Bold and Beautiful Creating a Colorful Front Garden Entrance

Does your front entry smile with welcome color? Is it open and easy to find? Are there delightful hints of who those characters might be behind your door?

These are just a few of the insights into entries that we'll be sharing together today.

Every guest appreciates a bit of roof when it rains...especially if they're waiting for you to answer the doorbell, lol. But this overhang of roof at the front door often creates deep, dark shadows. Scary stuff.... Halloween tricks might be lurking in the darkness. Probably not, right? But this IS the reason why we need to choose the right garden elements for the entry.

The darkened doorway is like a deep hole. So the surroundings need to be brightly lit. But this may also create a big contrast from light to dark. And the resulting deep, dark shadows can be very creepy. So, let's change this ghostly contrast into a kinder, gentler, (more Casper the Friendly Ghost type) lol. Let's introduce a friendly facelift and bring on the color!

Color identifies a mood. You can see for yourself, here, at the right. The pretty pinks, sunny yellows and a splash of red...these beautiful colors dispel every sign of doom and gloom. These warmer, hotter colors remind us of Spring and Summer... days of sunshine and play.

We've overcome the darkness. Our happy visitors can easily see the door. It's shape is quickly noticed now. How did that happen? The door is painted darker than the (lighter and brighter) surrounding walls...making it stand out. Notice how the thin strip of light-colored trim re-emphasizes the door's size and presence.

A potted plant with interesting leaves..something to arrest the eye while waiting...that's all a guest needs. Keep them captivated now that they've drawn near. Make them feel welcome.

The front entry is a public view. Folks are walking or driving by. Remember this as you trim and shape the plants. These multiple views mean that neatness counts for something...a first impression. Try to keep the plant shapes simple..like building blocks. Keep the colors simple...use as few as needed. More variety of color often means chaos to the eye.

There was a time when houses stuck up out of the ground like young boys in knickers. This tall, exposed house foundation led to a conventional style... a style of planting that covered those knees and ankles....and "grounded" the house.

The exposed "footer" made the house appear to rise. So the foundation plantings were designed to "ground" the building again. Today's building no longer have three feet of exposed foundation. But the conventions remain.

Part of this convention was the dominant use of green plants. The key to good color use is simplicity from a distance. Save complexity for the small details where the viewer stands nearby. Mixing a variety of subtle changes from green to green is lost when viewed from the sidewalk. The colors merge...creating a khaki mud.

The same thing happens with complex shapes. They overlap and merge...losing their identity and creating a jumble.

The other important convention of garden design is based on the architecture of the house. Looking at the drawing to the right, we notice some of the geometry of the house. The regular, repeating dimensions found in the diagram exist because lumber comes in typical lengths. It's the same for windows and doors too.

These regular dimensions for features like doors, windows and lumber mean that your home will have regular, repeating modules. In the second image we see the areas marked, "A". This is the module, a rectangle this tall and this wide. It repeats across the house wall.

Good design is based on these modules. They create the invisible yet very important sense of proportion and rhythm necessary for excellence in design. The module...repeated and repeated...is a grid...a series of modules. The grid reveals the design in two or three dimensions.

Our design module is based on the spaces between the windows. So the windows are a key element in our garden's design.

Windows admit light into the rooms. They also open the public view into the house. This creates a dual need. One for light. The other for privacy.

The horizontal lines of the grid show the top, bottom and "middle" of the modules. Notice the middle line. It's not in the middle, is it? No.

This line marks the division in the window. Above this line..light enters the home. Below...plantings up to here will create privacy inside the house. Plant heights at the windows are limited by these two needs.

The module itself is a rectangle twice as tall as it is high. It's about eight feet tall and four feet wide. A half-module then is a square, four feet by four feet.

This is a useful dimension when considering plants for the garden design. Many shrubs grow to this four by four size. Others are easily trained to eight feet tall.

Using the module to arrange the shrubs becomes easier when we picture the plants that will most easily fit these dimensions. Selecting plants outside these dimensions will also mean more frequent trimming and shaping for the gardener. Finding the right plant for the right place is what good design is all about.

There is a truism about roses...they show best when given an evergreen background. This also applies to how we design our front yards.

Picture your admiring guest...standing at your sidewalk...street-side...taking in the wonders and beauties of your home and garden. When designing your landscape, did you remember the school photo?

Tall kids in the back row...middle ones slightly shorter...shortest got seated in the front. This applies to your front landscape too.

When using deciduous plants (they lose their leaves in winter) try to consider their unsightly days of nakedness. We don't want to have them stand out like doomed prisoners waiting execution against the wall ...waiting to be shot, do we? Well, no, we don't.

So this leads to the very general, but still important rule, about foundation plants. Keep it simple and keep it evergreen. What would Mom say if you come home with the school portrait and the tallest kid in the back row has no shirt on? -nuff said.

But we need color, flowers, some LIFE for heaven's sake, don't we? Of course. So these lovely elements can go into the next two rows...but not the back row, OK?

Granted there will be the willful genius who breaks this rule with brilliance and amazes all. For the rest of us mere mortals...just trust me on this. The results will be worth it.

In my work as a landscape designer I often use the sketch to find the primary design elements and show these to my clients.

Homeowners can use this same trick...using a camera. Photograph your home from the street, as I have here. Print a copy and mark out the modular grid across your home.

I often tape the copy to a sunny window (making it see-thru). Taping another sheet of paper over this original lets you trace the house, the windows, doors, etc. Keep it all very simple.

Make a copy of this simple house drawing and leave the original aside. Add the grid with a marker so it shows up well.

Now add some shrubs in pencil. No. Not perfect leaves and branches with bouquets of blooms. No. No. Nyet! Make squares or circles, rectangles or triangles....just simple shapes. Keep the upper portion of the windows clear...so light can come in.

You can use a balanced design...equal shapes on either side of a "middle". Or be creatively wild using unequal shapes. Let your personality rule!

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