Leaving front garden as open lawn

[hoorayforharoldlloyd]

Why do people leave these grass spaces just as open lawn and not grow anything specific on them or fence/wall off?

For this property it is specifically listed as a front garden but looks almost separate from the house itself. We are looking at this type of property as a possibility for us and I was thinking we could have raised beds/fruit/something to make it look like a front garden but am always surprised to see them rarely planted on.

I am not allowed to fence my front garden as the front bit has to be left for utilities.
I could fence my side of it but I think it would look stupid, and people would let their dogs poo on it.

Where I used to live the council charged £1800 for permission to fence off. Even the privately owned houses..

Some houses have restrictive covenants that forbid fencing or anything like that.

Ok dog poo would be v off-putting! Is it for access for utilities? How did you find this out?

Hmm, sounds like it could be restrictive covenants. Seems weird. Something to ask estate agents I suppose

It’s in the deeds. We were told by our solicitor.
You also can’t park a caravan on our drives 👍

If every house in the road has a front garden like that, it most likely is a restriction.

I think people don't know what else to do with them - if they're not gardeners they don't see the point in planting them up, as they won't sit out there. I have veg and cut flower patch in mine - it's really useful!

To be honest it's not fencing off that bothers me, it's not making use of the space for growing things

Oh and don't you need planning permission for fence/wall? I believe our neighbours had their refused - if this is the case you could just grow a hedge instead.

Good point @SoupDragon

@Pootles34 that's what I'm thinking of!

I have to say that I would never buy a house like this again. I’m buying a house with a six foot wall around it, and lockable gates.
When you have front lawns like this people think they can walk and play all over your land.

In our case it was in the deeds about what we could do with front gardens. Built dividers very much a no-no. Grown dividers seem to be ok.

Any fences have to be tiny. Like lower than my knee.

One person built a brick wall and had to get retrospective planning permission!

Grown is good.
Built is not.

They might not enjoy or have time for gardening. That just needs a mower run over it to stay looking neat and tidy. Their children might play on it. They might also just like it like that!

There are very few restrictive covenants that can be enforced. Planning permission for a hedge or small fence is unlikely to be needed.

As others have said, restrictive covenants. Ours is the same, although we could have put up a chain link fence within the first 3 months apparently . If anyone was to object to you doing something like hedging or a fence they'd have to complain to the original developer/landowner, so the chances are nobody is going to do that! I would just speak to neighbours casually about your plans and judge from there if your plans are likely to cause an issue

We had one like that. There were restrictive covenants. In that case, access to the front doors was via a footpath/walkway only andfences would have made it feel very constricted/oppressive, so requiring them to be kept open made sense.

Some people had low planting along the boundaries. We planted an apple tree in the middle of ours, which seemed an easy way to make some use of it without needing to spend hours digging a veg patch while providing entertainment to passing youths!

I doubt it's restrictive covenants, caravans and high walls and fences , boundary height, are common but in the few I have read cover to cover there have been none stipulating grass .

more likely people prefer something easy to look after especially if they don't spend time in the front.

If the fence was the restrictive covenant, I’d plant shrubs trees etc. Or even a wildflower meadow.

But if people are renting it out ,or not planning to stay more than a couple of years..

They might prefer to do any recreational gardening in the back garden.
Front garden = grass = 15 minute job to cut it then retreat

Surely it's obvious that some people don't like gardening.

Not everyone likes the same things.

Maybe other people don't understand why you take your car to the mechanic instead of fixing it yourself or buy pictures for your walls instead of painting them.

We have a covenant that says we can't fence in the front garden. The openness is actually quite nice. We can grow whatever we like though and we have a lot of pretty shrubs in a border.

We're not allowed fencing at the front, there's a hedge that was here when we moved in, most of the other gardens are open.

Looks ripe for wild flowers that hill.
So pointless for biodiversity

My MIL has one like this, but with a tree in the middle. She's an excellent gardener so I'm not sure why (and hers is way smaller), but I think she just likes being out in the back garden more.
If I bought the house in the picture, I'd grow a lovely wildlife hedge around the edges.