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Hello and welcome to the Successful Garden Design show. As you probably guessed, I am
no longer in Southern Spain, I am back in the UK and barely noticing the difference
in temperature! Anyway, today's show is all about front gardens, and well front yards
for our American viewers. I will show you lots of ideas that hopefully inspire you to
completely transform your front garden. Welcome to the Garden Design show! It's my mission
to demystify design to make it easier for you to create your dream garden. Properly
planning your garden is as vital as properly planning your home. I am Rachel Mathews and
I've been a professional, international garden designer for over twenty years. I am
also a best selling author and I teach garden design online. And we'll also be visiting
inspiring gardens around Europe and beyond and give you plenty of ideas for your garden.
Now this week's episode has come about thanks to Roger. A few weeks back he asked me to
focus on front yards and entrances, so that's what we're going to do today. Now I divide
front gardens into two different types, there is the purely decorative ones, that frame
the front house and there is the more functional front garden that needs to incorporate a drive
and other practical considerations, like a garage and perhaps a bin storage area. When
it comes to designing a front garden, I have some golden rules and my first one is and
this applies particularly to gardens where you need to incorporate a drive, is first
and foremost you must view it as a garden. So if you didn't have to incorporate the
drive or any practical solution, what is it that you, how would you design that garden?
Then once I've made it all pretty, I then go back and rework it to put in the practical
solutions of the drive or bin area, etc. Doing this way around, enables you to create much
more creative and interesting gardens for the front. So I'll now show you exactly
what I mean with a selection of front gardens that I've done and also I've been a little
bit cheeky and I've gone around filming some gardens that I've come across. So this
probably about the most unexciting front garden that you ever wish to inherit. Just tarmac
and and you know there is no place to put plants and actually you can't even tell
which is the front door. Your eye is drawn towards the green one, but that isn't the
front at all so this one was really confusing for visitors. So what we did, we got rid of
that awful tarmac and put down quite of a nice block paver, but also separated the areas
off with a trellis and you'll notice over to the right there is a big curve, a circle
of gravel- now that's an additional car parking space, so we cut down on the cost
of the build it wasn't all brick pavers, but also that's going to have plants in
it. It's going to look quite pretty as well. And then if we look through the trellis area,
then suddenly, because we've angled it, you can see exactly where the front door is.
So there is no confusion. And then the planting overtime, especially the climbers have grown
up, will help soften this area and make it much, much prettier. Now this one is bit of
a building site, on this conversion. Now they were putting a bit of a modern frontage to
it. And it was quite a difference in levels by the time they were finished. What we done
with the steps, in making them come all the way across, really helps link the front of
the house with the rest of the garden and as you can see this is what their view was
before we landscaped. So just a drive running down the side and then the view of the sea
beyond. So then by putting this deck in same level as the house, and then the plants in
the round border there, that just tied in the house with the garden. All the modern
landscaping with the surrounding area. And then at the front of it, there is additional
car parking space. Again this gravel area was going to have lots of ground cover like Alchemilla Mollis
thymes and things that could take the occasional drive over just to soften that landscaping.
But your front garden doesn't have to be fancy. Now this is quite a typical one that's
got a bit overgrown and the lawn has ended up being a bit of an odd shape every time.
They've edged it. So this one is a very simple makeover. What we did was to incorporate
a very simple shape that worked well with the house, and you'll notice it's almost
the same shape as the trellis, the end of the garden there. So it all kind of tied in
and you know nothing incredibly fancy. It's just neat and tidy, but having that one dominant
shape really brings that to front garden together. And this is the view from the other
end. As you can see it was pretty dismal with the weird shape of lawn. And they just pushing
it out the other way with that curve, suddenly makes the area look so much bigger. And taking
out the old shrubs and putting in the new ones. Now it's a little bit stark at the
moment, but as soon as those plants grown back up, it'll look really good and be very
low maintenance for the owners. This is another from garden that's got a little bit old
and tired, and the lawn was sunken down which was causing problems. So what we did was we
raised up the lawn area and actually make the gravel drive a little bit wider so they
could get more cars on. Now the keen eyed amongst you might noticed the gates opposite
have a curve dip in the middle so we borrowed that shape and we used it for the shape of
the lawn and also for that little bite out of the lawn with the cobbles there which eventually
was going to have either a sculpture or an armillary sundial on it. So very, very simple
design again. Similar shape to the last garden. Sort of an eye shape with the grass can make
a world of difference. Now this one a little bit of a building site. What they wanted was,
was a sort of mediterranean sort of style garden, so we used terra-cotta coloured paving
and also to make it more of a garden, we made this interesting path. So the route to the
front door wasn't boring and also they wanted additional parking, so you'll notice the
thymes in the front here. They are so that this area could be driven on and an extra
car put in when necessary. Now they put a path on which could be moved when they need
an additional car, but as you can see it's much more of a garden than it is a driveway.
And this mediterranean style planting with the big gravel and the terra-cotta paving
really lends itself well and over the years it's grown up. Then the big Phormium stops
people looking in the lounge window there, but it's far enough back from the window
to allow the light in. And this is our final driveway one. As you can see it's got a
bit run down. It's an old concrete one with a stepping stone path. So again this is more
of a makeover. We just tidied everything up by getting a defined lawn shape and path
in and redoing the steps and bricks that matched the house and then a nice clay paver for the
driveway, just made this much more cottage-garden looking and just tidied everything up. Now this front
garden definitely too small for a drive. And you might be wondering what on earth can
you do with something this small? Well this was actually my very first house front garden
and I was desperate to grow vegetables cause the back garden was too shady. And I wanted
herbs and as many veg as possible but again I also wanted it pretty, so I put some big
tubs by the front door. Now the climbing frame of the obelisk was covered with runner beans
and then the two troughs next to it there were onions and carrots and lettuce. And all
the other plants, except for the Phormium were herbs and then I had a lovely grape vine
covering the front of the house. Now this front garden was done for low maintenance,
but as you can see it's a bit disjointed with the spattering of plants and gravel and
also there diagonal to the front door, really cuts down on the visual size of the garden.
So we re-landscaped with a lot of paving, because again the owner wanted it to be low
maintenance and we put lots of cobbles down on weed suppressive membrane. Now it doesn't
look very stark at the moment, but as soon as everything grows up, that will be much
softer. And also he didn't want an entire fence around it, but he did want to lineage
his property. So by putting in these wired framed fence around, it just made it clear
which was his without dominating the space and making it look ridiculous. Now for our
next section I am going to be little bit cheeky, and show you some gardens that I secretly
filmed while I've been out and about. Now this first one, I really love- it's a very
simply design. Now it was filmed in the beginning of February, so it would not be looking at
its best, but even so they've got a very simp circle of gravel for parking the cars,
which is framed by this natural stone paver path which just flows out form the main circle.
Now I would guess that this garden is probably only about eighteen months old, but even so
I can see the potential they've got some lovely large coppiced Birch trees. Now they
are very, very good for absorbing all the environmental pollution cause this property
is next to a very, very busy road. And they've also got a Yew hedge that they put in, which
will help with the noise reduction and pollution. So let's have a look at a couple more examples
of front gardens that I've come across on my travel. No obviously this isn't the best
time of year to be viewing a garden, but even so the underlying design principles are what
I want you to take a look at rathe than the fact the planting isn't looking good this
time of year. Now something I see all the time is people putting a focal point of some
description right *** smack in the middle of their lawn, or sometimes it will be just
in a gravel border. Now we'll cover more of this in future episodes, but when you're
placing focal points or anything in the garden, you really need to do it in a way that ties
in with everything else. So, for example it has to have a reason for being. Now this central
piece here, because nothing else in the garden is circular, it doesn't really work. it's
just sitting there in the middle, and it probably would look a lot better had they had it in
a large circle of gravel so that, that circular feature made sense. It sort of worked with
everything else and also this one I can see why they've done it, they basically ripped
up the lawn to make it low maintenance garden, but because they haven't put in a main design
shape, it's looking a bit stark and the central piece doesn't really work. Had they
put some planting around it, just to soften it, and got a main design shape in, then it
would've linked together much better. So I hope that's given you some pointers for
your garden and I also hope that I haven't badly upset the people whose gardens that
I've sneakily filmed while stopping out and about. If you'd like to learn all the
tips and tricks to how transform your garden, no matter what size, shape and style or front
gardens or back gardens, do check out the Main Garden Design course that I teach here
at Successful Garden Design. Now the Great Garden Formula covers all aspects of design
in great detail, so if you're really keen to learn exactly what to do to transform your garden,
this is a great course. There are five modules that walk you though the entire design process
and I share with you my formula that I've developed over the years to make garden designing
so much easier. And it also comes with a survey course and the plant expert, so you'll be
able to know exactly which plants grow in your garden just by looking at the leaves,
but also there is lots of video tutorials that walk you through every aspect of designing.
And as the course is 100% online, you can access the material as and when it suits
you and also on the move as it is all iPad and tablet compatible. And there is also some
extras, there was my interview with the award-winning garden designer and author David Stevens and
also you can download a sample to get a feel and see if it would be the right course for
you. So do take a look at that as it will save you a lot of money getting things right
the first time. Ok, onto our next segment, did you get the answer to last episode's
question? Ok, so the question I asked in the last episode was why didn't I align this
wall here up with this main one at the back? Well, the answer I was looking for was to
create a senses of movement. Now while I wasn't expecting anyone to use that exact term, if
you said it made it more interesting or it made the area feel longer, then you're on
the right line. so you're right, that's what I was looking for. If we'd carry it
right the way along, it would have been a static line across the garden and yes that's
about as exciting as it sounds. Your fence is a static line.So by putting this, and it
only jots back a tiny bit it just gives a sense of movement because is longer than this
area therefore your eye sees it as further away. So it makes the area look longer and
it makes it look more interesting. Now I was so impressed with the number of right answers
and the way that everyone answered. You know really, really good stuff. One actually did
use the term movement. You really, really did understand exactly what I was trying to
do. So well done everybody that left there answers. So it did actually leave me wondering
do you even need a garden design show. All is because you all seem to have a really good
grasp of exactly why things work in the garden. So once again well done and I'll be drawing
a winner today for the person that's won the deck design course so thank you very much
for all your answers. So hope you've found this episode useful and it's given you plenty
of ideas for your front garden. In the future episodes we're going to look at some of
the things you've asked for which is larger gardens, how to place focal points around
the garden and retaining walls and many others. So do keep all your ideas flowing in, and
do please leave your review on iTunes. It really helps get the message out there about
how important design is. So I look forward to seeing you in the next show.
The outtakes. Great this is noisier than Spain! I hope you
found this episode.... full of cockerels! I hope you found...... I might as well fly
back to Spain, it's quieter!