Garden Tour: A Large, Tricky Front Garden Becomes a Quiet Haven
This lush green space is at the front of the owners’ home, so it needed to feel both sociable and private
You might have to do a double take before believing this leafy, secluded and linger-worthy outdoor space really is a front garden. While it’s perhaps particularly large, as well as shielded by high brick walls on two sides, the space still has the usual functional requirements – a car parking area and access to the front door. It also borders a long, thin driveway open to the public, which previously made it feel rather exposed.
Because the owners’ back garden is very small and shady, they wanted this space to be the outdoor area in which they could hang out, entertain and eat with a sense of privacy.
Because the owners’ back garden is very small and shady, they wanted this space to be the outdoor area in which they could hang out, entertain and eat with a sense of privacy.
This plan shows how the front garden is connected to the house and the back garden (not featured here). The white ‘h’ shape is the house and the green area top right is the small, shady back garden.
The areas of green and the decking at the bottom of the plan are all within the front garden. You can see why this was the focus for the clients, as the space is much larger and connects to the kitchen-diner, on the left of the front door, and the sitting room on the right, beyond which there’s a decked eating area. Below that is a lounge area with an outdoor sofa.
A car parking space is hidden behind greenery at the top of the driveway on left of the front garden, while a long, decked path, just the other side of that greenery, leads up to the front door.
The areas of green and the decking at the bottom of the plan are all within the front garden. You can see why this was the focus for the clients, as the space is much larger and connects to the kitchen-diner, on the left of the front door, and the sitting room on the right, beyond which there’s a decked eating area. Below that is a lounge area with an outdoor sofa.
A car parking space is hidden behind greenery at the top of the driveway on left of the front garden, while a long, decked path, just the other side of that greenery, leads up to the front door.
The sitting room opens onto this sunny deck, which was still in good condition from Jane’s initial design, so was retained. “It’s a good-quality cedar deck and has lasted really well,” Julia says. It’s clean-lined and good-looking, with narrow boards.
The planting plan is fairly pared back in terms of colour, featuring lots of grasses, white flowers and flashes of purple.
In the foreground here, in the bed that separates the pathway to the front door from the decked dining area, soft lilac spikes of Salvia ‘Caradonna’ rise above the smaller purple flowers of Geranium ‘Rozanne’.
Across the deck, softening its edges, is the grass Hakonechloa macra, as well as the tall Cornus kousa, which bears small white flowers.
The planting plan is fairly pared back in terms of colour, featuring lots of grasses, white flowers and flashes of purple.
In the foreground here, in the bed that separates the pathway to the front door from the decked dining area, soft lilac spikes of Salvia ‘Caradonna’ rise above the smaller purple flowers of Geranium ‘Rozanne’.
Across the deck, softening its edges, is the grass Hakonechloa macra, as well as the tall Cornus kousa, which bears small white flowers.
This image shows the same view, but as seen from the other side of the path up to the front door, showing how the grasses and geraniums soften the edges.
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Feel inspired to transform your outside space? Read reviews of garden designers in your area in the Houzz Professionals Directory.
Looking across the path the other way, from the dining deck, you can see the family’s parking space. In time, as the planting matures, it will be further screened.
As well as the car, there’s also a public pathway overlooking the space, which stretches from the street right up to the car. So Jane and Julia also reshaped existing yew hedging (Taxus baccata) and planted Ilex crenata – “a good substitute for box”, Julia says – to further boost screening.
“We clipped [the hedging] into shapes, creating cubes and rectangles of different sizes,” Julia says. It reflects the garden’s grid-like design, but in 3D form, which softens the effect. The hedging goes in blocks, so you have layers of hedging broken up, rather than one big section.” A solid ‘wall’ of green enclosing the space, she adds, could have felt overwhelming.
Table, Fermob.
As well as the car, there’s also a public pathway overlooking the space, which stretches from the street right up to the car. So Jane and Julia also reshaped existing yew hedging (Taxus baccata) and planted Ilex crenata – “a good substitute for box”, Julia says – to further boost screening.
“We clipped [the hedging] into shapes, creating cubes and rectangles of different sizes,” Julia says. It reflects the garden’s grid-like design, but in 3D form, which softens the effect. The hedging goes in blocks, so you have layers of hedging broken up, rather than one big section.” A solid ‘wall’ of green enclosing the space, she adds, could have felt overwhelming.
Table, Fermob.
The brick walls behind the sofa, which form boundaries with other gardens, are topped with horizontal cedar slats. The birch trees here are underplanted with more Hakonechloa macra.
The delicate white flowers beneath the arching Cornus kousa tree and mingling with the grasses in the left foreground are Gillenia trifoliata.
You might also like 10 Questions to Ask Yourself Before Designing a Front Garden.
The delicate white flowers beneath the arching Cornus kousa tree and mingling with the grasses in the left foreground are Gillenia trifoliata.
You might also like 10 Questions to Ask Yourself Before Designing a Front Garden.
In the background, the clients’ dining area can be seen through the windows. Next to it, painted blue, is the front door.
The approach to the house from the deck consists of sawn buff sandstone pavers cut into plank form (narrow but long). Between sections of paving, Jane and Julia laid small Scottish Beach pebbles. “[This gravel] has a really soft edge,” Julia says. “The colours are also really soft, with no orange tones. It goes with most types of stone.”
Because the house has large windows, Julia and Jane felt it was important to bring the planting as close to the building as possible, for seamless verdant views every day of the year.
Tell us…
What inspires you about this lounge-worthy front garden? Share your thoughts in the Comments.
The approach to the house from the deck consists of sawn buff sandstone pavers cut into plank form (narrow but long). Between sections of paving, Jane and Julia laid small Scottish Beach pebbles. “[This gravel] has a really soft edge,” Julia says. “The colours are also really soft, with no orange tones. It goes with most types of stone.”
Because the house has large windows, Julia and Jane felt it was important to bring the planting as close to the building as possible, for seamless verdant views every day of the year.
Tell us…
What inspires you about this lounge-worthy front garden? Share your thoughts in the Comments.
Who lives here? A family with two daughters aged around 8 and 11
Location South-east London
Property A detached Huf Haus (a prefabricated home in the Bauhaus architectural tradition) built in about 2010
Garden dimensions Around 17m across and, at its shallowest, 10m deep (the house is an uneven h-shape)
Budget £25,000 to £30,000
Designers Julia Cody and Jane Hamilton of Hamilton Cody Garden Design
Photos by Julia Cody
Julia Cody’s business partner, Jane Hamilton, had been responsible for the original design of this front garden for its previous owners, creating a simple space featuring decking and silver birch trees. “This meant we had a good structure in place already,” Julia says.
Soft, lush planting defines the new look. This was more challenging in some places than others – against the brick wall opposite the house, for example, which is flanked by some of the silver birches. “It’s quite a high wall and the trees are established, making it dry and shady, so it was quite tricky to plant here,” Julia says.
She and Jane chose a mix of shade-loving shrubs, ferns and grasses. Around and in front of the trees there’s Bergenia ‘Harzkristall’, Choisya ‘Aztec Pearl’, Brunnera macrophylla ‘Jack Frost’, with its silvery foliage, and Aquilegia. “They all thrive in shady areas and the Aquilegia is a spring woodland flower.”