New Design for the Front Garden

I’m in a bit of a bind. I want to follow permaculture principles and take time before making major decisions about my new garden. But I am also in an odd situation where I have exactly the same layout of our previous garden. In fact, it’s not just an East-West layout, we are sharing the same side party wall and therefore having the sun and shadows fall the same way as the last garden.

These facts are also coming up against me needing to reduce the amount of plants I have in pots, for as the recent warm weather has shown, it’s been a lot of work maintaining them. And I just don’t have the health to keep managing this sustainably from an ME perspective.

The Hot Garden Concept

So I’ve decided to take the plunge and go with the ideas I have for the front garden. To be honest, they aren’t new ideas. I had them for the last garden, I just never got a chance to implement them. And that idea, is to have a ‘hot garden’.

By hot garden, I mean, hot colours. Reds, oranges, yellows. The hot colours will be tempered by a few cooler blues and purples as well as the grasses. I’m choosing hardy perennials, really hardy ones, that I plan to leave to fend for themselves once they have been watered in.

Structure and Layout

The driveway and current paths are grey. I’m getting the hedge alongside the driveway removed. This is to give us a bit more space, particularly when the car is parked and I need to get past it with my mobility scooter. But I’m also adding a bin store for, well, the bins. I’ve chosen one that’s made of wood, which should be reasonably attractive. Eventually plants should help it blend in better.

The hedge along the footpath will be reduced by half, to let in more light, and also because it’s currently out of control. And the beech hedge I share with the neighbour will be cut by about 50cms. I don’t want to reduce it too much. I love the beech hedge but would like it to be just a little less high.

All the grass is going and I’m putting in a path, that is wide enough near the driveway to make it easy for me to turn my scooter around, and then leads to a central circle bed, which is where I’ll be planting my Quince tree. Yes, I’m trying a Quince again. I’m thinking of trying the variety ‘meech’s prolific’, as it should produce fruit a little sooner than other varieties.

Planting Palette

My plant list includes:

• Heleniums such as Dunkle Pract and Waltraut
• Crocosmias including Irish Dawn and Coleton Fishacre
• Geums, Totally Tangerine and Mrs J. Bradshaw
• Kirengeshoma palmata (for the shadier side)
• Grasses including Stipa gigantea and Pennisetum alopecuroides ‘Hameln’
• Hypericum ‘hidcote’ (St John’s Wort)

These will all be under planted with bulbs, from Galanthus and Crocus to Tulips and Alliums. My aim, is to have an explosion of colour all year around. Ok, I’m still working on the winter bit. If you can recommend any bulbs that flower in December, let me know.

This also sounds like a lot of work, right? Yep, it is. And to actually do the work, I’m getting in landscapers to do the landscaping, then Andrea to do the planting. I’ll be using my limited energy wisely, making tea.