gardens according to nature conservation law. Other federal states refer to their state building regulations, but are also planning to implement such a ban in the near future. However, under what circumstances is it permitted to create a gravel garden?
Rock or gravel gardens where there are sufficient plants do not count towards the definition of gravel garden and are excluded from the ban. So if you have theFront garden easy to maintainIf you want to design with gravel, you definitely have to use planting.
Gravel front garden – pictures and ideas as inspiration
The combination of gravel and plants looks modern and well-kept in the front garden. Here you will discover some beautiful ideas that illustrate a front garden design with gravel and suitable plants.
Design the front garden with gravel and grass
For anyone who wants a low-maintenance garden design, the combination of gravel and grass is a great solution. Ornamental grasses require significantly less maintenance than perennials or shrubs and still look very pretty. This allows the front garden to be designed minimalistically without completely forgoing any plants.
Some of the most beautiful types of ornamental grasses that partner well with gravel include blue fescue, mosquito grass, switchgrass and blue oats.
Which plants for the gravel garden?
A gravel garden primarily cultivates plants that tolerate barren, nutrient-poor soil. In addition to grasses, these also include drought-loving species such as stonecrop (Sedum) and houseleek (Sempervivum). These plants liven up the front garden with gravel and are also very easy to care for and undemanding.
Design the front garden with gravel and bark mulch
In addition to gravel, mulch is now another popular option for front garden design. The bark mulch has a very decorative effect and can be used to beautify various areas in the garden. However, its use is not limited to decorative functions only.
The natural mulch in the garden also offers some advantages. This suppresses weeds in beds, for example, and is also perfect for mulching oneshady front garden on the north side.
In combination with gravel and various plants, bark mulch looks best in the front garden. Wonderful color contrasts are created and you can consider an original garden design by designing different areas with gravel and mulch.
Modern and yet natural: front garden with gravel and lawn
If you simply want to give the front garden a modern touch, you can use gravel specifically for this purpose. Simply spice up the beds with it or create a decorative border for the lawn. The contrast between the green lawn and the small stones creates beautiful colorful accents in the front garden.
You can also use a gravel bed to showcase a tree in the front yard.
Create a gravel path in the front yard
A classic when designing a garden with stones is the gravel path. This variant is significantly cheaper than laying paving stones and also looks very romantic. To oneCreate a gravel path in the front yard, you must first dig up part of the path floor and lay a layer of gravel under the gravel. This makes the garden path more stable. A weed fleece is also placed over it and the gravel is spread on top.
Gravel is also popular as a floor covering in the front garden. The small stones can be combined with various materials such as wood and natural stone, for example to create beautiful garden paths.
