- Lively and decorative - composition of gravel and plants
- Natural stone slabs and flower pots - noble design without fanfare
Owners with limited free time favor a simple and low-maintenance front garden design. This can be achieved with attractive alternatives to high-maintenance lawns and demanding perennials. You can find out here how to create an uncomplicated front garden with stones and plants.
A modern, low-maintenance front garden can be created with gravel and trees
Lively and decorative - composition of gravel and plants
You can breathe floral life into gravel-covered areas with easy-care plants. Under the special framework conditions of an inorganic mulch layer, special species and varieties come into focus. We have put together recommended woody plants, grasses and perennials for you here:
- As leading figures: trumpet tree 'Nana' (Catalpa bignoides) or summer lilac (Buddleja davidii)
- Robust subshrubs: Lavender (Lavendula angustifolia) or Perovskia (Perovskia x superba)
- Undemanding perennials: sedum (Sedum x telephium), pearl basket (Anaphalis) or speedwell (Veronica)
Do you flirt with an uncomplicated front yard that is almost self-sustaining? Then you are well advised with ornamental grasses in the gravel bed. Apart from an annual pruning and watering when it is dry, grasses only stand out because of their filigree beauty. Recommended species are the mushroom head sedge 'The Beatles' (Carex caryophyllea), bearskin grass (Festuca gautieri) and the wonderful snow marbel (Luzula nivea) with white spike flowers from June to August.
Natural stone slabs and flower pots - noble design without fanfare
With a little aesthetic flair, you can create a front garden design worth seeing using natural stone slabs and flower pots. The wide range of stone types has beautiful paving stones and slabs for every budget, from inexpensive limestone to high-quality granite. Shapely polygonal slabs made of different types of quarry stone, such as porphyry, gneiss, basalt or quartzite, are in trend.
Specialist retailers have stone tubs ready for you to match the natural stone floor covering, which can be staged with year-round or seasonal planting, tailored to the architecture of your house. As an example for the front garden of a Tuscany house, we have put together the following planting plan for a Mediterranean treasure chest for you:
- Spurge (Euphorbia myrsinites)
- Spanish daisy (Erigeron karvinskianus)
- Blue fescue ornamental grass (Festuca cinerea)
- Dwarf iris in red and purple (Iris Barbata-Nana)
- Lavender (Lavandula angustifolia)
Magnificent Junker lilies (Asphodeline lutea) or majestic torch lilies (Kniphoa uvaria) act as lead plants.
tips
Ground covers are a nature-loving alternative to stones and gravel for an effortless front yard design. Thanks to a dense, creeping growth, the plants reliably suppress annoying weeds. Prime examples of easy-to-maintain ground covers are evergreen ivy (Hedera helix) and fat man (Pachysandra terminalis).