Image Source: Canva
Your garden should make a good first impression! Whether you entertain visitors or not, your garden should be able to leave a lasting impression on the mind of anyone who happens to walk by it.
For this to happen, you should have a welcoming and functional entryway that can pique your visitor's interest and give them an enjoyable journey that leads to your garden and ultimately your front door.
The idea is to create an entryway that leaves your visitors mesmerized and at the same time lets them know that you love your home, garden and family (if you have one).
There are basic features that must be incorporated in the design of your entryway that will give your visitors this experience and more.
Your visitors should know where the journey starts without a sign that says so—an archway will get this done for you.
The message your overpass sends to your visitor should be welcoming and pique their curiosity. You can achieve this with climbing and trailing plants and flowers on your arbour. They give off a combination of mystery and comfort.
You would have visitors say, “As I passed through the arbor, I had an odd feeling of welcome and comfort that made me want to see where the road leads to”.
The first thing to do if your garden doesn’t have one is create a passageway. From your gate or driveway, as the case may be, you can create a passage that leads into your garden. This will make your visitors enjoy a seamless flow into your garden.
Using stone or mosaic will create a better passageway—making it easy to have clean-cut corners. Also, you can add composite decks or planks and stepping stones could distract or disrupt the seamless journey you intended to create and it can be annoying having to watch your step every five seconds.
Another way to improve the appearance of your entryway is by creating a good entrance deck. This way, you can boost your property’s curb appeal and resale value.
For an entrance deck, you can use outdoor flooring for a base, it can either be wood or composite decking. The latter offers a more durable option due to its plastic and wood components. All you have to do to create an entrance deck is to add a bench or chair, a beautiful planter, and water features (like a water fountain or bird feeder). This will surely get your neighbours talking.
In your garden’s passageway, plant trees and flowers that would enhance the overall view of your garden. A passageway can be quite narrow so having plants on each side of the passage will give your visitors a compelling feeling that keeps them moving on.
Opt for charming plants with long vertical heights, fruit-producing shrubs that will give colour to your garden during winter and fall seasons, and plants that will attract wildlife.
Grouping these plants together on each side of the walkway will serve as focal points throughout the journey, giving your visitors something to feed their eyes on and building expectations in their minds of what is to come.
You can opt for Irises, red hot pokers, and agaves known for their striking diagonals, winterberry known for the “stand out” orange colour of their berries, and sunset hyssop to attract wildlife like butterflies and birds.
We are certain that this combination will give your visitors an interesting journey into your garden.
Just when your visitors think that’s all there is to everything, they begin to see crafted wooden sculptures, garden gnomes, painted seashells and pebbles stationed in no particular order around the garden, they say to themselves, “It keeps getting better”.
Aside from the plants, these objects have a way of bringing life to your garden—telling your visitors the owner is a fun person that loves nature.
If you have children, they can help you paint the rocks around your garden, it is their home after all. You could indulge them when they create funny little structures, leaving them at random corners in the garden instead of storage. This will give your visitors a glimpse of your family helping them relate with you better.
You can hang ornaments like an old iron pendant with small light bulbs inside on any tree of your choice to give your garden a vintage vibe.
This is the most exciting part. You can never tell whether you’d entertain visitors at night but to be on the safe side, add lighting to your overhead pass and passageway.
Be creative with it. You can hang string lights on the trees on both sides of the passage, place round light bulbs on flower stalks, or place the conventional solar lamps as trailing lights on your passageway.
This does not just enhance the ambience of the garden but also serves as a means to ensure safety.
Your garden entryway creates a beautiful and inviting space for your guests. It serves as the entrance to your garden and gives them a hint of what the remainder of your garden will be. A bland and untidy garden will put them off.
A beautiful garden entryway can also positively impact your property’s resale value. Updating or renovating your entryway offers a scintillating return on investment for many homeowners. It may be the nudge a potential buyer needs to agree to your asking price.
You can showcase your creativity or reflect your personality via your garden entryway. Whether you are artsy, whimsical, contemporary or a fan of vintage aesthetics, you can add some outdoor accessories to this space. This will surely portray the artistic side of you and make your garden a fun place to stay.
There’s no other simple way to make a statement besides a vibrant, playful garden entryway. For instance, you can set your garden entryway to steal attention. Instead of causing it to be bland and boring, it can stand out and invite admiration.
Entryways can also be used to line your garden path in a colourful way. You can use beautiful decor items to let the area stand out. For instance, adding a green planter pot and seat to align with flowers and shrubs. This way, it is easier to create an organised outdoor area. Another example is using a blue-coloured deck to add effect to the vibrancy of your home. This way, the area will have a hospitable vibe that will pull your guests in as they walk towards your door.
You can use your garden entryway to showcase your love for gardening. By cultivating a flower on your planter in the area, one can tell how passionate you are about caring for plants and enjoying the fulfilment that comes with it.
Voila! The entryway to your British garden is set. Don’t be surprised if you have visitors wanting to come back to your house just because of the first experience they had while walking through your garden.
With this kind of arbor, passageway and garden we’re certain that everyone in your home will love to spend more time outdoors rather than indoors.
Find answers — straight from the author — for the most common questions about this article.