Our small front garden.

20 comments

Front gardens don’t seem to get much of a mention on this site, possibly because they are often small and tricky. Ours is no different. Being on an estate we face onto our street with one side about 10ft deep behind a yellow privet hedge, and the other side a mere couple of feet at its narrowest behind a wooden fence.

Wider side

Narrow side.

View to front door:

As these things often are, the narrow border has been a nightmare to sort out. When we came it was just rough grass so we dug it out and planted a lavender hedge which got far too large and eventually had to be removed. Many small shrubs have come and gone, and clematis that gave up with the south-facing aspect. It doesn’t help that we have to trample all over it to weed. Now Mother Nature has presented us with the answer to our difficulties. 3 years ago I sprinkled a very few cerinthe seeds about. Last year we had about half a dozen plants which came up. This year it has turned into a riot of cerinthe and white centranthus which the bees, moths and I love:

The small lilac needs the brown flower heads cutting off !

The other end of this narrow border is more restrained with yellow shrubby potentilla, alliums, rose ‘Tottering by Gently’, golden caryopteris:

The other side of the front door is easier to deal with and also has alliums along with peonies, ‘White Dazzler’, euonymous and self-sown nigella, so not as tidy-looking as I hoped.. We took out the the ‘Jacqueline du Prez’ roses last year as they hated the bed and succumbed to terrible blackspot.
Last but not least the large-flowered clematis that is a joy every spring ‘Gillian Blades’. I don’t seem to have good luck with this type of clematis but she is a gem and I wouldn’t be without her:

‘Pink Hawaiian Coral’

From the front, with small overseer, posing:

28 May, 2023
8 likes

Comments

Seaburngirl

my front garden is by far the bigger of the 2 spaces so it gets more attention. Sadly the back garden and mine! is not as good as it should be.

yours is neat and bijou. Lovely planting Angie. I love Cerinthe.

28 May, 2023

Janey

Beautiful house Ange! You have more of a front garden than mine, I don't have one, my cottage is by the path.
I can see it would be difficult to sort out, but sounds like the plants have sorted it out for you. I can't grow cerinthe here either Julia.
Now is that Maudie watching you?

28 May, 2023

Janey

Meant to say the alliums and peony are fabulous..

28 May, 2023

Sheilabub

Lovely blog Ange … you have certainly made the most of the narrow spaces. Gorgeous Clem!

28 May, 2023

Callie1914

You have a lovely front garden Ange, your plants are beautiful, I am trying to grow cerinthe this years,hope it likes my garden.

28 May, 2023

Ange2

Thanks, Sbg, 'bijou' is a very polite way of describing it!! I certainly feel my garden both front and back is nowhere near as good as it could and should be with all the effort that goes into it!

Glad you like the clematis, Meadow. I can't believe we've got such a good result from a £2 supermarket purchase!
As for cerinthe, I had such a few come up last year, I was completely taken by surprise with this year's growth.. They seemed to take a while to get going.
As far as gardens (and houses) are concerned, I think we very rarely get exactly what we would like..

Thanks, Janey. Yes that is Maudie posing in the last photo and peeking in pic.3. The cats have been following us about while we've been outside in the good weather.

Thank you, Sheila.

Thank you, Callie. Good luck with the cerinthe. I was surprised by this outcome after 3 years from the original seed sowing.

28 May, 2023

Amsterdam

Thank you for showing us your lovely front garden.

28 May, 2023

Daylily

Beautiful :-))

29 May, 2023

Loosestrife2

It was the creativity shown on the small front gardens that attracted me to this site in the first place. Thank you for this wonderful blog!

29 May, 2023

Ange2

Ams, I'm not sure the neighbours would agree, they all have wonderfully manicured front lawns!

Thank you, D'lily.

That's kind of you, L'strife. Perhaps a few other members might be encouraged to put up details of their fronts. It would be interesting to compare notes!

29 May, 2023

Sheilabub

That’s a challenge Ange. I’ll need to do a bit of tidying first …

29 May, 2023

Kate123

Lovely blog, Ange, just that little bit different.
I do love your variety of planting. Alliums and peonies look gorgeous! Big blousy blooms!
Your clematis is a lovely pure white. Maude looks like she's in charge! Quite right too!
I've a small front garden. It used to be a rectangular lawn with a front bed and some central planting. Many, many years ago, we took the lawn out to increase our parking potential for visitors - sad but necessary.
We've still a cobbled bed with some shrubs and a tall mixed hedge in an L shape. We've also a small 'council' strip of grass, teeny tiny in fact. However, us house owners have had to cut this from day 1.

29 May, 2023

Ange2

Interesting, Kate.

Glad you like it, Klahanie. It has been a lot of trial and error for such a small area!

31 May, 2023