The Front Garden

Morton Road is just a block long, running between Woodstock and Banbury Roads in North Oxford.  The side gate of Spencer House opens onto it. 

It's lined with very large houses that were built in the 1920s and perhaps a little later.  They’re craftsman-style, but they’re not cozy little cottages.  These houses more like the “cottages” in the Millionaires' Village on Jekyll Island -- though, actually, not that grand.  
http://www.jekyll-island-family-adventures.com/historic-jekyll-island.html

The Morton Road houses are huge, single-family, double-storied (minimum) dwellings with high-pitched gables and multiple chimneys; most are brick or stucco. They sit close together on relatively small lots.  They also sit close to the street.  Consequently their front gardens are quite small.   

Let me say a few words here about the British use of the word “garden.”  In the States, most folks refer to the area in front of the house as the “front yard” and the area in back as the “back yard.”  In England, they seem to prefer “garden” to describe those same spaces.  To me, a “garden" is a “yard” with a lot of flowers or maybe vegetables, but when the Brits say “yard,” they’re frequently referring to a parking lot! 

So, if you don’t have even one puny little petunia growing outside your back door, you can call your "yard" a "garden."  Next time your friends come over, you can invite them out into the back “garden” for a drink!  (Although you probably won’t because it’s hot as hell out there, and you’ll be melted in no time!).

So, as I was saying, on Morton Road, the front gardens that line the street are small, but very charming.  Some are just a jumble of flowers – typical English cottage gardens.

Many have fences that offer a bit of privacy -- some with roses growing behind them.

To me, the most charming are the ones that have no grass at all, but instead utilize bricks, stones, gravel, etc., and have various shrubs and flowers planted in between.

So I’m wondering if, when I get home from my Oxford trip, I should rip up all the St. Augustine in my small front yard – oops, I mean “garden” – and try to recreate one of these more charming English front gardens…