The Front Garden: New Approaches to Landscape Design [Paperback]

Mary Riley Smith (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 27, 2001

The front yard is the stepchild of landscape design, ignored in the current enthusiasm for gardening. Typically, with its high-maintenance lawn and overgrown foundation planting, the front yard doesn't enhance the house or provide useful living space for the homeowner. Yet as new properties become smaller and old ones grow shadier, the front garden may be the best place to grow vegetables or flowers, to sit outside in comfort and privacy, or even to swim or play tennis.
Mary Riley Smith, a landscape designer who has often dealt with poorly planned and underused front properties, has filled this book with creative ways to make your own front garden beautiful and functional. She shows how to design paths, driveways, and parking areas and how to camouflage unattractive but necessary structures. For privacy, she describes the different virtues of fences, clipped hedges, and loose, flowing hedgerows.
When it comes to planting in front of the house, the choices are surprising: instead of a lawn, you might create a colorful cottage garden, an edible landscape, a drought-tolerant meadow of regional native plants, a sea of ornamental grasses, or even a romantic orchard. All of these landscapes, and dozens more from all parts of the country, are illustrated with beautiful photographs. THE FRONT GARDEN concludes with nine case histories, including the landscape designers' plans, that will give you even more ideas for turning your front yard into a beautiful garden.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Notes Smith, a landscape designer and gardening columnist, the front garden is the "stepchild" of garden design, all too often overlooked as a no-man's-land between street and front door. And since houses today are situated on smaller and smaller lots, and backyards--if present at all--may be unsuited to horticulture, she argues that a front yard is too precious to waste on the tract of lawn and dreary foundation plantings endemic to suburbs from coast to coast. After a brief survey of American front-yard "traditions," she gives trenchant hands-on advice on designing a front garden, covering such practical matters as siting paths, screening unpleasant views, and whether to employ a landscape architect or garden designer. The chapter "A Public or Private Front Yard?" explores how to use man-made structures and plantings to create either type. Nine exemplary gardens across the country are detailed; although some are professionally designed for well-to-do clients, others are, refreshingly, made by the "get dirty" gardeners and not beyond the skills or means--of the average homeowner. Clearly written, elegantly produced, this book is sure to melt the winter doldrums and inspire readers to rework their front gardens at the first hint of spring. Photos. Better Homes and Gardens, Rodale Book Club, and Garden Book Club alternate.
Copyright 1991 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

“One of the best garden books of the last twenty-five years.” -- Avant Gardener

“Stroll down Main Street and you’re likely to meet front yards dominated by swatches of greensward and spans of driveway that are relieved only by a few halfhearted foundation plantings. This book is a bold attempt to make some changes in that monotonous menu.” -- Fine Gardening

“This is a marvelous book by an American expert whose experience and sophistication will help you to create that beautiful front garden that you’ve always wanted.” -- Garden Book Club

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt (February 27, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0618083421
• ISBN-13: 978-0618083428
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.9 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,477,621 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

37 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Oldie but goodie......, April 12, 2005

By 

Dianne Foster "Di" (USA) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: The Front Garden: New Approaches to Landscape Design (Paperback)

When Mary Riley Smith's THE FRONT GARDEN was published in 1991, it became an instant hit with me. Other writers have jumped into the subject since then, but Riley's book retains the freshness of relatively new and creative original ideas. I began my front garden over 20 years ago, when we moved into a seven-year old house here in Arlington that sat back from the street on a narrow lot. The front yard is much bigger than the back yard, and it pained me to see all the wasted space. The front yard received much sunlight, the back is in shade. Anyone with a desire to grow most of the perennials available in these times knows, that most of them do better in sunshine.

So, when the dogwood badly planted in the hot sun succumbed to borers, to the amazement of our conventional neighbors, we rototilled the front yard and created a huge swath of flowers and shrubs. I used many of the ideas in my own head (for better or worse) until I found Smith's book.

Although "only" a paperback, the book includes many stunning photos of gardens in the front yard--along driveways, beside houses, next to porches. Best of all Smith includes some simplistic designs (what every new gardener needs) showing various plants for your geometric or herb or vegetable garden. Did I say vegetable? Yes, indeedy. I grow hot peppers, beans, and last year melons in raised beds. We have a terraced garden made from timbers sitting in the middle of the front yard where you are likely to see tulips in the spring and beans later on. This year, if you pass by, you will see purple peppers in the petunias (ornamental veggies are the "in" plant).

I've noticed over the years that my neighbors are filling in their wasted spaces (front yards) with flowers and veggies. The kindest comments of all come from the passersby who stop to admire the garden and go away with a smile. One woman said "Thank you for opening up your garden to the street."

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful Pictures and Plenty of Advice, June 7, 2009

By 

Woodlandtrails - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Front Garden: New Approaches to Landscape Design (Paperback)

I purchased this for ideas on planting a front yard garden to supplement the back yard garden. While the author advises building raised front yard garden beds, there is no advice for the length/width of the beds. I google researched and am now building 4 raised beds made of plain wood. Don't use treated lumber as the chemicals leech into the soil around your vegetables and flowers. I google researched more and free standing beds that can be walked all the around should not be more than 5' wide or it is impossible to lean over and weed/plant. If a person cannot walk fully around the beds as in against a fence or house, plant them wide enough to reach into the farthest area unless you want to climb into the raised garden box.

This book details the historical past of front gardens from colonial times to their reemergence today. People interested in saving grocery money will like the idea. The author seems a little naive when she speaks about privacy fences being 6' tall as most city codes limit the height to 4' in a front yard-garden or not. Planting tall hedges in front or behind the fence solves that problem as there is no height limits on plants although then the issue of too much shade or burglar ideal conditions may occur.

A picture is worth a thousand words and a lot of time her pictures offer more advice as to how to go about your front garden than the printed word.

Still, this book will inspire you to plant that front garden, install that sidewalk and get that curb appeal. The pictures are gorgeous.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars If it wasn't for my HOA I'd have a front garden like this, March 22, 2010

By 

Katherine Hudson "TX Gardening Grandma" (McKinney, TX USA) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Front Garden: New Approaches to Landscape Design (Paperback)

If my pesky HOA didn't object, I'd have a front garden without any grass at all. As is, I ripped out all the non-native Bermuda and planted Texas Buffalo grass. Sigh...I still wish I could make that wonderful transition to a full yard Texas style Cottage Garden using all native Texas plants.

This book gave me a lot of ideas on how to install my cottage garden but still maintain the "lawn" for the HOA goons who don't seem to understand the benefits of less water/fertilizer/pesticide use.

I like the book because it shows a lot of photos where plantings other than grasses can be installed not only in front yards but also side yards and the "inferno strip" between the yard and the sidewalk. Including vegetable plants among the perennials is a wonderful and quirky touch that is surprisingly pleasing to the eye and is a wonderful way to fill in bare spots and reap great rewards at harvest time too.

If you're searching for new ideas to revamp that boring front garden lawn, this book is full of inspiriation.