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.

Our restricted covenant would not allow raised beds in the front. You could still get away with growing food, but you would have to do it within the confines of the landscaping regulations. For example, I must have 2 deciduous trees so I could choose fruit trees

We have an open lawn like this but the house next door has a fence down their side so when we moved in we fenced the rest of our bit, planted an apple tree and dug out a bed which now has beautiful wild flowers growing every summer. Looks a bit out of place because the two houses the other side of our driveway haven't done anything with theirs. My friend had a similar set up and wasn't allowed to put up fencing though.

I agree OP I've always thought it is strange and sad that even people with lovely planted back gardens have plain lawns at the front (or worse concrete or fake grass). I've always rented so I'm stuck mowing the boring lawn. But I dream of the wildflowers, fruit and veg I'll grow when I have my own garden and since whatever I can afford will be small I had fully planned to make the most of the front garden too so it's useful to hear about restrictive covenants. I'll make sure I rule those out if I ever manage to buy. My home owning neighbours all mow their front lawns in sync on a Sunday morning, before competitive car washing following by 'who can do DIY the loudest' so perhaps it's a special community thing you only find out about when you buy a house in the neighborhood.

Not many people are happy to sit/be in their front garden. It's not private and always seems like a waste of space to me. Better as parking or bring the houses forward and have a bigger garden at the back.

I used to live in one like that. It was a covenant that no fences.

These issues below came and went and came back etc as people moved. Didnt all happen at same time.

Some neighbours just stood at their door and let their dogs out and poo on everyones gardens and did not clear it up.

Then in summer you would get half a dozen teens (we didnt have kids at this point), use your front garden like it was the local park.

And all the other kids would do that in the daytime. Including sitting on our doorstep to play dollies so when we went out we nearly tripped over them. Because the door did not have glass.

There was a period of time where one little girl was always shouting through my letterbox (before we had kids ourselves), nothing bad but it got annoying. Usually 'hello can i come in'.
I usually said. 'Not today thank you.'

I live on a “new build” estate as in built in the last 25 years, all the houses had a restricted covenant regarding fences, trade vehicles, caravans and satellite dishes plus others I can’t remember.

Whilst we do have the odd caravan and trade vehicles as necessary (after about 5 years) plus satellite dishes on all houses (before alternatives were available) nobody has fenced their gardens except those that front the main road where they were included in the build, that is approx 600 properties without fences. Lots of front gardens have bushes/hedges but most are a combination of grass/drive/patio/gravel and the odd plant/tree and are open to the street.

I'd start with a narrow border round the edge.

You could start with daffs and bluebells, while quietly packing it with a hedging plant such as box. You can grow it as a stepover, but it forms a psychological barrier to intruders, and an obstacle to dogs. I have seen it grow to four or five foot, but it takes a long time. You can poke cuttings into the ground every time you trim it, as bought plants are fairly expensive. I have one that is now a foot wide and two feet tall. The leaves are very small so you can use shears or a trimmer.