3 Ways to Jazz up your Front Garden

Photo - photolibrary.com

‘There’s nothing half so pleasant as coming home again’ wrote the American poet Margaret Elizabeth Sangster more than a century ago. Here are some great ideas to create that perfect welcome home.

We think she’s just as right today as she ever was, and in a civic-minded effort to banish drab front porches and barren front patches, we declare it The Year of Welcome Home! 

Here we explore three inspirational ideas that might ring the bell (that would be the front door bell!) for you.

  

1. Colour

A new paint job brightens up a tired home. Colour fashions change through the decades, making it easy to update the look of your home. Choose a colour scheme that suits the style and era of your home and blends with the houses in your street.

Make an even prettier picture by matching garden plants to house colours. Here the red shutters complement red roses and geraniums and the pink paintjob gives a quaint unique look. A matching window box takes minutes but its impact lasts an entire season.

 

Romantic roses and pickets. Photo - photolibrary.com

 

2. Entrance

An attractive entrance and fence is a first step in creating a welcome home. The front fence should be lower than side boundary fences. Choose something that matches the style of the house: pickets with weatherboard; rendered brick fence with a rendered brick house; horizontal timber slatted fence with a modern home design.

Match the fence with a gate and even an arbour to complete the look. An arbour brimming with roses makes a beautiful and fragrant transition from the outside world to home.

 

 

The lychgate. Photo - photolibrary.com

3. Window dressing

Boring windows can be livened up with potted colour. A simple weekend job can transform windows and balustrades with flowering annuals such as impatiens, pansies, cineraria and primula. Autumn planting is ideal for these flowers.

 

This arrangement would suit an eastern aspect. Photo - photolibrary.com

 

Text: Linda Ross

 

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