I'm lacking in inspiration for my front garden!

In front of our house we had nasty concrete slabs and loads of weeds. We have removed all of the slabs etc and turf is going to go down tomorrow

We also want to have a border around the edge and in front of the house, this is where i'm stuck. I have no clue what plants to grow! ideally I want something with a bit of interest all year round and low maintenance.

I also am struggling with figuring out what to plant beneath our lounge window, I don't want to block out any light so would need low level shrubs or something.

I've looked in gardening books, magazines and wandered around the estate but just cannot get inspired.

Any ideas??? it truly is a blank canvas, i'll plant some spring flowering bulbs later in the year but i'm unsure what shrubs to go for.

It's a 1960's semi and the border is about 3m in front of the house and about 6m down the side.

I've attached a pic if it makes things easier. The slabs and stones have all gone and we are replacing the falling down wall with a low picket fence for the meantime and would like to plant some shrubs in front of the fence. The diagonal path is remaining because that was concreted down. We will just clean the path once the turf has knitted. Everything else has gone.

thanks for reading.

 

Hi Hampshire Novice.
When you put your picket fence up I would put a bit of trellis or something at the point between the 2 doors just to give a little bit of privacy there. You could grow a rose, a clematis, sweet peas or honeysuckle up it.

d of interestThe space under your lounge window would be a good spot to grow things in pots. That way you could organise it so that you always had a bit of colour and interest there.

The border between you and your neighbour would be good for your flowering shrubs. They would provide a long period of interest and colour and provide a bit of privacy.
Things like red currant, forsythia, philadelphus,deutzia , are fairly cheap to buy, quite fast growing and can be cut to just about whatever height you like.

I don't know what to suggest for the other border as I can't visualise it. Is that the pavement there ? Can you post another pic once you have your fence and turf in place.
Good luck with the project.

 

Is your heart set on the formal rectangular lawn and border?

Could you try a sweeping curved corner bed near the house- it would set off a lawn very smartly.



Also maybe a small tree in one of the corners nearest the road?

 

Now that is really lovely Melinda.

 

Hi Alice- I should make clear, the above isnt a photo of my own front garden!

I went looking for the image to better illustrate my idea!

Anyone who has seen the photos of my disastrous and laboured attempt at lawn seeding will know in an instant that most certainly is not my lawn!

 

Well here's my three penn'oth.

I'd seriously consider getting rid of that path, even if I had to hire a Kango hammer to break up the base.
In my opinion it's too dominant, I'd want a curved path bending towards the left hand side, it'd open up the main area a lot and not make the garden look as small.

 

Thanks for all of the suggestions, I like the trellis idea between the 2 doors.

Doghouse Riley, I would love to get rid of the path but at the moment funds won't allow it sadly, we're just trying to make it look a lot nicer than weeds and concrete!

I love the curved border idea but worry if it might just be a bit too much work... I have severe arthritis so may struggle to weed and dig out a large border, particularly at the back.

The turf has gone down and it does look instantly better, hurrah, we are just watering it a plenty until it knits before building the fence etc. The concrete slabs had been plonked onto mud, no hardcore so all we had to do was cultivate it a bit and rake it smooth.

 

I'm sure it looks much better already Hampshirenovice. Keep us posted and post a pic to let us see how you are getting on.

 

Geat news about the lawn going down! I second the request for a photo

As for the border, get a neighbours kid to dig it out! The long summer vacation is around the corner and I would have killed for a job like that! Stick an ad in the newsagent's window or ask around.

You can edge the bed with an edging iron

Ive had a google and weeding tools with long or telescopic handles could help you deal with your borders- hoes or one of these things- they have various names.