What to do Front Garden? Hedges?

Here's a pic of my front garden:

the longest side is 4.5m, front 3.5m and the right side by the door 3.10m upto the door.

I was thinking of some sort of a hedge around the border.

Don't know anything about them though, as in how much it would cost and how hard are they to setup?

Or are they a bad idea and you can suggest a better idea?

 

It all looks quite squeezed,how does the guy accross the way reverse out without driving on your gravel?
sorry on closer look he go forward

 

the "guy" accross is my own car actually...yepp you guessed right, I would drive forward.
Initially I was thinking of turning it to a driveway, but not allowed :(

 

I wouldnt put large shrubs in,i think it would make it look smaller but i dont know the surrounding area,how much privacy you want or how much walking traffic you get up and down

 

It's a little cul-de-sac and the only walking traffic is the 7-8 neighbours getting to their cars.

As the front garden has a slight downward slope, even if I the plant grows upto 1m long, it wouldn't block the window view.

Reason for the hedge was because the stones keep going off to the footpath and gotta clear it up pretty much everyday! So a sort of border really...

 

Welcome to GC kayfaz.

Any hedge you put around the border is probably going to take up a minimum of 3ft in depth, so as Joolz says you will lose ground. You could remove the gravel at the end of the garden and create a border there with perennials that don't take up too much room. On the other hand is a lawn a consideration or a raised bed?

 

yepp didn't think of that...perennials sound very good.

Can I plant them in these planting troughs

and lay around the border?

How hard is it to make a raised bed? Or other alternatives?

 

Sorry kayfaz, I'm not sure how much garden knowledge you have.....perennials are plants that grow year after year without dying. If you put them in those troughs they will take a lot of looking after, keeping them fed and watered.

It's not difficult to create a raised bed, here's a link for ideas.....

https://www.google.com/search?q=rai...AapyoCgCw&sqi=2&ved=0CEwQsAQ&biw=1600&bih=752

The base of the bed would be best left open so that roots have room to spread. Here's my own raised bed (two tier) just after creation a few years back with railway sleepers, and then planted up. It's a bit different to what you would need but it gives you an idea on what you can create simply and cheaply.

 

Parterre perhaps?

Obviously need adapting, but something along these lines:







or something more geometric: