Christiane Holmquist Landscape Design

  • Home
  • Portfolio
  • Projects
  • How I work
  • Resources
  • Blog
  • About
  • Contact

Reclaim Your Front Garden From the Public – and integrate it into your living space

May 17, 2010 By Christiane Holmquist

In this and a couple of future articles I’ll be considering the role of the front garden in landscape designs – and in people’s lives. Perhaps I can add some points to the on-going discussion in the gardening community about landscape design that is not only contemporary and sustainable, but also homeowner-friendly.

My garden aesthetics are forever shaped by childhood memories where our garden gate opened to a romantic hide-away with play lawn, perennial borders and shade trees that we kids could climb in to hide, have our private “club” meetings, tell stories and make plans. The romance and seclusion of that place is still shaping my attitude towards gardens that I visit today: If it doesn’t give me a feeling of privacy and I can’t see any significant evidence of the owner’s personality in it, it’s not a garden for me but only an impersonal outdoor space.

A typical sub-division front garden in University City/San Diego

A typical sub-division front garden in University City/San Diego

Almost everywhere in our County we can observe the legacy of an American garden design approach that is neither suited to our California lifestyle, our changing tastes nor to our environment: Although ever smaller lots are making garden space more precious, the setback regulations in most Californian communities have not changed, to the effect that houses are still built with a considerable portion of their front garden given over to the public. The attitude towards front garden design is still dominated by the unquestioned expanse of “green”, and all other elements seem to be mere after-thoughts. One of my horticulture teachers called this lawn the “most expensive crop that is watered, fertilized, cut, and then thrown away”.

This was sadly evident in our own community in University City/San Diego where we lived with our 2 young children for a few years. In the front yard there was a lawn, a shade tree and some shrubs – the typical subdivision landscape. Although the children discovered that they could climb the tree easily and we built a tree house in it, all activity here was in the public’s eye; there was no shelter from noise and passers-by and certainly no visual interest.   Aware that water is not in abundance in Southern California, we asked ourselves also whether it made sense at all to water here when we clearly had so little enjoyment from our front yard.

Front yard showing signs of becoming a garden

Front yard showing signs of becoming a garden

So the lawn had to make room for a flower and shrub buffer between street and front door. We stopped watering the lawn and at the end of summer dug up the dead sod, imported a few cubic yards of good soil and created a low stretched-out mound along the street. We planted California Natives and compatible drought tolerant plants on this little berm to create a living “lacey” screen between the street and the mulched play area.  The following spring our front garden was a blooming sea of foliage and flowers which attracted bees, birds, neighbors, and kids who came to play in the tree house. By the second year most of the shrubs were tall enough so that the play area felt even more secluded, and we added a swing so that the adults could enjoy some of the fun here, too.

Flowering shrubs creating privacy and suspense in front garden

Flowering shrubs create privacy and suspense in front garden

As Rita Sackville-West, the English garden designer and writer, observed about the lack of fencing or boundary in the American front yard: “Americans must be far more brotherly-hearted than we are, for they do not seem to mind being over-looked. They have no sense of private enclosure.”

Flowers and children in the front garden

Flowers and children in the front garden

This is an interesting thought, but I don’t think that my attitude towards gardening and design is born out of the reluctance to be “sisterly” or democratic. When a design has fulfilled the first demand: To satisfy the homeowner’s needs and marry them pleasingly with the constraints that the terrain, the architecture and the environment present; my second and vital desire is to make this outdoor space enjoyable and appealing to all senses and make every square inch of it count. But how could I enjoy this space when it’s indistinguishable from those on either side and when it is not mine, but the public’s?

I view the front yard as an opportunity for creativity rather than as a space given over to convenience or to the obligatory anonymous, park-like setting of the past.

In my next article I will continue to share some of my experiences and thoughts on this topic, and if you are interested, please read more about this in a couple of weeks.

Filed Under: Gardening tips, Landscape Design Tagged With: dealing with community setback regulations, drought tolerant gardening, drought tolerant plants, garden design, homeowner-friendly landscape design, landscape design with berm, lawn removal, privacy planting, sustainable garden design, Sustainable landscape design, sustainable landscape design approach

Search our blog articles

Get your free eBook “15 Things To Do Before You Hire A Landscape Designer”

Blog Contents

  • Backyard Landscape Design
  • Container Gardening
  • Drought Resistant Landscape
  • Drought Resistant Plants
  • Gardening tips
  • Landscape Design
  • Landscape Design Portfolio
  • Landscape Design Projects
  • Low Maintenance Plants
  • Low Water Landscape
  • Outdoor Kitchen
  • Places to visit
  • Rocky Mountain landscaping
  • Shade Structures
  • Special architectal landscape elements
  • Sustainable Landscape Design
  • Trees
  • Uncategorized
  • Water Features for Gardens and Yards
  • Xeriscape designs

Blog Index

backyard landscape design diy landscape design drought resistant landscaping drought tolerant gardening drought tolerant landscape design drought tolerant plants drought tolerant shrubs drought tolerant trees dry climate design front yard landscape design garden design gardening ideas home landscape design irrigation restrictions in Southern California landscape design landscape design consultations landscape designer San Diego landscape design help landscape design ideas landscape ideas landscaping in San Diego County lawn removal limited water resources low-volume water features in the landscape low maintenance plants low water landscape low water landscaping Mediterranean-type plants perennials residential landscape design Shade sails sustainable garden design Sustainable landscape design trees useful tools for the water-wise gardener water-wise landscape design Water Conservation Water Conservation Garden Water Conserving plants xeriscape xeriscape design xeriscape designs xeriscape landscaping xeriscape plants xeriscape San Diego
Christiane, your design is beautiful. Viewers love the design and color. Thank you so much for all your support while the project was being developed. It would have been more stressful for me had you not held my hand regularly.

Rachel Michel

CHRISTIANE HOLMQUIST LANDSCAPE DESIGN


Download my article published in San Diego Home and Garden Lifestyles Magazine!
Contact Me I offer phone and/or onsite consultations and landscape design.

Phone: 406-246-6065

Latest Articles

  • Winter landscaping with Billie Gray : A lifelong love affair of gardening in the Rockies
  • Portfolio: Gardens with Water Features
  • Portfolio: Arbors And Dividers
  • Starting my new life in Montana
  • A Bench and How It Came to Be

Connect with me

  • Facebook

Copyright © 2023 · Agency Pro Theme On Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in