Work with the space you have

A small front garden rarely has room for a proper border, and if you rent, digging one up probably isn't an option anyway. The good news is that the strip by the front door is the easiest place in Britain to garden in containers. Everything sits on top of the ground, so you can move it, rearrange it, and take it with you when you leave.

Before you spend a penny, spend a week noticing where the light falls. Most front gardens face roughly east or west, which means a mix of gentle morning or afternoon sun — plenty for the plants suggested below. A north-facing plot is the trickier one, but even then ferns, hellebores, ivy and most foliage plants will manage perfectly well. Also measure the width of your path and doorstep. A row of pots that leaves at least a metre of clear walking space will look considered rather than cluttered.

Choose containers that earn their keep

The single biggest mistake in a small front garden is using pots that are too small. Tiny containers dry out in a day, cook roots in summer and freeze solid in winter, so you end up fighting them all year. Aim for:

• 30cm across as a minimum for bedding plants, herbs and bulbs.
• 40–45cm for a shrub, a small rose or anything you intend to leave outside all year.
• Deeper rather than wider wherever you can — tall pots hold moisture far better and give roots somewhere to go.

Terracotta looks lovely but dries out quickly; glazed ceramic and good-quality plastic hold moisture for longer and weigh less than stone. Whatever you choose, check there's a drainage hole and stand the pot on feet, broken tiles or bricks so water can escape instead of pooling. Fill with a peat-free multipurpose compost mixed with roughly a quarter by volume of grit or horticultural sand. Then top the compost with a 2cm layer of gravel: it cuts evaporation, suppresses weeds and makes everything look tidy immediately.

Use walls, railings and fences

Vertical space is the most underused part of a small front garden, and in a rented home it's also the most forgiving. A pot with a wigwam of canes, or a lightweight trellis tied to a drainpipe-free fence post, needs no permanent change to the property. Choose climbers you can realistically keep in check.

• Star jasmine (Trachelospermum jasminoides) is evergreen, scented in midsummer and happy in sun or light shade.
• Clematis alpina and Clematis armandii flower early, need very little pruning and won't swamp a doorway.
• Climbing roses are worth the space on a sunny wall, but need tying in each winter.
• Ivy is the reliable choice on a north-facing wall, though keep it trimmed back from window frames and gutters.

For something faster and cheaper, train sweet peas or nasturtiums up a tripod of bamboo canes in a large pot. They'll fill a bare corner by July for the price of a packet of seed, and nasturtium flowers are edible in salads.

Plant perennials that come back every year

Annual bedding gives instant colour but costs money every spring and needs replacing when you forget to water it. A backbone of hardy perennials means your front garden is doing something interesting in every season, which matters when you walk past it twice a day.

Reliable performers for pots include heucheras for months of foliage colour, hardy geraniums such as 'Rozanne' for a long, relaxed flush of blue, lavender for a sunny free-draining spot, salvias for late colour, Japanese anemones for autumn, and sarcococca for winter scent by the door. Underplant the same pots with bulbs — daffodils, alliums and winter cyclamen — so the compost is never bare.

If you have room for only six pots, consider repeating the same three plants in each one. Repetition is what makes a small space look designed rather than accidental, and it makes watering and feeding far simpler to remember.

Keep it looking good with minimal effort

A front garden needs less attention than a back garden, but it does need a rhythm. Water deeply two or three times a week in summer rather than little and often, and feed containers weekly with a tomato feed from June until September. Deadhead spent flowers to keep the show going, and nip out anything that's gone straggly.

Group pots together rather than spacing them out — it reduces watering, shelters the plants and creates more visual impact. Stand the tallest at the back, mid-height in the middle and trailers at the front, then repeat those heights along the row. A tiled or scrubbed doorstep, a swept path and a tidy bin store will do as much for the look of the place as any plant.

In autumn, lift tender plants such as pelargoniums into a porch or shed, plant next spring's bulbs and switch to winter interest: cyclamen, hellebores, evergreen foliage and a simple wreath on the door. Come February you'll have colour again before the neighbours have even thought about it — and if you move on, the whole garden moves with you in an afternoon.