Front garden/driveway - Design Dilemma
Hiya all, looking for some suggestions for a low-maintenance front garden (left-hand side). Approx (a)8m x (b)5m
We changed the right-hand side to make extra parking space. Looking to build a small wall on the left-hand side like (c).
At the moment we are considering digging up most of the grass and laying small white gravel stones. Also, consider planting in the middle of the left-hand side a central low-maintenance plant.
Comments (8)
Sonia
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An front garden / driveway for a traditional Arts & Crafts style house
Comments (7)wow! firstly what a beautiful house but the garden is a transformation! the parking spaces are pure genius well done!!...See MoreFront garden and driveway advice - who to ask?
Comments (3)Most trained and experienced Garden Designers would be suitable although you ought to be checking that they have Professional Indemnity Insurance. Many may also be Landscape Architects. If you go to the Society of Garden Designers website then all the Fully Registered Members have Professional Indemnity Insurance and have been carefully vetted. A Landscape Architect will be very comfortable with the structural elements but very often they are not so experienced or educated on plants as a Garden Designer. The issues with using the company doing the work to also provide a design could be that design is not their forte and perhaps that they will favour certain materials, styles, methods etc. because they often use them. This may not be an issue if you have seen their work and you like it. Here again though a worthy professional ought be carrying Professional Indemnity Insurance (Please note this is quite different from Public Liability Insurance and some people confuse the two). It would be best to speak to a few possible candidates and set a realistic budget if you can. Measure up and do some maths....See MoreFront Garden Design Turning Circle Driveway
Comments (5)The only way to get this right is to create a carefully scaled plan. One thing which would make the result a lot better is to make the 'roundabout' a raised bed so that you have some changes in level. That would also mean retaining some of the 'dig out' where you are extending the driveway. If you are extending the existing driveway by more than 5 square meters (which you will be), it needs to be a porous surface or have planning approval if it is not porous (in the U.K. that is). A lot of contractors either don't know this or don't care. Drainage is a a huge issue for everyone, overflowing toilets are not good for anyone....See MoreHouse Floor Plan Design Dilemma.
Comments (7)As a vague vision, (can help on detail if you think ok In principle) Ideally I’d reclaim the annexe for play/music/ kids room and annexe bed add ensuite as use for students. Turn cloak room to downstairs loo access from hall. current student bed into cloak/boots storage and utility. Open up current utility to access new cloak room and if you need extra kitchen space could put larder where wash machine etc is at moment, I would avoid too much wall movement as expensive assuming you need to save the money for new chalet in garden (friend achieved chalet style for around £65-70k). If you have budget I would certainly extend upstairs one side of house to make use of eades and up to full height so you could have as a minimum bunk bed arrangement or 2beds depending ages of your children. Pending budget could look into whether can get another bedroom up there. Obviously this is just a vision would need more detail to confirm, hope you can see mark up on plan attached...See More
Malcome A
last yearcarocat24
last yearMalcome A
last year
credz4
last yearIf you want low maintenance have you considered resin bound driveway? Its permeable so will still let water through. You can do same thing on the lawn side and it can be designed around any planting scheme you might have. You can leave circles free for a few plants and infil them with a different colour gravel. Apparently its DIYable with some skills or not if you prefer. It looks good on a modern house and stays neat....unlike gravel.....and by the way white gravel will become grey over time but not half as quick as putting down grey gravel in the first place. I'm no expert but I'm pretty sure resin bound comes with something like a 20 year lifespan.
Malcome A
last yearSonia
last year
Sonia