Start with the Bones: Evergreen Structure

A front garden is looked at from much the same angle every day, so structure matters more here than in the back garden. Begin with a small group of evergreens that hold their shape through January, then think about flowers. Better still, repeat the same few plants on both sides of the path — repetition is what makes a compact frontage feel designed rather than dotted about.

Reliable choices for most UK soils and aspects:

• Pittosporum tenuifolium 'Tom Thumb' — tight, dark purple foliage that clips neatly and copes with sun or light shade.
• Skimmia japonica 'Rubella' — red buds all winter, white scent in spring, compact enough for a small bed.
• Sarcococca confusa — glossy leaves and honey-scented winter flowers; genuinely happy in dry shade.
• Ilex crenata — the neat, small-leaved alternative for a low hedge where box has struggled.
• Rosemary and lavender — evergreen, aromatic and at their best in poor, gritty soil.

Three or five well-chosen evergreens, repeated, will carry a front garden further than a dozen one-offs.

Choose Perennials That Forgive a Forgotten Watering Can

Once the bones are in place, fill the gaps with perennials that actually enjoy dry summers. These are the plants that look after themselves after their first year, and most of them are happiest in full sun with sharp drainage.

• Hylotelephium (the old sedums) — 'Matrona' and 'Herbstfreude' give flat heads of pink that hold their shape into winter.
• Salvia nemorosa 'Caradonna' — deep violet spires from June, cut back for a second flush.
• Nepeta — soft grey mounds and lavender-blue flowers that flop over path edges beautifully.
• Verbena bonariensis — airy stems that seed about gently and need no staking.
• Eryngium and Achillea — thistle-like and flat-topped respectively; both are utterly drought-proof.
• Geranium 'Rozanne' — long-flowering, and it politely fades away in winter.
• Stipa tenuissima — a soft grass that moves in the slightest breeze and asks for nothing.

The one rule with all of these is drainage. If your front garden sits on heavy clay, that comes first — see the planting notes below.

Gravel Mulch: The Quiet Workhorse

Gravel is what turns a border into a low-maintenance border. Laid at around 50–75mm deep over a 10mm stone, it suppresses most annual weeds, keeps moisture in the soil below, and sets off grey-leaved plants beautifully. It also means you never have to top up with bark chippings again.

A few practical points. Where you want plants to self-seed — verbena, eryngium, aquilegia — skip the weed membrane entirely and simply plant thickly through the gravel; you will get gentle colonisation rather than a sea of stone. Where you want bare gravel, a woven membrane underneath is worth the effort. Either way, keep gravel clear of plant crowns so the stems stay dry and rot-free, and never spread compost on top of gravel. Weed seeds blow in regardless, but they pull out of loose gravel in seconds after rain.

Plan for Succession, Not One Big Bang

Year-round colour comes from layering, not from one spectacular summer. Aim for at least one thing in flower or interest in each season:

• Winter: hellebores, Cyclamen coum, snowdrops, sarcococca scent, evergreen foliage.
• Spring: naturalised daffodils and grape hyacinths, skimmia flowers, fresh grass growth.
• Early summer: alliums, salvias, nepeta, first lavender.
• High summer: eryngium, achillea, verbena, hardy geraniums.
• Autumn and winter: hylotelephium heads, grass seedheads, and the skeletons left standing for frost and birds.

Resist cutting everything down in October. The seedheads of eryngium and the bleached stems of grasses are the reason the garden still looks composed in December.

Planting Day: Do It Properly Once

Almost all the maintenance in a front garden is decided on planting day. Fork the bed over, then if your soil is heavy clay, dig in a generous quantity of horticultural grit and plant slightly proud of the surrounding soil, mounding the earth around each rootball. This lets water drain away from the crown, which is where most drought-tolerant plants fail.

Space plants according to their final size, not their pot size, and group them in odd numbers. Most of the perennials above will fill a metre-wide bed within two or three seasons if you resist crowding them in. Water thoroughly on planting and then weekly through the first summer only — after that, the gravel, the mounding and the plant selection should mean the hose stays in the shed.

The Yearly Jobs, Kept to a Minimum

What you are aiming for is a couple of good afternoons a year rather than a weekly round. Clip evergreens once, in late May or early June, using shears and cutting back to the shape you want rather than into old wood. Cut perennial stems down in late February or March, leaving a few seedheads standing until then. Top up the gravel every few years as it works into the soil, and pull any obvious weeds while they are small.

That is genuinely the bulk of it. Get the bones right, plant for dry ground, and let the gravel do the quiet work — then your front garden can welcome visitors all year without asking much of you at all.