Forward thinking

When your front garden offers a better aspect than your back garden, it makes sense to make this your primary space

- FRANCINE RAYMOND

If you live by the sea with a northfacing back garden, it makes sense to make the most of your sunny front garden and even make it your primary space for growing and relaxing. This is exactly what Sarah Morgan decided to do ten years ago, when she moved to her Whitstable bungalow with its views of the north Kent coast, but tucked along a quiet cul-de-sac, away from the prevailing sea breezes.

"When you design a front garden," explains Sarah, "you have two viewpoints: one from the road and the other from the house. We wanted ours to be somewhere comfortable to spend time sitting in sun or shade, for our first coffee or an evening drink, not just a route from roadside to front door.

"My husband fancied a 1950s garden to go with the house, but when I looked back, they seemed formal and suburban. So we went with a more 1960s vibe, and my inspiration was Whitstable with its fishermen's buildings and beach plants, such as Crambe maritima, Echium vulgare and Centranthus ruber, that seem to grow with minimal human intervention in spite of the weather." 

Although their road is not a busy route, they wanted some privacy, which they created by cutting existing shrubs into neatly clipped hedges and filling the gaps with strategically placed, vertical, tanalised wooden slats interplanted with tall grasses. The northeast wind blows cold, but this garden is luckily protected by the house.