Make a good impression of your home with an impressive front garden
A front entry garden is the first and last impression given to your friends and to any prospective purchaser when selling your home. So when it’s time to renovate, it’s important to make a good impression and get it right. Front entry gardens can be extravagant and, if size and budget permit, may incorporate pathways, driveways, remote-controlled gates, fences, manicured lawns, mazes, hedges, topiary, lychgates and landscape lighting. However, a front entry garden can also include simpler elements of the above and be much more cost=QUOTE= efficient. A small feature, a few plants and a nice entry path may be all that’s needed to create an inviting and stunning space that works.
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Because of the high cost of mistakes when renovating, today most people engage a landscape architect to provide assistance with external space design. It is important to check the person you are dealing with has good knowledge and experience in this area. Often the cost of a landscape architect can be offset by the savings they may bring when sourcing materials and with their knowledge of good and bad contractors, plus you will end up with a one-of-a-kind product and your time is freed up for other pursuits. The most important considerations when renovating a front entry garden are to integrate and unify the materials with the home, taking into account your lifestyle, budget and the layout and architectural style of the home to create a finished product that enhances the property and adds resale value to the home.
The front of our homes are public spaces and, when renovating, the front entry garden should reflect the house design, whereas a rear garden is often considered private space and the style of the design can be more forgiving and personalised. Typically, the front entry garden has two primary uses: to convey the house to people from the street and to be complementary to the house — to set the house into its environment. Consider how the space can be divided? Is the space large enough for lawn, garden, pathways and driveway or will incorporating too many surface finishes and uses make the space disjointed? Do you want some, all or none of the front entry garden to be paved? A lawn can be cost efficient and can be an adequate way to create a visual space between the house and street but may need some plants to “ground” and soften the house.
As a pedestrian, it is always nicer to enter a property on an entry pathway rather than a driveway and, from a resale point of view, it can make a big difference for presentation. An entry pathway in conjunction with a lychgate through a front fence helps create an overall picture of a stunning front entry garden. When renovating this area the finishes should be complementary throughout all of the external spaces of a property in order to unify it and to avoid a disjointed garden. A continual flow of the same materials such as paving, lighting, planting, outdoor furniture and fencing ensures everything reads as a whole and looks great. Remember, when you are renovating a front entry garden it is the first and last thing that visitors see, make sure yours doesn’t let your home down.
Originally from Renovate magazine, Volume 10 Issue 1
