7 great front garden design ideas

Published on 25 August 2021

Your front garden is the first thing you see when you come home and the first thing other people see when they visit you, so it needs to look good. These great design ideas for front gardens will help you make your garden something really special.

How to design your front garden

Planting a small tree is a good way to create a focal point in your front garden. Amelanchiers are a popular choice, with beautiful spring flowers and autumn foliage. Japanese maples (Acer palmatum) have attractive foliage, superb autumn colour and often colourful stems for winter interest. Star magnolia (Magnolia stellata) also works well in front gardens, growing into a small spreading tree with beautiful spring flowers.
Paved front gardens can be both beautiful and easy to maintain but check the regulations first. There are restrictions on paving more than a certain area unless you use permeable paving that allows rainwater to soak through into the ground rather than running off into storm drains. This is important in reducing flash flooding in urban areas. Gravel is a good, low-cost permeable option and can incorporate planting and provide space for car parking, recycling bins and all the other things we need to fit into our front gardens.
Emphasise your front door with a pair of matching pots, one on either side. Go for a formal look with two matching bay standards, or fill the pots with summer and winter bedding as the seasons change.
Restricting your design to a limited plant palette can be very effective in a small area like a front garden. A simple planting scheme using repeated groups of just a few different plants looks stylish and creates an atmosphere of order and calm, just what you want when you come home after a hard day’s work.
Edge pathways with plants that look good all year round. Low-growing evergreen grasses like Carex, Ophiopogon or Festuca are all good options, as are bergenias with rounded leaves and spring flowers. Low-growing shrubs like lavender or hebes add flowers in summer and structure all year.
If your front garden looks a bit dull, add instant colour with windowboxes and hanging baskets filled with summer or winter bedding. A pot filled with spring bulbs at your front door will be a cheerful splash of colour early in the year.
Front gardens can easily fill up with bins, bicycles and other clutter, so install a stylish shelter to provide safe storage and keep your front garden neat. Many storage units also incorporate green roofs so that you can have flowers and space for your bins.