Front garden facelift

GREEN UP THE DRIVEWAY Whether you’ve got pavers or gravel, that expanse of grey can look much more stylish with some clever planting. And it’s easy! Just add a bit of compost to the spaces in-between pavers, or create some planting pockets in the gravel, and choose low-growing plants that will flourish even when they’re trodden underfoot, driven over or parked on. The lovely low-maintenance plants below are all as tough-as-oldboots and will give a pretty mix of different tones. #4 P H OTO : G A P P H OTOS / M A RC U S H A R P U R . G A R D E N D E S I G N : S E A N M U R R AY S P O N SO R : ROYA L H O RT I C U LT U R A L SO C I E T Y

GOLDEN CREEPING JENNY Evergreen and super-fast growing, Lysimachia nummularia ‘Aurea’ has bright yellow, cup-shaped flowers from June to August above a low carpet of rounded, goldenyellow leaves. Height 10cm Spread 1m. £8.99/2L pot jacksonsnurseries.co.uk

BUGLE

Enjoy the deep bronze-purple leaves of Ajuga reptans all year round and the intense blue flower spires that appear in early summer. This low-growing evergreen loves a bit of damp and shade, so it’s very happy under a parked car. Height 15cm Spread 1m. £2.20/10cm pot norfolkherbs.com

BRECKLAND THYME

The woody stems of Thymus serpyllum bear a dark green mat of leaves with highly fragrant pinky-mauve flowers, which appear from June to October and will release their fragrance when trodden or driven on. Height 8cm Spread 20cm. £7.99/6 plug plants jparkers.co.uk

HEATH PEARLWORT

Sagina subulata is the ultimate no-nonsense plant! No trimming, cutting or anything else is needed, and it forms a springy mat of foliage topped with tiny, white, pearl-like flowers from late spring to early summer. Height 10cm Spread 30cm. £7.50/5 plug plants victoriannursery.co.uk

WILD GINGER

Asarum europaeum has rich glossy green, round-ish leaves that will slowly creep around creating a lush carpet. This semi-evergreen can lose some of its leaves in winter, but fresh ones will start to appear again in spring. Height 10cm Spread 30cm. £6.70/1L pot bethchatto.co.uk

#5

GROW A WINTER CLIMBER Cover bare walls or fences with a climbing plant that looks good all year round but is at its best over the winter months when the rest of your front garden is bare. If you haven’t got any beds near your walls or fences, then line up three large pots in a row, pop one plant in each and train them up the boundary. Our front-garden favourite is Clematis urophylla ‘Winter Beauty’, which is evergreen and has creamy-white, urn-shaped flowers in winter. Height 4m, £24.95/3L pot sarahraven.com

Done in a day!

Super simple!

EASY IDEAS

#9 DECORATE WITH

STATEMENT

CONTAINERS Forget front garden design ideas from the last century and bring some of your personality into play. Invest in a curated collection of modern pots in the same colour and style but in different shapes and sizes, and fill with a quirky mix of foliage and blooms such as mahonia, canna, bleeding heart (Dicentra), rose moss (Portulaca grandiflora), echeveria, cyperus and celosia. Think of these as decorations rather than just planters, so push in stems of twisty willow and add fairy lights or whatever takes your fancy!

TRY THIS! Disguise an ugly bin in a simple storage structure. Vario V Wooden Bin Store, £152.99, wayfair.com

#10 MAKE MODERN LOW-MAINTENANCE BEDS Award-winning garden designer Simon Orchard look we wanted from each set of plants. There (simonorchardgardens.com) made this stylish were six planting blocks – three with steel and low-maintenance small front garden scheme surrounds to act as a frame and keep the by creating different bedding areas. “The frames geometric architectural look for the looser plants were bespoke-built and made of powder-coated and three without surrounds that were filled with steel,” says Simon. “They were bottomless so plants that could be kept tightly clipped to form that the soi x shapes.”