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What to do with my front garden? Ideas welcome

MrDiy88MrDiy88 Posts: 3
in Garden design

Hi everyone! I'm a newbie but glad to be here. I was hoping that this may be a great place to gather some advice about my front garden. Currently my front lawn tapers down. It is an open plan street with no permission for fencing etc but It feels very open and exposed.

I would love some trees to break up what feels like "just green lawn" but didn't want anything that grows too high or too wide perhaps something 12ft high maximum. But i had read that trees need to be suitably placed for the maximum effect and also so as they don't actually make the yard look smaller.

Does anyone have any ideas what they would do with this front garden to make it a better place and somewhere were we would like to visit now and again. We do spend most of our time in the back yard as it is south facing and private but the front gets the sun in the mornings and evenings but simply feels to open at the minute and it simply has no structure to it.

I would be happy to supply any other info required to aid your ideas.

Please see images attached. I had thought about planting a few trees to frame the garden and perhaps with a dwarf circular wall if the tree is planted on the hill but I have little or no gardening experience at all so I welcome your thoughts.

Thanks in advance :)imageimageimageimageimage

Posts

  • treehugger80treehugger80 Posts: 1,923

    I would start with something low along the public path edge, maybe a low hedge, yew might work, I have a rosemary and lavender hedge.

    as for trees I would go for a Himalayan birch (for its white bark) or a rowan (flowers and fruit) and maybe some mid sized shrubs for a bit of interest around the year, something like ceonothus, guilder rose, lilac, etc.

    Last edited: 07 June 2016 11:37:19

  • MrDiy88MrDiy88 Posts: 3

    Thanks for this reply. Apparently our local council said that due to the open plan area that a hedge was not permitted. The other thing was we wanted to keep it low maintenance so it does limit us. I like the idea of the trees and will look into this.

    Thanks for your reply :)

  • BobFlannigonBobFlannigon Posts: 619

    Where are you MrDiy88?

  • MrDiy88MrDiy88 Posts: 3

    I'm in Northern Ireland, always pretty wet lol

  • Busy-LizzieBusy-Lizzie Posts: 23,157

    Crab apples are pretty in the spring and you can make jelly from their attractive fruit in the autumn. An Amalanchier gives white blossom in the spring and Autumn colour.

    Dordogne and Norfolk. Clay in Dordogne, sandy in Norfolk.
  • David WDavid W Posts: 84

    When is a hedge a hedge? You could go with a few groups of shrubs along the border, as long as you have gaps in between them of lawn then they do not constitute a hedge (as long as you are sensible about spacing. This could give the desired effect of being less open/more private.

    cheers

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