British front gardens have evolved significantly over the last few decades as a response to lifestyle changes. The need for increased parking, especially in towns and cities, has lead to huge numbers of people converting front gardens to driveways. This has combined with increased work hours driving a clamour for low maintenance garden solutions in a perfect storm of sterile paved front gardens.
Vast expanses of gravel and block paving resulted.
Front gardens may look neater and more uniform but the detrimental effects are huge. From loss of wildlife habitat and impaired drainage to the impact on the mental and physical health of people living there.
With lockdown suddenly meaning that more people are spending time at home, and exercising close to home, the benefits of greener front gardens have suddenly been thrown into the spotlight. From the visual pleasure they offer to their pollution busting properties – I uncover some of the key advantages of greening your front garden.
Advantages of greener front gardens
Permeability/drainage
As weather patterns become more extreme with much of our rainfall occurring in short bursts drainage is an increasingly hot topic. Planning permission is now needed to pave a new drive of 5 square metres or more if the paving material is impermeable and water run-off isn’t directed into a nearby lawn or border. As a result designing your front garden with a rain garden to act as drainage has become an attractive solution.
Alternatively opting for permeable hard landscaping options from gravel to permeable resin and even permeable block paving solutions can reduce the impact on drainage.
Improve air quality
Green front gardens improve air quality, making them especially valuable in cities. Plants trap both airborne gas pollution and particulates resulting in cleaner air surrounding and filling your home as well as benefiting the area as a whole. Specific plants and trees are particularly good at trapping pollution.
Pines, cypress and yew (Taxus baccarta) are especially good at trapping particulate matter due to the needle like shape of their leaves. And in general plants with hairy or rough leaves have the greatest impact on air quality due to the larger surface area. These include plants such as Hawthorn (Crataegus monogyna), Hornbeam (Carpinus betulus) and Euonymous japonica which make excellent front garden plants either as hedges or as individual specimens.
Lowering temperatures in summer
Plants and trees reduce the temperature in summer both through shading and through the process of evapotranspiration. Anyone who has taken their shoes off to stand on a shady patch of grass on a hot summers day will recognise this. As our summers are featuring increasingly hot periods in this country increasing the planted area around your home could make a real difference. Urban planners are already recognising the importance or greening cities with street planting and green walls featuring in many redevelopment schemes.
Impact on mental health
Spending time in green spaces and even just looking out at them are increasingly acknowledged to improve mental health. So adding plants to your front garden can improve your mood very time you enter/leave your home and when you look out of the window. For those with small or shady back gardens front gardens can also offer another living space with the addition of a bench or seating area. Making your front garden more attractive also gives something back to your local community by giving joy to neighbours and passers by.
Curb appeal
An attractively planted front garden adds value to your property. In the same way that property developers always dress show home with a vase of flowers dressing your front garden with plants is key. The front garden is your houses first impression both for visitors and potential purchasers. With private outdoor space now at even more of a premium this is going to be increasingly important.
Benefit wildlife
From birds to pollinators and other insects front garden planting can significantly improve the amount of available habitat and food supply.
Easy options to green your front garden
Making these changes doesn’t have to involve lots of work/maintenance or reduce parking spaces significantly. Simple additions from planters to gravel gardens can make a real difference.
Planters
Planters offer a simple solution to add planting to an already paved front garden with minimal initial effort. It is worth noting though that in a sunny, south facing position planters may work out to be more effort long term as they will need frequent watering. With an enormous variety of planters available they also provide an easy way to inject an element of design into your garden from traditional Cretan terracotta pots to sleek modern steel planters.
If planting larger shrubs or trees in pots go for the biggest pot you can to provide them with as much root space as possible. this should also help to reduce how often they need watering.
Climbers
In small front gardens or those for which space is at a premium climbing plants can offer a space saving solution. Climbers enable you to shoe horn greenery and flowers into the space with minimal loss of floor space. From the cottage garden style with climbing roses over the door to wisteria clad Chelsea townhouses this is an age old solution to add plants to small gardens.
Hedges
Consider replacing fences or walls with a hedge to inject instant greenery into your front garden while providing an excellent air filter at the same time.
Hedges can inject a formal style into your front garden if tightly clipped but can also be softer and more naturalistic. With the choice of plants such as holly and other thorny plants a hedge can also be a useful security feature.
Gravel garden
Gravel gardens can offer a practical but attractive solution, particularly in hot sunny front gardens. Gravel also has the added benefit of being dual purpose. Allowing parking areas to flow seamlessly into the planting. Areas regularly driven on will need a different sub-base to planting but the seamless design can offer an attractive, natural option.
The gravel will serve to suppress weeds while locking in moisture making it relatively low maintenance.
For garden design services to help you green your front garden please get in touch
