Greening up your front garden

[London garden designer]

A few people on our street have turned their front gardens into driveways in the last year and it breaks my heart! Yes parking on the street can be a nightmare but it's good exercise to walk a couple of minutes to your car if you've had to park it round the corner! And all these paved gardens contribute massively to localised flooding causing damage which our taxes pay for (?3 billion in 2007 alone say the RHS!).

But flip it the other way round and try to put a price on the emotional wellbeing that gardens can give us. Coming home to a nice front garden can help let those stresses of the day drain away, and being out in your front garden is a great way to meet your neighbours and forge new friendships. And when you finally come to move on, you'll most likely get your money back on anything you've invested in your garden.

And whether your front garden is big enough for two cars or just big enough for your 2 wheelie bins, with a little imagination there are lots of things you can do to make it a lovely green space, rather than a mass of ugly concrete.

I?ve designed a few front gardens recently (see attached) and it?s such a pleasure to turn these often neglected spaces into beautiful gardens.

I'm always happy to offer advice and help so please feel free to get in touch.

Happy planting!

Simon

http://simonorchardgardens.com