What do you have at the front of your house

[whoknewthat]

The front of my house is very bare.

I have one small black granite planter by the front door (35cm x 35cm) which is currently empty.

I have a very white double fronted house with the front door on the end (an extension to the double frontedness iyswim).

So what do you have? How many?

Am thinking bay/olive tree but they seem to be very expensive.

Will a colourful more 'container' arrangement look out of scale?

Thank you, that's helpful. How big is your granite pot?

We have a rather lovely Magnolia on the front lawn so I'm happy with that.

Maybe a bay tree by the front door and something in the middle, between the 2 bay windows?

I've got a rather too large magnolia (pic on profile) I love it but its getting disproportionate. It is doing its full blossom thing right now, looks gorgeous in this sunny weather.

Wisteria that has only ever had 1 bloom, last year, after planting it 7 years ago

I love Wisteria. but we have nowhere to plant it

I have a house much like Bibbity's. The front garden is all paved and I have in various pots: standard bay tree with twisted stem, climbing rose underplanted with euphorbia and ophiopogon nigrescens (black grass), bamboo, lots of tulips. The pots are all big and heavy, to prevent them being stolen by local scallies drying out or blowing over.

Right. Think I'm going to have to fork out for a bay tree aren't I.

They were £90 in our garden centre

Tall bay trees £30 each at local Morrisons or 2 for £40. Bargain!

In the spring I grow loads of bright red geraniums in pots and scatter them in clumps around the front. They always make me smile.

Magnolia stellata, Phyllostachys nigra (getting too big now), clematis x 3, salvia and lavender. Lots of bulbs and carex.

People around here like the following in pots

Azalea
Hydrangea
Twisty or roundy pruned box
Huge geraniums

I have been looking closely lately and this is what I have observed
The hydrangeas work particularly well and look v classy IMO

My front of house is also my back garden.The house is built against a mini cliff so there is no room for a back!.Consequently i have numerous pots full of scented bulbs.a long border,a hot border and a white border and a 110 year old oak tree and a private patio at the side for sun bathing [so i do not meet the local mp-when i am in my bra and knickers as happened one summer when he came avisiting the neighbourhood].

My front garden is lovely and sunny (unlike the back) but not very private. I've quite a lot of pots, small ones at the front which tolerate drying out - alpines and such, quite a few edibles - herbs and lavender, hostas, veronica, strawberries. DD has a trough that I let her pick the plants for...it's colourful if not stylish! I have a very sunny, sheltered corner which I might grow some tomatoes in this year.
We've also got a teeny lawn and a bench, and a wide border alongside the parking spot with a medlar tree, a rockery, lots of ground cover and rosemary and a fledgling hedgerow at the end.
DH is not a 'less is more' when it come to the garden.

A dead bay tree

It died last year, 2 cold winters = RIP,
It's got bulbs flowering round it, but when they are finished it's going to the great compost heap in the sky.

How do you aficionados of bay trees keep them healthy? Mine, like its predecessor (RIP), is starting to look rather pale and sickly.

Do Bay trees need a bit of protective fleece on over the winter?

3 big wheelie bins and a shed. And a washing line. It's a rented house.

two loosely espaliered chaenomeles (quince) either side of a central window, they're fantastic at this time of year as they are early to blossom and do so with an abundance of pinkish red blooms. bay can be difficult to keep well and are a bit everywhere - they do make for a very smart look flanking a door but we were after something a bit looser but still trained as we have minimal space.

I have a Prunus Amanogawa flowering cherry (tall and narrow) in the middle of our front garden with borders around. The borders are annoyingly narrow so will probably redesign plot at some point for better effect but at the moment full of lavenders and shrubs.

I think a Magnolia Stellata would look lovely in a big pot as a feature. I also love bay trees and a standard Photinia Red Robin can look really nice as a focal point too.

We have lawns on either side of the path, one side has a holly bush in the middle. There are borders all round the edge, and one side has fruit bushes down the side.

Am considering getting rid of all the lawn and planting it up with little paths through it, as the lawn seems to be 90% moss.

I have a box parterre with roses and tulips, a monkey puzzle, an old magnolia and a huge American red oak and a Viburnum plicatum 'Mariesii' which I am rather in love with. There are shady borders under the trees, and a cottage garden border on the sunny side. I planted the borders and parterre only two years ago so I've been frantically soaking and mulching everything in preparation for the hosepipe ban that starts on Thursday.

Depending on which way your front faces, you could try Camellias in your pots. Nicely evergreen for year round interest with a colourful display in spring. And they are happy in pots.

Nothing :( we get virtually no sun to the front of our house so apart from a pyracantha hedge, a clematis and various wheely bins it's a bit of a wasteland. I do t mind it though as it means people are always surprised to see the actual garden.

Mine has... some weeds? A bit of grass that isn't meant to be there? Very neglected! It's a 1980's cul de sac, so it's not a pretty house from the front at all :( we have two paved parking spaces, a gravel filled border down the side of that with weeds & grass growing through, then a little bit of gravel in front of the spaces, then a path, then a further bit of gravel in front of the window.

I think I should be doing more - it's south facing and very sunny, but the gravel/tatty plastic underneath scare me a bit! I have no idea what the soil is like underneath.