In urbanized areas, where properties with outdoor square footage are exceedingly hard to come by and are increasingly small, it may be difficult to bring a dream garden to life. It may not be practical to plant large trees, rapidly spreading shrubs, and sprawling groundcover. Instead, a limited area provides one with a chance to get truly creative. Small gardens are great for harnessing both vertical and horizontal space to produce a “natural” atmosphere. In fragmented environments, they also act as important sanctuaries for wildlife. Browse through the design ideas below to get inspired!
Cultivate an edible pocket garden with moveable and stackable containers. This allows you to play around with the arrangement and height of your plants. In winter, the containers can be stacked and set aside or reused for winter annuals.
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Maintain a dense cluster of pollinator-friendly plants. Upright inflorescences would make a great border or focal point to set apart your home’s façade. It should also encourage butterflies, bees, and birds to frequently visit your small garden.
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Naturalize the perimeter with a living fence. This is a great way to add more color and vertical texture to the edges of a backyard. Boxwoods are perfect for creating an evergreen and aesthetically-pleasing natural screen!
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Make a statement with a few specimen species. Those with varied heights and growth forms may look especially charming next to one another. Keep in mind that these may need to be cut back or pruned to control their spread or full size.
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Embrace the messy look. In buzzing metropolises, a miniature forest can feel like a portal to another world. A diversity of leafy plants tucked into a small area can be a welcome respite for migrating birds and insects too!
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Keep a pocket vegetable garden for some unparalleled freshness. Designate a plot just for your culinary favorites! This should save you a trip or two to the grocery. It should also encourage seasonal gardening, which can be incredibly therapeutic for people who spend a lot of time on the road or at the office.
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For a suburban look with a cottage feel, create a short walkway to your front door. Grow turf around the path and stick to a few choice perennials to minimize the need for maintenance.
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Take advantage of corners, especially those that can be viewed from indoors. These “hidden” areas open up opportunities to expand the limits of a small garden. A combination of both tall and short ornamental grasses can make a limited area look especially abundant and fertile.
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Use plant ladders and levels to hide sharp corners. For a more rounded and organic finish, you can naturalize the interior corners of a fence with a combination of fruiting vines and tall herbs. To reach the top of a fence, these will typically require structural support. Here, the combination of heirloom tomatoes and potted marigolds, propped onto crates or stools, creates levels that add much-needed complexity and texture.
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Don’t shy away from adding character to small spaces! Shrubs clipped into fanciful shapes need not be limited to sprawling topiary gardens. They can add to the modest charm of a cottage garden too.
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If your space allows it, add a platform. In small gardens, a raised area can give the illusion of a slightly larger space, especially if it is constructed with a different medium. Neatly paved bricks and a few potted plants can truly elevate your backyard.
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Look to the minimalist gardens of the East for inspiration. The Japanese have a clever way of transforming small spaces into the most relaxing focal points of their home. The interplay of both living and non-living features, like smooth stones and miniature pagodas, emphasizes the value of being harmonious with nature.
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Fill out rough gaps with miniature rock gardens. Sedums, particularly those that hail from coastal alpine regions, are great for adding interest to crevices and sloping areas. As a plus, they require little in terms of care and maintenance.
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Place plants at different heights. Use a shelf to display pots of annual blooms. Grow trailing vines on a lattice. Partly hide the railing of stairs and all low edges with tufts of ground cover plants. These should play with one’s peripheral vision and encourage your guests to explore every nook and cranny of the small garden.
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Prop up your most eye-catching flowering plants in valuable vases. These should thoroughly increase the visual appeal of small spaces. Aim to cultivate the most vivid blooms for unforgettable pops of color. Spend a chunk of your free time marveling at the otherworldly petals!
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Take advantage of the aerial space above your garden by maintaining hanging plants. Species that produce cascading stems are perfect for hanging arrangements. Hang these from a porch, trellis, or along the edges of your fence to balance out your garden’s visual elements.
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Convert your wall or fence into a vertical garden. When space is scarce, you can anchor a multi-leveled structure to any sturdy, upright surface. Fill the levels with soil and grow an array of small plants. Species that favor being root-bound tend to thrive in these arrangements.
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Embellish a wall or fence with ferns, succulents, and epiphytes. This goes to show that every surface, including wholly vertical ones, can be covered in all manner of plants! Let your imagination run wild. Succulents that grow too heavy can simply be trimmed. Propagate the cuttings to fill out more vertical or horizontal arrangements.
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Balance out your greens with a metal bird bath. Any other form of garden décor, like a marble sculpture or a small fountain, can pleasantly contrast the features of a few surrounding plants.
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Plant an array of epiphytes. Orchids and air plants are masters at colonizing vertical spaces. As they use their roots to cling onto structures, they don’t necessarily require bottom substrates. In particularly humid areas, these can be packed together to create an incredibly colorful display of blooms.
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A movable plant stand for your prized herbs should take up minimal square footage. This can lean against a wall or, if sturdy enough, may stand on its own. Use it to display your most prized pots of annuals or various culinary herbs for easy reach.
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Incorporate a miniature water feature into your garden’s layout. Something as simple as a large ceramic bowl can be used to cultivate a tiny pond – filled with life! You may even throw in a few hydrophytes and a handful of tiny, freshwater fish.
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If there’s enough room for a set of chairs and a table, you can create the coziest of garden patios! There’s nothing quite like enjoying a cup of morning coffee in your own plant-filled, outdoor space. Make sure to provide just enough room to do some basic gardening tasks past the patio’s edge.
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Choose miniature cultivars of larger shrubs and trees. The dwarf Japanese maple (Acer palmatum), for example, is often used as a specimen plant in small gardens because of its perfectly manageable size. Despite its size, it has all of the most fantastic visual features of its larger counterparts. Species that are known for their pliability as bonsai trees can be used for the same purpose.
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A miniature garden – literally! Take your creativity to the next level by creating a small-scale version of your dream garden. Just keep in mind that the plants used in a setup like this will probably require a daily to weekly trim to stay within the confines of your design.
Final Thoughts
“Less is more” is an old adage that works perfectly for small gardens. These need not be devoid of the elements that make extensive landscapes and botanical gardens memorable. A small garden can be an escape from the hustle and bustle of modern-day life. As each surface has the potential to be transformed, let your imagination run free! For long-term manageability, work with small-to-medium species with a fairly slow to moderate rate of spread.
