Welcome Home! - Your Entry Garden

Think of your entry garden as a foyer - a place to greet your guests and establish a warm welcome. The front entry is the most frequently traveled place in the landscape. A clear path, a sense of enclosure, and interesting healthy plants all adds up to an entrance that welcomes your guests to your home. But too often, a jumble of plants hides the entrance, or it lacks a clear path that directs you to the front door. Most of us have seen an entry with a few lonely, sick, evergreen shrubs growing in a sea of bark dust.

Enclosures Create a Private Entry

While a front entry is not as secluded as the backyard, it can be more inviting than an expanse of lawn open to the road. The degree of intimacy you want, or need, will depend on how much space is available. In the home where I grew up, a low yew hedge defined our front entrance. This was an early lesson how to create an intimate entry without concealing it.

Any type of enclosure increases intimacy. For example, a group of flowering trees planted near the street can screen the road, offer seasonal interest, and create an enclosure. Add short wall, fence, or evergreen hedge (four feet or less) to create a defined boundary. A low stone wall can enclose the entry physically, yet also invite a neighbor to sit and visit. Or, perhaps you may prefer a picket, or a wrought iron fence, to act as an accent to create a 'feel' privacy. An inviting gate, or a vine-covered arbor, will also add intimacy and creates a welcoming entry.

The Entry Path

A clear path unmistakably points to the front door. It needs to be easy on both the eyes and the feet. This is not a place for uneven cobbles or wood that is slippery when wet. Exposed aggregate with small pebbles has good traction even in wet weather. Make an entry path wide enough for two people to walk side by side. An established cement path can be widened by adding brick trim perpendicular to the sidewalk.

This not only widens the path, but dresses it up as well.

If possible, instead of aiming the path straight for the front door, allow it to meander through the entry garden. This allows your guests to enjoy your plants and breathe enticing fragrances.

Plants Add Personality

Plants with fragrance are essential to the entry garden, and evergreens keep the entry attractive all year. Some of my favorite plants for an entries are both fragrant and evergreen this includes: winter daphne (Daphne odora), sarcococca, and evergreen clematis. Their enchanting fragrance will transform a bleak winter day.

The entry garden is a good place to combine textures and colors. The fine textured hinoki cypress 'Gracilis' contrast nicely with the larger leaves of 'Rainbow' leucothoe, or skimmia, if your entry garden is shady. If your entry garden is sunny, add an 'Emerald Gaiety' euonymus at the base of a hinoki cypress. Gold, silver, and variegated leaves will make your entry garden colorful without a single flower.

Remember to add a few deciduous trees, shrubs, vines and/or perennials. This will give your entry garden the element of seasonal change. I love watching the blue flowers of my anemone blanda bloom in harmony with the yellow flowers of my yellow daffodils.

Throughout the year the entry garden will be a delight; enclosed with an arbor, anchored with evergreens, spiced with fragrance, and a few plants that change with the seasons, and you have all the elements to create a delightful entry garden. Let it be a welcome to all who visit your home.

Author Mary Jo Buza, is a landscape designer and owner of Gardens by Design. She has 25 years experience maintaining, designing, and teaching gardening in the South Sound region. For more information on a custom landscape design or consultation call 923-1733.