The front garden is part of the local area where flower beds, shrubs and tree plantings are located. This is a kind of “calling card” of the house, the first thing that catches the eyes of guests. This is a suitable place for placing garden furniture, playgrounds and ponds. Therefore, special attention is paid to the arrangement of front gardens. It is important not only to select the most suitable species of ornamental plants, but also to carefully landscape and decorate the area. The most original solution is to arrange the front garden with your own hands, guided only by your own ideas about beauty. But even in this case, a few important tips will not hurt.
Types and styles of front gardens
Depending on the principle of location, front gardens are:
- closed;
- open;
- covered;
- formal.
The main purpose of an open front garden is to give the house an attractive appearance from the outside. In this case, many factors have to be taken into account: terrain features, surroundings, intensity of traffic flow on the nearest highway, etc. If the territory being developed does not entirely fit into the field of view, even from a great distance, it is advisable to divide it into separate zones. Hedges are often planted along the perimeter - they will not become a barrier from uninvited guests, but they can beautifully outline the boundaries of the site.
Flowers and ornamental plants will decorate your yard
The design of a closed front garden should first of all provide a beautiful view from the window of the home. In this case, a hedge protects the area from noise, car exhaust and prying eyes. For these purposes, fences or thorny bushes are often used - gooseberries, rosehips, barberries or hawthorns.
Green bushes and flowers will fill the yard with freshness and beauty
Covered front gardens are small lawns, lined with the same hedge of bushes.
Small, neat hedges are typical for covered front gardens
Formal front gardens are convenient when there is a shortage of space, because... they take up very little space. Containers are used for planting, often having an original shape, colorful and beautifully decorated.
A small front garden will become part of the territory
When choosing a style for decorating a front garden, you need to realize that the very concept of style here is quite arbitrary. There are no strict frameworks within which this or that principle of territory development fits. Mixed styles are often practiced, including those with numerous ethnic inclusions. The requirements for the methods of designing a front garden in this case are very vague, and strict adherence to any rules is not required.
Typically, the characteristics of the home and the adjacent land plot are taken into account, as well as the solutions already used in this area. Below we will look at some of the fashionable styles that landscape design professionals are working with on small-sized plots available in densely built-up cities.
The concept of style for a front garden is quite arbitrary
The Art Nouveau style is characterized by a refusal to use a straight line when designing a front garden. Graceful, often trailing plants create a bright, bold and asymmetrical look. Another solution is to install wooden trellises that are high enough to allow clematis, which is actively used by modern landscape designers, to grow well next to them. It is better to make the details of the grilles pretentious and elegant, without crossing the line beyond which minimalism ends.
Such a sophisticated plant as a rose combines restraint and luxury well. If the house has a wide entrance opening, the use of standard climbing roses will not interfere with either guests or owners. If the doors are narrow, then it is better to plant such a plant near the arch, installed in front of the path leading to the entrance. It is better to choose the color of roses so that it contrasts with the background of clematis. Also, the beauty of rose flowers is emphasized by the dark greenery of ivy - it can also be planted near the arch.
For planting along paths, there is nothing better than low-growing and groundcover roses that create specific “borders.” It is best to fill the rest of the area with lavender, catnip, thyme or heather. You can also plant potted plants at the entrance - yew or boxwood. It is advisable to give them a nice haircut when they grow up.
The high-tech style is best suited for small, simple front gardens, the design of which does not require excessive financial and time expenditure, but produces spectacular results. This style is characterized by focusing the observer’s attention on only one bright color - for example, green. The main components of design are symmetry and geometry. Decorative elements are selected accordingly: cast supports, galvanized arches, large metal containers with unusual sculpture shapes and even several concrete cubes. It is advisable to use boxwood or steel strips as borders with strict lines.
High-tech style is characterized by straight lines and correct symmetry.
The placement of the tallest woody plants should also be symmetrical relative to the house. It is better to plant them in the middle of flower beds. It is advisable to opt for standard trees with a strict crown - maple, white acacia or bignonia catalpa.
To frame standard forms, use smaller trees in tubs or pots. It is better for them to take a place closer to the threshold, breaking the symmetry that reigns everywhere for a change. A good place to place an arch is the space in front of the entrance to the house. It’s a good idea to plant a couple of plants that contrast with each other next to the arch (like holoflowered jasmine or Henry’s honeysuckle). Decorative elements (sculptures, containers) and plants of the same size with white flowers also balance each other.
Bright design elements are perennial shrubs blooming in scarlet, yellow or deep blue. The yellow color scheme will be provided by St. John's wort or rudbeckia flowers, and the red color by kniphofia or Indian canna. Plant the rest of the area with unusual vegetation of modest colors. Low-growing grasses, spotted grass, various ferns, small periwinkle or trifoliate Waldsteinia are suitable here. All potted plants in a high-tech front garden should fit in no more than five containers.
To decorate the area, you can choose green and flowering shrubs
For a front garden in the minimalist style, the main thing is originality. After all, creating something memorable under spatial restrictions is not an easy task. Here it is appropriate to combine strict elegance with lush filling. It is recommended to divide a small space in two, and plant one woody, main, climbing and potted plant in each part. In this case, it is advisable to make the combinations contrasting and striking.
Opposite a large tree, you can plant small but lush bushes. In this case, the combination of bean and spirea also looks great. An elegant support for climbing stems looks good close to the tree trunk. The decoration on the opposite side will be, for example, an obelisk with a climbing rose, and for the arch at the entrance, a vine of maiden grapes would be better suited. A pair of flower beds placed on the site requires symmetrical design. Two medium-sized perennials with discreet colors are perfect for this. This could be echinacea, lavender, cereals, rudbeckia, heuchera, heather, etc.
For bright accent you can display several pots of summer flowers near the threshold.
Flowers in the front garden can be displayed in pots
Front garden decoration
Each style, no matter how strict it may be, provides freedom of action for the owner of the front garden. It consists not only in the choice of ornamental crops, but also in the design of the place where they grow. The concept of landscape design also includes the choice of soil for plant growth, the structure of an arch or fence, the color and shape of pots, etc. All this together makes numerous individual changes to the adopted style.
Fences
It is quite acceptable for the front garden fence to be replaced by a hedge. If you need an artificial fence, then it is important to clearly understand for what purposes you are going to use it. If for decorative purposes, then a low fence made of any material is quite suitable. If you want to protect your front garden from outsiders, then you need a real, high and durable fence. In any case, you need the fence to be beautiful and harmonize as much as possible with the surrounding landscape.
The advantage of wooden fences is their low price, environmental friendliness, ease of painting and processing. Are used. Basically, there are two types of lumber - picket fence and timber.
The picket fence is assembled from wooden boards attached to two profiles. When building a picket fence yourself, it is important to leave a gap between the boards. Firstly, it looks beautiful, and secondly, the shadow from such a fence falls no less beautifully on flowerbeds, pots and the plants themselves in sunny weather. Painting the boards in bright, alternating colors also contributes to the attractiveness of the fence as a landscape decoration.
A timber fence is much thicker and stronger than a picket fence. You can decorate it not only with painting, but also with polishing, varnish, and artistic wood carving. Such a fence can serve not only as decoration, but also as reliable protection.
A wooden fence can also be made from available materials (stumps, pegs, branches woven together). But these are already stylized design elements that look like a fence and do not perform any functions other than aesthetic ones.
Compared to wooden ones, metal fences have an undeniable advantage - strength. But there are also disadvantages - large mass, which makes installation on site difficult, as well as high price.
Forged metal fences have the most attractive appearance. They are also the most expensive. But if you are willing to pay for beauty, the pleasure is worth it. Using forging, you can decorate the fence with a unique three-dimensional pattern. The stems of climbing plants, such as ivy or bindweed, can add even more attractiveness to it.
Fences made of metal profiles do not look as elegant, but are cheaper and quite easy to install. If you plant weaving and climbing plants along such a fence, you will get a perfectly even “hedge”.
Plastic fences are good because they are inexpensive. And often they can be collected for nothing. There are technologies that make it possible to assemble a fence not only from PVC pipes to be recycled, but even from used plastic bags. This material can be easily given any aesthetic form in which no one will recognize the former garbage. However, the strength of such a fence is low, and it has rather a decorative value. Additionally, plastic is not an environmentally friendly material ideal for outdoor recreation.
To build a fence, you can use wild stone. This is usually granite or slate with beautiful colors and complex patterns. Its noble and, at the same time, somewhat rough appearance allows you to feel the breath of history. In addition, this material is quite durable. If the boulders are fitted to each other so tightly that there is practically no gap between them, they will stick perfectly even without mortar.
The use of wild stone is hampered by its heavy weight and high cost.
Concrete and brick barriers are strong and reliable. However, it is quite difficult to give them an aesthetic appearance - after all, sometimes it is necessary for the front garden fence to be at least somewhat different from the wall of the house. However, concrete and brick fences are widespread, and owners are not going to give them up.
There are also combined fencing options that use all the materials mentioned above.
Paths
Paths are necessary not only from an aesthetic point of view, but also in order to give people the opportunity to walk through the front garden without trampling plants. There are various materials for making paths. And each has its own advantages and disadvantages.
Paths made of natural stone are considered one of the best in many respects. They are durable, environmentally friendly, and look great among flowers and greenery. But the material for them is very expensive. In addition, natural stone absorbs moisture too easily, so paths made from it must be treated at least once every three years with a water-repellent solution. In winter, the stone paths are covered with an icy crust, which makes them dangerous to walk on. Due to the heavy weight of natural stone, it is difficult to lay it in the ground to create a flat surface. For this purpose, a special hammer is used, which is difficult to operate without the necessary skills.
Wooden paths can be of three types: from boards, special tiles and wooden logs. All of them are cheap and environmentally friendly, but they are not durable. In order not to change them every few months, the wood has to be treated with a special compound.
There are also some measures to extend the life of such tracks.
- Before laying boards, bars or saw cuts, they should be treated with boiling drying oil. After the surface has dried, the treatment is repeated.
- When laying the path, you can place polyethylene under the wood. This will make it difficult for moisture to reach the wood and slow down the rotting process.
- To drain excess moisture, it is best to pour the ground under the path in a gentle arch.
- The void between each cut is filled with a large amount of sand, crushed stone or gravel to prevent moisture.
- If wooden walkways are laid on the ground, it is better to leave gaps between them and the soil.
Much also depends on the type of wood. Paths made of oak, ash, and larch are the least susceptible to rotting.
At first glance, the brick paths seem flawless. But ordinary sand-lime brick is not very reliable as a material - it quickly disintegrates and creeps apart. Clinker brick has more suitable characteristics.
It is expensive, and even when laying it, precautions must be taken so that the paths do not separate.
- It is better to lay clinker, and even more so sand-lime bricks on mortar - otherwise the material will not last long.
- It is better to drive boards along the edges of the paths - this will keep them in good condition longer.
A garden path made of concrete has ideal characteristics - in addition to its aesthetic appearance. In addition, concrete is not cheap, and it is almost impossible to lay it without the use of technical means.
If finances allow, you can use paving slabs, asphalt, granite, etc. as laying materials. An alternative option is to lay out the paths with pebbles, sand and even compacted turf. These are virtually cost-effective technologies, but the results often leave much to be desired.
Plants
The word "front garden" uses the root "garden". And not only flowers, but also trees should grow in the garden. Cherry trees (including the famous Japanese sakura), willow, spruce, and thuja are considered the most suitable for arranging a front garden. If you have enough experience and free time, you can try to decorate the area with exotic plants - natives of the subtropics. At the same time, you should think about how to heat the tree in winter. The most acceptable option is the summer exposition of the “overseas guest” in the front garden and the construction of a temporary winter greenhouse around it.
A front garden is unthinkable without numerous shrubs. Some of them serve as hedges, others grow inside the perimeter solely as decoration. The first include, first of all, thorny bushes, such as thorns or hawthorns. Exotic lovers can use for this purpose in the summer even plants that are unusual for a temperate climate, such as cacti. Of course, with the passing of the summer heat, the pots with “green hedgehogs” should be moved under the roof.
Absolutely thornless, but extremely dense bushes that grow densely and are easy to trim are also suitable as fencing. Such plants include honeysuckle, snowberry, etc.
There are many ornamental shrubs grown in the front garden solely for beauty. Recently, due to the fashion for the so-called “alpine slides”, preference is often given to creeping plants - for example, juniper. There are known cases when, in climatic conditions middle zone Polar plants such as dwarf birches were successfully grown.
Standing apart are climbing plants used in the decorative design of hundreds, fences and gazebos. Growing ivy or bindweed on a plot of land is a win-win option, capable of decorating and beautifying the area under any circumstances.
And, of course, what kind of front garden would be without flowers? The best is considered to be a combination of beautifully and brightly flowering perennials (for example, roses) with modest wildflowers - catnip, lupine, heather, etc. However, there are no established canons here, and the possibilities for experimentation are endless.
Crafts and decor
Anything is suitable as decor for the front garden - from natural materials to old utensils or furniture. Very often, old things decorated with fresh flowers create a unique atmosphere of the rural outback, even in the courtyard of a modern multi-story building. Bird feathers, sea shells or colorful pebbles from the coast can completely change the usual ideas about landscape design.
How to arrange a front garden with your own hands
Let's move on from ideas to action. For a front garden, you need to mark out the area, install a fence, lay paths and decorate it with beautiful plants.
Making a wooden fence
- The simplest type of fence is a picket fence. To make it, wooden boards are used, nailed to at least two crossbars. It is recommended to choose lumber from durable species - oak, ash, etc.
- The thickness of the boards depends on the purpose of the fence. For an effective fence, it should be maximum, but for a decorative one, a board 20 millimeters thick will do.
- When installing a fence, you should not just dig in the bases of vertical boards with earth, but fill the holes and grooves intended for them with tightly compacted gravel.
Making a garden path
- Before starting work, it is necessary to outline the routes of the paths and calculate how much material will be needed for them.
- The material is not simply laid on the ground, but dug into the ground with a shovel or hammered in with a hammer.
- It is advisable to install curbs along the edges of the paths. These can be buried boards, fences made of woven branches, etc.
- Also, grooves should be dug along the edges to drain rain and melt water.
Making decor
Literally anything that comes to hand can be used for decoration. It is difficult to give advice here: everyone decorates their front garden according to their imagination. There are only a few general recommendations that have been proven by experience.
- Any outdated furniture, farm utensils, worn-out clothes and even worn-out shoes can turn from unnecessary trash into decoration. By grouping all this into appropriate compositions, you can tastefully decorate flower beds and turn your front garden into an island of the past untouched by time.
- An excellent material for making flower beds are tires that are beautifully painted and arranged in a geometric pattern.
- Glass and plastic bottles, especially painted ones acrylic paints or decorated with plaster stucco, can also serve as decorative elements.
- You can decorate garden paths with beautiful pebbles from the sea or river banks.
Care
It is necessary to care for plants in your garden all year round. The care procedure includes watering the plants, cultivating and fertilizing the soil, trimming the bushes, pinching and whitewashing the trees.
Caring for the fence, path and decorative elements involves regular repairs and updating if necessary.
Photo gallery: ideas for inspiration
In conclusion, we can say that these descriptions and advice are by no means a dogma that you need to strictly follow when designing your front garden. After all, each owner of a house and the adjacent plot of land has his own tastes, preferences and ideas about beauty. The possibilities for creative exploration here are almost endless, which makes it possible not to stop there.
The front garden in front of a house is usually a piece of land located between the building and the adjacent road. A classic front garden looks like this: on the territory there are flower beds decorated to the taste of the owners, a path leading to the house, compositions of flowers and stones. Depending on the imagination of the homeowners, very different solutions can be implemented here. The design of the front garden is always individual - you can create a real work of art in front of the house.
Before you start decorating the area in front of your house, familiarize yourself with the existing varieties - this will help you make any decision.
The following types of front gardens are known:
- 1 Open - in this case there is no fence. The space that is located next to a residential building is clearly visible both from the roadway and from the porch. In this case, most owners arrange a lawn with neatly trimmed vegetation, and lay an artistically designed path to the entrance.
- 2 Closed is a composition that is separated from the street by a fence. It can be made of natural (hedge) or artificial materials (brick, forged elements, wood, stone, metal mesh).
Before decorating the front garden with your own hands, you should decide what seems most important to you - to hide your personal territory from the eyes of passers-by or, on the contrary, to do everything in plain sight. Front gardens, depending on the chosen design, can be divided into the following types:
- 1 Design in Russian style. Everything that is located outside the windows of a home is designed, first of all, to please the eyes of the owners and only then of guests or neighbors. What is closer to the windows and more visible from the house is more attractive than what is closer to the road. Usually the site is closed on all sides by a fence. The fence can be solid or through; an equally common option is a hedge. The decorations used are very diverse - there can be painted wooden products, figures made of clay or polystone, as well as lush numerous flower beds. Entire plot compositions are often presented in this way.
- 2 Design in European style. More stringent standards apply here. This includes the precise geometry of arranged lines, trees and shrubs, neatly trimmed, smooth lawns. As a rule, much attention is paid to the design of paths and flower beds. In this case, an open type of front garden is often used so that passers-by can see the beauty and admire the design of the area near the house.
- 3 Country or rustic style is simple and original in appearance. You can create a beautiful front garden with your own hands if you arrange flower beds on its territory from perennial plants that do not require annual renewal and planting. A low fence made of wooden materials around the perimeter looks interesting. It perfectly captures the spirit of country style and looks great if you take its construction seriously.
- 4 When arranging an Asian-style front garden in a private house, mixborders are usually made, where perennial flowering plants with dim flowers and a discreet appearance are located, selected according to some characteristic. The device in several tiers allows you to arrange certain delimiters made of natural stones. No other materials are provided when using this style. Dwarf shrubs and coniferous trees will look great.
- 5 When choosing a Mediterranean style, plants are planted in containers and tubs, thus obtaining unique mobile compositions. If the space allows, such a composition often includes a relaxation area with a chaise longue and attractive furniture made from natural materials. Miniature figures, crafts, and lamps are also used in decoration.
- 6 Beautiful front gardens can be created in a romantic style. The main emphasis in this case falls on the choice of vegetation, which is designed to embody beauty and tenderness in its appearance. More often, metal or forged arches are used as fencing, which can be covered with climbing roses and clematis. Fences are made with a small height and decorated with climbing plants - they look original and lively.
- 7 In the modern style there are many plants with an original appearance, different colors and shapes. Compositions made from natural fabrics are often arranged in the front garden.
- 8 Natural stones are also characteristic of the Japanese style, where they are originally combined with coniferous plants. When creating flower beds, it is advisable to choose perennials, for example, irises, daylilies; accents from cereals look interesting.
To make a front garden with your own hands, you first need to think about a style decision and decide on the general idea. Then you will get a non-standard, interesting composition, made with imagination and pleasing to the eye. Front gardens in rural areas appear as the most common options for decorating the entrance to residential buildings.
Fences as decorative elements
The fence plays a significant role in the formation of the front garden. Basically they try to make it from natural materials, but other options are possible. Metal or wood are more expensive, but will look more luxurious in appearance.
Plastic and stone options are often used - in combination with plants they can look great. Fences, as a rule, are of low height and neat in appearance. This only emphasizes the style and originality of the composition.
When choosing a material, you should rely on the very idea of the compositional idea. The romantic style goes well with wrought iron fences, the rustic style goes well with wood or wattle fences, and solid stone structures are suitable for modernism. Much depends on the combination with the residential building and planted plants. The picket fence option is considered popular.
Picket fence for the local area
If you don’t know how to decorate your front garden inexpensively and pleasing to the eye, you can arrange it by creating a fence from a simple picket fence. Such fences are made low, they only conditionally serve as a fence - they are installed mainly for the purpose of zoning the space and decorating it.
Neat and beautiful front gardens, decorated with picket fences and flowers, seem to be a good option for owners who want to do their own landscaping and decorate the front garden with their own hands. The simplest tools and materials will help you assemble a beautiful and simple fencing structure without much effort.
The materials are as follows:
- boards 25X80 mm;
- horizontal strips for fastenings 40X100 mm;
- beams with a section of 100X100 mm;
- concreting mortar;
- bolts and nuts, self-tapping screws with washers, sang for the gate.
The tools are as follows:
- hammer;
- shovel;
- jigsaw or saw;
- screwdriver or drill.
First, make markings on the ground for installing the future picket fence. Pillars are dug into the ground at equal distances (starting with the corner ones). You can place them on concreted metal anchors - to do this, dig a hole, then install a pipe made of tin or asbestos cement into it. A galvanized anchor is installed in the pipe, then everything is filled with a mixture made from cement and sand. After this, crossbars and boards are attached to the posts. The gate is presented as part of the fence, only attached to the supporting stem with hinges.
The next step is to paint the posts and boards. In order for a fence made of picket fence to last longer, it is necessary to treat it with a composition that provides protection against mold and fungal diseases. After this, a coloring composition with a base of alkyd resins and mineral pigments is applied. This combination helps to protect the wood from rotting, while the natural texture is completely preserved. If you follow the steps correctly, everything will turn out very simple and beautiful.
Building a fence for the front garden is not difficult. It is important to provide proper care for it in order to maintain its good appearance longer. It is useful to follow these tips:
- wood materials absorb moisture well, so the elements should be installed in such a way that they do not touch the ground (preferably at a height of more than 15 cm);
- Renew the picket fence once every 3-4 years, and the color of the fence can be changed;
- Over time, the wood dries out, cracks appear on it, requiring repair - you can carefully cover the damage with putty, then rub it with sandpaper and paint.
What plants to use for the lawn
How to make a front garden with your own hands without using expensive materials and difficult-to-use construction techniques? Plants can help most with this. They should be selected based on the general style of the planned composition, depending on its type, how it is intended - for a practical or decorative purpose.
If you are going to plant shrubs or trees in the front garden, you should know that spreading fruit varieties are most suitable for placement in the backyard. In front gardens, it is better to plant standard plants, crowns formed on an even trunk. Raspberries, gooseberries or currants look unusual - they can become a neat decorative touch that adds sophistication to the appearance of the front garden. It is better to purchase a properly designed tree from a nursery - where specialists grow them in compliance with all the secrets.
It is convenient to make a hedge from shrubs and trees with a small height. Rosehip, hawthorn, and barberry are suitable for this. With the help of delicate flowers in the spring, the area near the house takes on a wonderful appearance, and in the fall it is enlivened by foliage and bright fruits.
Cone-shaped and spherical coniferous trees help create beautiful compositions of geometrically correct shape. They should not be planted in large quantities, otherwise the landscape will be overloaded with similar silhouettes and will lose its attractiveness. Exceptions are possible only when making hedges - trees are planted in front of the facade in a row or distributed along the perimeter of the site.
To install such a fence, you need to choose breeds that can easily tolerate regular haircuts. It can be yew or boxwood, thuja, dwarf spruce. Tall trees are not suitable for decorating a local area: after a while they will cover both the house and the nearby compositions with their crowns.
How to give a flowerbed individuality?
It’s hard to imagine decorating a front garden in front of a house without flowering plants. If the climate of your area allows, it is best to arrange a flower bed of continuous flowering. She will be able to please the eyes from early spring until late autumn. Decorative flower beds are also used, which are decorated with stones or placed in flowerpots made of wood or clay. To make your flower beds more original in appearance, combine planted flowering plants with wooden figurines, crafts made from auxiliary materials, and rocky slides. Peonies and hollyhocks, roses, asters, dahlias and phlox look great against a general green background.
To zone or add spice to the fence, it is appropriate to use climbing plants. You can plant clematis and honeysuckle, wisteria, campsis, vines or climbing roses along the trellises. They can create a beautiful green screen in a short time.
Of course, it is not necessary to design front gardens using traditional techniques.
You can combine design techniques, stylistic nuances, and materials.
The basic principle is that the site's appearance should be in harmony with the building and look attractive.
The calling card of any estate is the area between the fence and the house, called the front garden. Now this is no longer just a flowering bed, but a specially designed area with a specific decor, which serves as a kind of aesthetic fencing of the property. This article will tell you how to properly design a front garden in front of your house, create a beautiful fence, select plants, and make the area pleasing to the eye and arousing admiration among passers-by.
A well-groomed and tastefully decorated front garden near the house is an original addition and decoration of the estate. In addition to beauty and joy, it performs a number of functions:
- convenient approach and access to the house;
- space for installing mailboxes and garbage containers;
- a buffer zone between other areas on the side and behind the house;
- vehicle parking area;
- aesthetic fencing of the house from prying eyes;
- implementation of hobbies for fans of landscape design and lovers of growing plants;
For many, designing a front garden in front of the house seems like a difficult and troublesome job. This task seems especially incomprehensible to those who are trying to create something supernatural and pretentious. At the same time, minimalism and simplicity become the key to success. The basic rule is a successful combination of components: design of the house, choice of fence and selection of plants.
The beautiful design of the site, first of all, depends on the taste preferences and imagination of the owners. You should approach the work responsibly: prepare thoroughly, compare your desires and capabilities, stock up on patience, materials and time. The process will not take a couple of hours or even a couple of days, and the actual material costs may be many times higher than expected.
The main elements and stages of creating a front garden with your own hands
Beautiful design of the territory involves a harmonious combination of a number of constituent elements, including plants, fences, paths, and decorative items. Based on this list, the stages of creating a front garden emerge, in particular:
- planning the future site;
- choice of style and idea;
- selection and acquisition of plants;
- design of paths;
- installation of fencing and fences;
- tree planting;
- creating flower beds, flower beds, lawns or beds;
- decorative design of the front garden;
- installation of functional elements: mailbox, garbage collection containers;
- creation of a recreation area (if there is a territory).
The listed stages are advisory in nature. Their sequence may also be different and depends on how it is more convenient for the owners to plan their actions. For example, by making a fence you can start work or, conversely, finish the entire process.
The chosen idea must be depicted in the form of a plan before its immediate implementation. Its absence may lead to certain shortcomings that will be difficult to eliminate after planting. It is better to make a plan in accordance with the scale; chart paper will help with this.Helpful advice!
Stages of planning a front garden near a house
Work on decorating a front garden should begin, first of all, with planning. In this case, it is necessary to take into account the following factors:
- Land area. This criterion is of fundamental importance, since it will simply be impossible to create certain compositions in a small area, and some flower bed models may get lost in a spacious area.
- Time. It should be taken into account how much time the owner will spend not only on creating the front garden, but also on its constant maintenance. The landscaped area requires constant attention. The range of plants depends on this.
- Material resources. Seeds and seedlings of beautiful elite flowers, bushes and trees are not cheap. You need to think about where it is more profitable to buy them. This also applies to materials for a high-quality fence or paths.
- Seasonality. It’s one thing if the front garden is located near the house where they permanently live, another thing if it’s a summer house or dacha where they come periodically.
- Location. The cardinal directions play an important role, since a small front garden on the north side will be excessively darkened, and on the south, on the contrary, it will be exposed to the scorching sun. This affects the range of plants.
All of these factors must be taken into account before deciding how to design the front garden in front of the house. You should also not forget about the style and general idea.
Front garden in front of the house:types and style
When creating an ideal front garden, it is important to know its main types, take into account its purpose and role. There are two main types of home garden:
- open;
- closed.
An open front garden is an area consisting mainly of lawn and flower beds, separated by paved paths. Such an area contains a minimum of plants from the tree and shrub group. Openness creates good review home and surrounding area. The name of a closed front garden is due to the presence of a fence, which can be in the form of a hedge or in the form of small architectural forms. The choice of the type of site depends on the preferences of the owner: closed is recommended for those who love peace, solitude and silence, open - for those who like to be in front of everyone.
Each owner of a local area, when creating a front garden, must have his own idea and concept, based on which a specific style solution is formed. Here you can give full rein to your imagination, plant your favorite plants, without forgetting about a sense of proportion. You can find many design options on the Internet, using photos of the front gardens near the house as a sample.
Helpful advice ! If you plan to set up a front garden near a residential building, you should consider planting evergreens to decorate the area in winter. Particularly pleasing to the eye are small thujas, fir trees, as well as euonymus, honeysuckle or boxwood.
Style and design landscape in front of the house
Depending on the type chosen, the style and design of the front garden is selected. Some prefer classics, others prefer modern or country. More details about each below.
- Country, or rustic style, is very common due to its simplicity and originality. A popular design method is to plant perennial plants surrounded by a low wooden or wicker fence.
- The Asian front garden is usually decorated with mixborders, which are planted with perennial flowers with discreet colors. Small coniferous plants are perfect. The presence of tiers is ensured by the delimitation of exclusively natural stones: this style does not allow other materials.
- Mediterranean design includes the presence of mobile objects. Plants are planted in specially designed tubs and containers. In such a front garden they usually create a relaxation area with sun loungers and tables made of natural wood. Crafts, figurines, and lanterns serve as decoration.
- In the romantic style, the main emphasis is on vegetation, embodying beauty and sophistication. Complemented by forged fences and arches with climbing plants.
- Contemporary style includes original and exotic plants that can be shaped. Particularly popular are trimmed boxwoods or larch. The composition is complemented by paths made from screenings and natural stones.
- Japanese style involves a combination of natural stones with coniferous plants. Flower beds are planted with perennial crops, such as daylilies, irises or cereals.
It is quite difficult to maintain a specific style on your own, without the involvement of designers. Among other things, this requires certain financial costs. Therefore, quite often owners prefer a combination of several (usually two) styles.
Front garden design in front of the house:selection of plants and landscape elements
In order to facilitate the care of flowers and ensure their normal development, you need to consider several principles for choosing plants for the entrance area of the yard:
- the exactingness of flora representatives to care;
- compatibility of plant species and varieties with each other;
- germination time, flowering period and duration;
- decorative characteristics after the plant has flowered;
- resistance to cold and frost;
- lifespan (flowers and herbs can be annual, biennial or perennial).
The ideal design of a front garden depends on the competent selection of landscape elements and their harmonious arrangement on the site. The main ones on this list are lawns, flower beds, trees, shrubs, beds and paths between them.
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What materials are best suited for the job. Instructions, descriptions and photo examples.
The lawn is the most popular and beautiful element, as it fits into almost every style and can highlight any composition. At the same time, its creation and care require some effort.
Helpful advice! A “lazy” alternative to a busy lawn in a free-style garden can be a regularly mowed lawn.
Depending on the style, flower beds can look like a front flower bed or be located along the fence. The main thing here is not to overdo it, since an excess of flowers in the front garden leads to their merging, which gives it a confused look.
Even the smallest area should contain at least one tree or a couple of bushes. These plants are able to give the area the desired volume. You can create several garden beds in the front garden, arranging them in the form of flower beds, and plant them beautifully with herbs, cabbage or tomatoes.
Beautiful do-it-yourself front garden: plant selection
Plants are a key component of the front garden; beauty and the manifestation of a certain style primarily depend on them. Most often, owners give preference to perennial flowers that frame ornamental shrubs and trees. Among the shrubs, the most popular and practical are juniper and its subspecies, boxwood, and various varieties of barberry.
Typically, standard trees are planted in front gardens, since flower arrangements can be arranged around them. Norway maple and varieties of thuja belong to this series of woody plants.
Among flowers, preference should be given to crops that will not allow flower beds to lose their decorative qualities over a long period. For example, in April, daisies, violas and forget-me-nots actively bloom. In May they are replaced by daffodils, tulips, pansies, and with the arrival of summer the flower garden is decorated with peonies, carnations, irises or lilies. At the end of summer, petunias, phlox, marigolds and dahlias look beautiful in flower beds. Throughout the autumn and until frost, asters and chrysanthemums will decorate the garden.
Vegetable crops and flowers for the front garden need to be intelligently combined with each other, taking into account the compatibility and individual characteristics of the plants, and paths, fences and decorative elements will help create a beautiful design.
Paths and front garden fencing: features of choice
Not a single front garden, even the smallest one, can do without paths. Properly designed and consistent with the same style, they help unite the territory into a single whole and serve as a demarcation between flower beds and lawns. Various materials are used for paths. The most popular of them are screenings, paving slabs, broken brick or stone.
To divide the territory, you can use hedges made of bushes. They serve as a frame for paths, flower beds or different zones. To highlight the flower beds, special fences are used for them.
Photos of fences for front gardens, of which there are many on the Internet, indicate that most often fences are installed from natural materials. Wood and metal products are very popular due to their luxurious and beautiful appearance, although their cost is not affordable for everyone. They also use plastic, stone, and living plants. Style and originality are emphasized by low and neat fences for the front garden.
Helpful advice! When creating a monoflower in the front garden, it is necessary to take into account the flowering period of different species. A rose garden is an ideal option, since the variety of varieties allows this crop to bloom from spring to late autumn.
Fence for the front garden: types and materials
It is the front garden fencing that creates the first impression, so special attention should be paid to the design of this element. When choosing a material for making a fence for your front garden with your own hands, you should consider several factors:
- aesthetic characteristics;
- lifetime;
- features of care;
- the ability to independently process the material;
- availability of special tools and fastening parts;
- production time;
- the cost of the material itself and other parts.
In choosing a fence, as well as other elements, the general idea plays a key role. So, a wrought iron fence is suitable for a romantic style, a wattle fence or a wooden fence is suitable for a rustic one. Stone fencing is used for... Let's take a closer look at each of them.
Let's start with a natural hedge that is created by the plants themselves. There are three nuances to consider here. Plants should be unpretentious and have a lush crown. The correct distance between seedlings must be ensured. The hedge needs to be watered, fertilized and trimmed on time.
Another natural hedge made of wicker branches does not require special care. It is better to use willow twigs or other trees with long flexible branches. To create a wicker fence for a front garden with your own hands, the branches are first steamed in order to give them maximum flexibility. Next, stakes are driven into the ground, and branches are woven between them in a random order.
Metal and forged front gardens. Photos of designs
A metal front garden is characterized by increased strength and durability, especially if it is forged metal. It is not afraid of the most unfavorable weather conditions and mechanical stress. Additional advantages are reliability and ease of maintenance. It's hard to get through such a fence. In addition, it does not require mandatory annual painting. The variety of colors and shapes will also please those who prefer forged front gardens.
Wrought iron fences are divided into several types, based on their main function:
- The protective ones consist of solid sections that are connected by welding. Decorative elements are attached to the spans with special connections.
- The decorative appearance is more attractive, but it is made exclusively in a forge by experienced specialists according to individual drawings, using special equipment for connecting parts with clamps and tabs.
- Combined models combine the first two types. They are produced using twisting, bending, soldering, rivets and clamps.
A front garden made of corrugated sheets is a modern design, the main task of which is to protect the site from atmospheric influences. Additional and integral elements of a corrugated fence are a frame of posts and purlins for fastening. The advantages also include:
- ease of use;
- good sound insulation;
- modern design;
- wide choice of colors and shapes.
Helpful advice! When choosing between wood and metal, preference is often given to the latter material, since metal, unlike wood, does not require additional protection from external influences. You don't have to paint it every year.
Picket fences-fences for the front garden. Photooptions from different materials
The appearance of a metal picket fence depends purely on the idea of its manufacturer. To create a beautiful front garden with your own hands, prepare the pillars and dig them into the ground at the same short distance. Next, planks are attached to the pillars, and metal or wood is placed on them. The appearance depends on the location of the elements at the top of the fence. The picket fence can be placed horizontally, vertically and even diagonally.
A front garden made of Euro picket fence is practically no different from the classic material, but at the top the fence is provided with a horizontal cut or the top edge is made rounded, the end is covered with a horizontal bar. Rolled edges are a must. In addition, each part must be molded during special processing.
To create a picket fence, a corrugated pipe is now often used, the main advantage of which is the ability to take any shape. For this purpose, short sections of pipes are used. The strength of the fence depends on the thickness of this part and its size.
A traditional and at the same time easy to use, affordable material for a picket fence is wooden boards. Wood can be used to realize various design ideas. This material is also easy to install and inexpensive.
Fences made of concrete and stone require a professional approach to manufacturing and construction, although these types of fencing are typical for many styles and create a good appearance and reliable shelter.
How to decorate a front garden with your own hands: decoration examples
The main decoration of the front garden is plants, but decorative elements in the form of small architectural forms, which include:
- trellises, stands and ladders for climbing plants made of wood, metal or plastic;
- garden clay, wooden or metal figurines that you can buy or make yourself;
- gazebos, tables, benches that have practical and aesthetic functions;
- flowerpots, flowerpots and barrels with plants;
- artificial reservoirs and;
- decorative lanterns;
- stone boulders that will smooth out elevation changes.
In the question of how to decorate the front garden, imagination and available materials will help. It is recommended to create many decoration elements with your own hands (at minimal cost). For example, you can design flower beds using old tires or plastic bottles, painting the potential material in different colors.
Properly selected decorative elements will help give the front garden completeness, harmony, place accents and zone the area.
Important! When using additional elements, you need to remember a sense of proportion. In a small area, it is enough to arrange one thing, for example, build a rock garden or install a pergola entwined with roses.
Thus, when designing the area in front of the house, it is important to adhere to the chosen style, which will ensure its aesthetics. You also need to use high-quality seeds, seedlings and decorative materials. It should be remembered that decorating a front garden is a creative process that should not be burdensome, but rather bring pleasure and joy.
The space enclosed by a fence in front of the house is usually called the front garden, and the fence itself is called the palisade. This territory involves the organization of flowering flower beds, as well as the design of a path that leads to the house. There may be a decorative arch or a compositional solution made of stones and low trees. In short, this is a field for extensive imagination and creativity. With diligence and care, you can create a charming front garden yourself.
A cute front garden will help add charm to your home.Choosing your front garden
The areas in front of the house vary in type; it is important to know these features when planning the design of the front garden in front of the house. In landscape design, according to the degree of openness, front gardens are divided into two types:
- Open, i.e. without a fence. There are no fences between the site and the roadway. With this design of the area in front of the house, a lawn is usually planted, which is complemented by a flower bed and a path to the house.
- Closed, i.e. fenced off from the roadway by a fence (made of brick, wood, stone, metal mesh, etc.).
When the front garden is open, both from the roadway and from the yard, everything that is present in the front garden is clearly visible. In this case, there cannot be high fences. If the area in front of the house is surrounded by a high hedge or fence, this is an example of a closed front garden.
To plan your front garden, you can take any style as a basis: romantic, rustic, Japanese, Mediterranean. In this case, the surrounding environment will be of great importance. The front garden can be organized next to the parking area located near the house, you can make it a “satellite” of the garden path that leads to the house, and also place it against the backdrop of a fence or wall of the house.
Each front garden has its own style
Design Tips
In landscape design, the entrance area is given great importance, because it is the “face” of your property. A small area may well be an excellent front garden. It's all about choosing the right plants.
If, when planning the territory, it is determined that most of the space from the fence to the buildings is sown with lawn, the front garden is transferred to the porch area. A harmonious combination of a paved path, porch decoration and a flowering front garden will help create a unified mood. The style in which the entire composition will be performed will depend on the architecture of the buildings.
The picturesque front garden near the porch will be well complemented by climbing plants. It is better to choose from wisteria, campsis or common honeysuckle. This green background will refresh the walls of the house and will also highlight flowering plants. The porch can be decorated with hanging plants, which can be conveniently hung in pots. The composition will acquire a fairytale mood thanks to the use of lavender and hydrangea in the design.
Of course, roses will give a picturesque look to the front garden. A decorative arch next to the gate or a pergola entwined with climbing roses will be a wonderful addition to the overall picture. During the flowering period, roses will fill the yard with their delicious, attractive aroma.
Plants in the front garden go well with the fence
Landscape designers today offer an alpine hill and even a pond and rock garden as ideas for decorating a front garden. Planting tall shrubs and trees in a small area is not entirely correct, but dwarf species of coniferous trees will look great in a small front garden.
Quite simple but useful tips will become the starting point in your boundless creativity. Taking into account the design subtleties, you will be able to create unique beauty on the site in front of the house with your own hands and cope with this task no worse than design professionals.
Let's do it ourselves, decorate with our hands
The desire to decorate the front garden is not difficult to realize. To implement ideas and plans you will need persistence, some patience and time. The design of a flower garden in front of the house requires ideas, and if there are none, then inspiration is easy to awaken by looking at the designers’ work in the photo.
The front garden fence is a decorative element
The low fence doesn’t cover anything and doesn’t let strangers in
The presence of a fence near the front garden indicates its completeness. Undoubtedly, there is a grain of practicality in a high stone fence, but there is little beauty in such a structure.
Quite often, a fence made of galvanized mesh with a green PVC coating is chosen for the front garden. This mesh is durable and easy to install. If the fence is high, it will be a good barrier for hooligans, but will not cover the flower beds and other decorations located behind it.
Practical fence made of galvanized mesh with PVC coating
A dense hedge is an interesting design option. What trees are suitable? Choose thuja or boxwood snowberry. A luxurious wrought iron fence will, of course, add elegance, but the classic option is still a wooden picket fence.
An important part of the decor of the area in front of a private house is the path to the entrance. When designing it, take into account the style of the architecture of the buildings and the entire site as a whole. A long path looks better when it is winding.
A successful addition - decoration elements
Flower beds in the form of baskets of flowers - a gift to the household
When selecting accessories when decorating the front garden, it is necessary to take into account the overall style of the house and its surroundings. You should not overload the essentially insignificant area of the front garden with an inappropriate variety of delights. When choosing decorations for the front garden, you can choose a garden sculpture made of polystone or wood, a large stone, an interestingly designed gate, or something else that you especially liked.
Lamps will help make the landscape more harmonious. They will add special charm and mystery to your property in the evening.
There are countless opportunities to decorate your front garden with your own hands using available materials. They can be made from old car tires, plastic and glass bottles, or any other old items. We demonstrate only one of the many options described in our articles.
Undoubtedly, plants play a major role in the overall theater of action. They must be selected very carefully and scrupulously. It is the flowers that determine the main accents.
The best decoration is plants
The choice of plantings for the front garden is made based on the design style of the entire territory of the site. Let's give some practical tips on design rules so that the final picture becomes attractive and harmonious:
- When placing a flower garden next to a building, take into account the color of the building's walls when selecting plants.
- Walls covered with bright paint go well with plantings of neutral colors.
- With nondescript and dark walls, flowers can be bright and expressive.
- When the front garden is small, you should not choose plants with large foliage and rich colors. This choice will narrow the space and give the plants an intrusive appearance. This choice is more suitable for large front gardens.
- For small flower beds, choose flowers in cool lilac, lilac, and blue shades. When purchasing plant seeds for decoration, choose varieties with light leaves.
- You can visually expand a small front garden in front of the house by allowing climbing plants spread over the surface of the walls of the house.
- Plants with bright colors will be an excellent addition to the modest architecture of the house.
- In the case where the facade of a private house has bright decorative elements, the adjacent area should be decorated in calmer colors.
Bright plants look great against a neutral wall background
Specific conversation about flowers
It is better to choose perennials. Ornamental trees and bushes would also be appropriate. Stop at the common juniper or one of its species - evergreen boxwood, common barberry and others.
Standard tree species will be the best option for a front garden. Flower beds can be arranged around their trunks. For such purposes, a standard thuja or a thuja in the form of a ball is ideal.
When planning, try to choose those flowers that will bring you joy with their bloom all year round. Excellent options would be forget-me-nots, violas, primroses, and perennial daisies.
Daffodils begin to bloom in May, and peonies, irises, tiger lilies and Turkish carnations will bloom in mid-summer. Subsequently, marigolds, ampelous petunias, cultivated nasturtiums, chrysanthemums and phlox should be planted. In August, blooming asters and late-blooming chrysanthemums will delight the eye.
When choosing plants, consider in which direction of the world the front garden is located. The northern location obliges you to choose plants that tolerate shade well - for example, mosses, hostas or even ferns.
Winter and summer in the same color
Conifer flower beds serve as decoration regardless of the season
It’s wonderful that a front garden can delight you both in spring and autumn, and also remain attractive at any time of the year. This is easy to achieve by planting conifers and trees with brightly colored trunks and branches, such as barberry or maple, on the area near the house. Planting such plants will make the winter flower garden lively and cheerful.
The surface between bushes and trees that is empty in winter will be covered in spring with flowers of annuals or perennials. Choose chrysanthemums, cereals, bulbs, daylilies or asters.
Decorating a front garden in front of your house with your own hands will be quite easy and pleasant if you take our tips into account when creating it. The work will bring you a lot of positive emotions, and the final result will please not only you, but also those around you.
Finally, my friend and her husband moved to live in a private house. And although it is not very big, it is spacious and sunny. But most of all I liked the front garden in front of the house! I admired it for a long time and thought that I could make an interesting design for the front garden to create a cozy atmosphere near my country house, but after seeing the ideas that Dutch landscape designers presented at the garden exhibition, I understood exactly how to decorate the front garden.
All the options are simply amazing! Moreover, most of them can be implemented even by someone who has never been involved in gardening.
Front garden design in front of the house
Get acquainted with 14 ideas of what a front garden near a house or cottage could look like so that the mood is always fabulous. Pay attention to number 7, because this is exactly what I have been dreaming about for so long!
Options for decorating the front garden in front of the house.
The important point is that a harmoniously designed beautiful front garden can serve not only as decoration, but also to hide architectural errors and defects, and this is useful. To do this, it is better to make a flower bed with different types of flowers of any size. This way you will create a garden composition that will decorate your front garden.
Flowers are an important element of landscape design, so before planting trees and vegetables on the site, you should think about where to leave space for the flower garden.
Front gardens and various flower beds will enliven the area. You should not immediately take on complex compositions. Decorating a front garden requires skill.
The most common geometric shapes are the circle and the oval. They make up the most beautiful flower arrangements, starting from the outline of the structure and gaining strength towards the central part.
Let the fans of the languid ones forgive me lush roses and other charming flowers, but the only thing better than a hydrangea in a summer cottage is another hydrangea!
Growing hydrangea in the garden is an artistic and creative process, when you feel like the creator of the Garden of Eden and the creator of His Majesty’s beauty.
And I will definitely show this to my friend - I know she will definitely be delighted with these delicate bushes of pink roses in combination with a white fence. Here's how to decorate your front garden gracefully and stylishly.
And here it is - the idea of my dreams. Beautiful flowers and a bridge - what could be better!
An idea for those who have very little space in front of the house, or for lovers of minimalism!
Border tape for beds: flower beds with beautiful, convenient and simply look great. In this case, low-growing plants are planted near walls or along paths.
The site is selected so that the plants receive lighting for at least five hours a day. It is better to choose a sunny place without drafts. Lawn grass and weeds must be removed from this area.
Another unusual and very creative idea! With such vertical structures, flowering front gardens around the house with your own hands will simply shine.
Having decided to plant a beautiful flower bed on your site, it is worth remembering that a flower garden can combine all the elements of landscape design into one whole.
At first glance, it seems that creating a beautiful flower bed is very simple, you just need to plant flowers in the garden bed in the usual way.
However, you will have to work hard and show your imagination. But then you can get an amazing result; the flower bed in the front garden will please the eye and create a good mood.
Or you can make a flower garden from building blocks. Depending on how the blocks are painted, you can create completely different designs: from strictly black to fun colored mosaics.
Flowers decorate our lives and make it much brighter and more colorful. Every housewife tries to plant flowers in her garden or summer cottage so that they please the eye and lift your spirits.
To make your flowerbed unusual and unlike any other, I suggest you familiarize yourself with
Don’t be afraid to bring the most unusual garden ideas to life, and then you will be able to realize yourself and turn your flower garden into a fabulous place.