Help me up my kerb appeal! (Pic)

[Sparklydiplodocus]

Hello all. Before you say anything yes I know the bay tree on the right is kaput and needs to be replaced.

My husband thinks the planted bay trees look a bit spindly and blah here anyway.

There are lots of very smart houses near me with that very minimalist kerb appeal thing of gravel/ window shutters/ couple of bay trees or similar and they all look great. Mine doesn’t look right. Thoughts?

*too

I have a couple of these under the bay window- it helps to ground the house…. Mine have different things in them depending on season, colourful but nothing too exciting.

www.gardentrading.co.uk/garden/gardening/pots-planters-troughs/bathford-rectangular-planter-60cm.htm

Not a huge fan of the bays- they look awkwardly placed

I do think lavender offers amazing bang for buck and can fill a big space in a short time, even from quite small plants. Depending on where you are in the UK it can stay green year-round. Garden Express often does cheap deals.

Fleabane is good for cheap self-seeding colour to fill gaps and flowers right up to November.

I’m lazy and would firmly go down the low-maintenance kerb appeal look of lots of plants rather than the keep it clean upkeep of minimalism.

I would get rid of the bays completely. They are not great!

Some ideas and pictures attached.

Change your front door. The black looks dull and it’s cheap neo Georgian. Get one with glass 2 pane. Have it light blue or grey.

Do you have a path? Ideally a tiled one would complement your house. Do you have a front wall or railings. Get a front gate. It all looks too open and not very interesting.

It is not zoned. I love the diamond shape attached. A central small tree or shrub. Then use planting under to make it pretty. Bulbs in spring and cyclamen in winter for example.

Your house could be fantastic with kerb appeal.

For me it needs cohesion.

Paint the door a beautiful red, and unify the fittings. Keeping the nice brass door fittings but swop out the nickle numbers and light for brass (or maybe a nice shiny black for the light).

The roof of the doorway and the bay waindow need to be the same colour/finish. If you cannot afford major changes right now a lick of paint can do wonders.

Edging on the gravel both up the path, and around the bay window etc. Freshen up the gravel (afer weeding).

The Bay looks sad, and neith this nor that! Either make a circular bed under it with an edge it making it a detminded feature or pot it. You can fake it you know - if you cannot afford an iron/stone urn get a plastic one, and spray paint in a good black. It works! !

All of the above is inexpensie but should make it more cohesive.

Get some cheap faux greenery, won't die on you and you can take it with you easily.

Bung it in a pot. A good tidy/freshen up as others have said will help.

These and bung in a pot instead of hang:
www.amazon.co.uk/Best-Artificial-Boxwood-Hanging-Topiary/dp/B01BDUU8ZC/ref=asc_df_B01BDUU8ZC/?hvlocphy=1007064&linkCode=df0&hvptwo&psc=1&hvnetw=g&hvadid=344274942232&hvpone&hvlocint&hvpos&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl&hvqmt&tag=mumsnetforu03-21&hvtargid=pla-699133155968&hvrand=5474973272862901378

Or these are done:

www.gardeningexpress.co.uk/pair-of-premium-quality-topiary-buxus-balls-with-stylish-contemporary-flared-black-planters?fee=6&fep=14681&gclid=Cj0KCQiAnuGNBhCPARIsACbnLzoBJVbdqHIkRsuHnK9PmkfadOF3JBW17b1UL-WCrqrSRFfGdI8ZHnsaArSrEALw_wcB

I disagree with pp, sorry! Don't get cheap, plastic plants. There are plenty of real plants that are easy to look after and so much nicer for the environment and for you to look at. I agree that any gravel needs to be edged otherwise it just looks like it has been chucked there to avoid gardening!

I’m afraid I’m in complete agreement with @rifling. Plastic greenery never looks good. If you want low maintenance there are plenty of good plants that will fit your brief. Agree that proper edging will go a long way to make things look put together.

Don’t get faux greenery! It’s the complete opposite of kerb appeal.

I would not go for a red door either! It’s a red brick house. I think red doors work with paler bricks but you need a pale grey or pale blue/grey door to illuminate the space. But not the front door you have!

The wall of the bay window looks really water stained. I think it needs some guttering because even if you clean it it'll get damp again.
Then sort out the loose wires, make the door furniture match, get some plants in pots and refresh the gravel. (A nice tiled path would also be nice but isn't cheap)

Another who wouldn’t do faux greenery and I agree with TizerorFizz about the door colour and personally would ditch the brass door furniture and numbers for chrome/nickel.

Have a look on Gumtree and Facebook marketplace and see what people are selling in the way of pots and planters as you never know, could be something suitable.

Agree that a good tidy and clean with some path edging will make a big difference. If you have any friends who enjoy gardening ask if they have any suitable plants they could maybe give you some divisions of and where they can recommend to buy plants and also look on Marketplace -we have local people buying selling things like twisted stem rosemary and olives etc significantly cheaper than the garden centres.

I agree avoid fake greenery, one of my neighbours has those fake hanging box type plant spheres and they look really weird (apologies to pp if you are my neighbour!)

Oh good grief no not plastic plants! They are just completely wrong.

Oh I hadn’t even considered that you might mean general things to do with the house as well!

Agree on door, also agree not red.

Lots of good suggestions above.

That's a pretty house. Lots of potential / options

@Volterra
I agree about door furniture being nickel. There is a log of potential here.

The other consideration it might be to have random gravel garden planting with leaves and plants spreading randomly. You can use grasses, Rosemary, lavender, rudbeckia, verbena bonariensis, euphorbia and other plants that look effective in gravel. They can flop over the path and it’s a soft look. Might be worth looking at.

Actually, much as I love box I just wouldn't risk planting it now. Box blight is so rampant. I've lost a parterre, a knot garden and a whole load of topiary. A pity because there's nothing like it.
There are alternatives, but by the time you've bought them (or box) you could have bought those big fuck-off RHS planters (except they don't do any big enough ones). Try one of the Cretan pot importers. Cheaper than Italian or Provancal pots but as nice. I'd steer clear of the oil jar type things, but they do some lovely straight-sided pots or huge shallow planters to use for succulents.

It’s true, box is risky at the moment.

@Bideshi
I too lost a parterre! It’s now my gravel garden! However my box pyramids in my other borders are fine! They are easy to keep neat and don’t go leggy like lavender. My lavender hates getting wet roots so free draining soil is vital and they don’t last forever.

No no no to plastic plants!

OP, I would walk around your neighbourhood and take sneaky photos of the houses you admire, and see what the unifying elements are – is it white gravel? Bays in pots? Better upkeep on the bricks? Different door colour? Etc.

Make a list and copy what you can, but rethink elements you can’t fake – if it’s grandeur of architecture, don’t try to copy it (like wood beams in a new build). Look for the elements you can achieve with your house, and copy them wholesale for the look you want.

I’d avoid switching to door furniture that’s actually made of nickel (as opposed to a nickel/silvery colour). Nickel is a really common allergen!

If you buy high quality door furniture it’s fine! Someone like Frank Allart has high quality.

Get gardening!
Rather than suggesting loads of plants and bamboozling you, I would suggest this. Go along your street or similar streets and look for plants you like and grow well in that aspect (i.e. north/south facing - whatever you are). Then Google Lens them or ask the owner what they are. Then bung them in through the gravel. I wouldn't get anything too tall to distract from that lovely bay window. But it definitely, definitely needs some green in there. Lots of evergreen shrubs that won't go brown in winter. And don't worry about moving plants. I'm always changing my mind. You're allowed to make mistakes. Have fun with it.

I wouldn't do pots at all

your gravel is lost without a boarder, its just not ever going to look smart without a boarder around keeping it uniform.

You could hide the fact there isn't a stone boarder by places a row of lavender plants - again I wouldn't do pots as the lavender will thrive much better in the ground,

You could put in a row of blue bricks on the path side

www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/447404544218888300/?d=t&mt=login

here the lawn borders the gravel one side and the plants do there job in the middle

www.hornbygardendesigns.co.uk/blog/2016/7/14/flower-bed-design-planting-in-shrewsbury-front-garden-design.html a boarder like this would give it a smarter look

I wouldn't get anything too tall to distract from that lovely bay window.
I agree with this. I think the bay tree falls into the 'too tall' category. Stick it in a pot by the front door. Or back the back door, where it's handy for herb-picking.
Have you noticed how many of the gardening schemes suggested (both plants and hard surfaces) feature a blue/grey palette? It's very classy.