Janice Cripps | Beautiful Gardens by design
 Front gardensNo garden is too small to benefit from a few well chosen plants |  Containerised planting can make a real impact in the smallest of front gardens |
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 Planting next to the house softens the hard landscaping |  Design drawing for a narrow front garden |
 Box balls in varying sizes provide a strong evergreen framework |  A strong contemporary look which is easy to maintain |
Front gardens
Even though they’re always in public view, front gardens are often sadly neglected or featureless – many are concreted over to provide off-street parking. But no matter how small, there’s always a way to give a front garden back its self-respect. If a hard surface is a must, gravel, decorative paving or a grass surface using reinforcement cells can be good options. And simple containerised planting can make a real statement. Sometimes though, something more imaginative is called for.
The owners of the newly built home, featured in photos 4, 5 and 6 wanted to make more of the entrance to their home and discourage people from parking on their frontage. They had only a narrow, two metre corridor to play with and limited opportunity for planting as they needed to retain the path. To complicate things even more, the planting area contained no fewer than five service points which had be accessible at all times.
I planted box balls close together, leaving access points clear. The ultimate in low maintenance, box needs trimming just once a year and will eventually form a living sculpture of soft attractive mounds, a style known as ‘marqueyssac'.