A front garden has to do more than look good. Every day you walk the path to the door, once a week the bins roll out to the street, and the delivery driver looks for the doorbell and the house number. On top of that come rules that don't apply in the same way to the garden behind the house: in Germany, several federal states have banned gravel gardens, and many municipalities regulate front gardens in their own bylaws. This article goes through the decisions in order. Ideas and pictures on style are in the article Designing a modern front garden: ideas with pictures.
At a glance
- Check your municipality's rules first: in Germany, the development plan and a front garden bylaw can set requirements for paving, boundaries and parking.
- The path has to be easy to roll on: bins, bikes and prams need an even, firm path without stepping stones.
- The bins need a fixed place, with room for the lid to open and a step-free route to the street.
- Lighting belongs at the steps and the house number, warm white and pointing downwards.
- Plants form the surface, stones only the path. In Germany, a front garden of gravel with few plants is not allowed in several states.
1. What needs room in front of your house?
Before you think about materials and plants, write down what has to happen in the front garden:
- The path to the front door – who uses it, including with a pram, walker or shopping?
- Bins – how many, how big, and where do they stand on collection day?
- Bikes, prams, scooters – used daily or only at weekends?
- Letterbox, parcel box, doorbell, house number
- Car – is there a parking space or a driveway in the front garden?
- Lighting along the path and at the steps
Then ask your municipality whether a development plan or a front garden bylaw applies to your plot. In Germany, the town of Nidda in Hesse, for example, sets out in its front garden bylaw that the front garden must be designed as a garden, how high fences to the street may be and how much of the area may be paved. Other municipalities regulate this differently or not at all. What you know beforehand, you won't have to remove later.
2. The path to the front door
The path should lead as directly as possible to the door. A detour gets cut short, and then a trodden track appears through the bed.
Width: For barrier-free residential buildings, the German standard DIN 18040-2 specifies 1.50 m for the path to the main entrance. For paths under 6 m long, 1.20 m is enough if you can turn round at the start and the end. Whether the standard is binding for your house depends on the building project. It is still a useful guide as soon as prams, walkers or two people side by side use the path.
Surface: Anything that rolls needs an even, firm surface. Stepping stones in gravel or lawn are pleasant to walk on, but bins jolt over them and pram wheels sink into gravel. Large slabs with narrow joints roll best.
Steps: If the door is higher than the street, a few wide, shallow steps are more comfortable than a steep staircase. Lighting at each step helps more in the evening than a bright lamp at the door that dazzles.
More on materials and path shapes is in the article Garden paths.
3. Bins: space, route and screening
Bins are bigger than you think when planning. According to the manufacturer (SSI Schäfer), a 120-litre bin needs a footprint of about 48 × 56 cm and is around 1 m tall. A 240-litre bin needs about 59 × 74 cm and is around 1.10 m tall. Count how many bins you have. That depends on which types of waste your municipality collects separately.
What matters for the spot:
- Close to the street or the path, so the route to collection is short and step-free.
- Room for the lid: a box or roof must be high enough for the lid to open fully, or have a hinged lid.
- Not directly under a window, and in partial shade rather than full sun, especially for the organic waste bin.
- Screening: a hedge, a trellis with climbers or a planted box. Plan the screening so you can still pull the bins out easily.
Whether a bin area in the front garden is allowed and what it may look like is regulated by the state and the municipality. In Hamburg, for example, bin areas, bike parking and parking spaces in the front garden are permitted under § 9 HBauO if the garden design is not significantly impaired and the street scene shaped by front gardens is preserved.
4. Bikes, prams and parcels
What you use daily should be close to the path. Bikes that come out every morning are better in a stand by the path than behind the house, where you have to wheel them through the garden gate. A bike shed or shelter in the front garden is, however, a structure. In Germany, some municipalities only allow such ancillary structures in the front garden if there is no room for them elsewhere on the plot. In Hamburg, garages and carports in the front garden need a separate exemption. Ask the building authority before you put anything up.
For parcels: a parcel box needs a spot the delivery driver can reach without walking across the bed. The simplest place is right next to the letterbox or the gate.
5. Letterbox, doorbell and house number
There are two usual places for the letterbox:
| Letterbox | Advantage | Drawback |
|---|---|---|
| at the gate | delivery staff stay off the plot | walk to the letterbox in the rain |
| at the front door | short walk for you | delivery staff come through the gate |
With a dog in the garden or a locked gate, the letterbox belongs at the boundary. In the cover image above, the doorbell and letterbox slot sit in the post next to the gate. The house number should be readable from the street, at night too, so that emergency services and deliveries find your house.
6. Lighting and power
In the front garden, lighting is mainly about safety: steps, path, house number and door. A few points that the city of Heidelberg recommends for insect-friendly lighting apply here too:
- Warm white light below 3000 kelvin, with little blue content.
- Pointing downwards, not into the sky and not into the neighbours' windows.
- Only when needed: motion sensors or timers instead of permanent light.
Electrics in the garden are a job for a qualified electrician. In Germany, outdoor sockets and circuits outdoors must be protected by a residual current device of no more than 30 mA under the standard DIN VDE 0100-410. If you're paving anyway, have an empty conduit laid first for future lights. Pulling a cable under finished slabs later is considerably more work.
More on types of lights is in the article Garden lighting.
7. Plants: surface instead of stones
The image shows a path along the side of a house, but the principle applies to the front garden: gravel is the path, the area beside it is densely planted. That is what a difference from a gravel garden looks like.
- Choose by final size. In front of windows the planting stays low, otherwise the house gets dark. For a tree, what counts is the size after years, not at purchase. The nursery can tell you the final dimensions.
- Keep a clear view at the driveway. Anyone reversing out of the driveway has to see the pavement and the street. Keep plants low there. At street corners, some German municipalities explicitly limit the height of fences and hedges, Nidda for example to 0.75 m.
- Show something in winter too. You see the front garden all year. Evergreen clipped shrubs and grasses left standing give it structure. In many places box is damaged by the box tree moth. The Saxon state office LfULG has tested replacements for small hedges, including Japanese holly (Ilex crenata).
- Avoid poisonous plants at the entrance if small children live in the house. Yews, for example, are highly poisonous.
- Be careful with water. Many front garden images show water basins. Small children can drown in just a few centimetres of water. With small children in the household, a basin should be secured or left out.
8. What is allowed: gravel, fences and parking
Gravel gardens. In Germany, four states have regulated the question explicitly or had it settled in court. In Baden-Württemberg, Hesse and North Rhine-Westphalia, gravelling as a way of designing gardens is in principle prohibited by law:
| State | Legal basis | Since |
|---|---|---|
| Baden-Württemberg | § 21a NatSchG | 31.07.2020 |
| Hesse | § 35(9) HeNatG, for new gardens | 2023 |
| North Rhine-Westphalia | § 8 BauO NRW, artificial turf too | 01.01.2024 |
| Lower Saxony | § 9(2) NBauO, ruling of OVG Lüneburg | 17.01.2023 |
In other states, too, the building codes require in similar form that areas not built on stay able to absorb water and are planted, in Bavaria for example Art. 7 BayBO. On top of that come municipal development plans and bylaws.
Where the line is: In 2023 the Higher Administrative Court of Lüneburg ruled on a front garden that was mostly covered in gravel and had only individual plants. According to the court, a green space is defined by its green character. Stones are allowed as long as they play only a minor role in the overall picture. And a green garden behind the house does not make up for a gravel front garden. Planted gravel with dense planting is therefore something different from a gravel garden. How much planting is enough is decided by the building authority in case of doubt. Ask your municipality.
Fences and hedges to the street: The height is often regulated. Under the Nidda bylaw, boundaries to the street may be no more than 1.50 m high, and closed boundaries need gaps at the bottom for hedgehogs. That is an example, not a general rule.
Parking: The share of paved area can also be set. Nidda can allow up to 50% of the front garden area as paving for path and parking, and up to 70% for semi-detached and terraced houses if the parking spaces can't be placed elsewhere.
As of October 2026. This is not legal advice. The rules of your state and municipality are binding.
An example, explained
The cover image shows a front garden in which the functions are bundled at the boundary. It is an AI visualization by GardenPilot, not a built garden.
- Starting point: a detached house with some distance to the street. The assumption is a level plot with one step up to the entrance.
- Key decision: gate, doorbell and letterbox sit together at the boundary, between two hedges. A lit step leads up to it, and Corten steel raised beds with grasses and lavender line the path.
- Transferable principle: everything strangers need is at the front. The rest of the front garden stays planted.
- Limitations: The image doesn't show where the bins go. That is a typical gap in front garden images, and it's exactly the question you should answer first when planning. The hedges need trimming every year. The water channel beside the path is a risk with small children in the house.
- Simpler version: a letterbox with doorbell on a post by the path, a hedge instead of the raised beds, and lighting only at the step.
Try it before you build
Whether the bin area by the hedge looks good or whether a gate suits your house is hard to see on paper. With GardenPilot you upload a photo of your front garden, choose a theme world and add what matters to you, for example "room for three bins behind a hedge, bike stand by the path". The house, the viewpoint and the boundaries stay in the image. The first image is free; each further variant costs 1 credit. The images are visualizations, not construction plans: you check dimensions, rules and feasibility on site. How it works in detail is explained in the article AI garden design with a photo.
Where would the path, bins and bikes fit at your place? Upload a photo of your front garden – the first image is free. Start free with your photo
Frequently asked questions
Can I use gravel in the front garden?
Yes, as a path or between dense planting. In Germany, a gravel area with only a few scattered plants is in principle prohibited by law in Baden-Württemberg, Hesse and North Rhine-Westphalia. In Lower Saxony, the Higher Administrative Court of Lüneburg objected to such a front garden in 2023. Many municipalities have their own bylaws. If in doubt, ask your municipality.
Where should the bins go in the front garden?
Close to the street or the path, so you can roll them to collection without a step. Plan for the bins' footprint, room to pull them out and a lid that opens fully. A hedge, a trellis or a planted box keeps them out of sight.
How wide should the path to the front door be?
For barrier-free residential buildings, the German standard DIN 18040-2 specifies 1.50 m, or 1.20 m for short paths under 6 m with room to turn. For your house it's a good guide as soon as prams, walkers or bins use the path.
Do I need permission for a bike shed or a bin box in the front garden?
In Germany, that is regulated differently by state and municipality. Some bylaws only allow ancillary structures in the front garden if there is no room for them elsewhere. Ask the building authority before you put anything up.
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