SMALL GARDENS

In a small garden, beautiful detail can be closely appreciated: Variegated Creeping Stonecrop and Veronica 'Crater Lake Blue' in early June.

Gardens sizes across the United States are shrinking. If you only have a small space or a single border to landscape, an intimate garden can be made cozy and inviting, and with the right screening, can be turned into a private oasis. You can look to Asian Gardens for inspiration, create an abundant, informal haven, or choose the more methodical organization of a formal garden. Enclosed courtyard gardens take full advantage of small spaces. In each case, with a small-space garden, you weave the strongest elements of a particular style into your design..

A fountain or other water feature brings refreshing life to your garden and can mask outside noise. Boulders and river rock can be arranged as a dry streambed to suggest a stream or river. Outdoor lighting adds ambiance and security.

Containers add color and height, increase planting space and bring the plants closer to eye-level. They highlight entrances and make the most of even the smallest nook. Containers can be used in places with no ground to cultivate, such as balconies, decks or rooftops, where they become the focal point. In courtyards, they accentuate and can link interior and exterior. Using drip irrigation or moisture-holding soil mixes will ease maintenance needs. Choosing larger containers and keeping them out of the most intense mid-afternoon sun during the summer makes for happier plants and owners.

Plants for small gardens need to be chosen deliberately, displaying good foliage and texture and a long season of interest. Invasive or overly vigorous plants should be avoided. While a vivid, joyful color scheme may be just perfect, often a more restrained color palette works best in a small space. With several high-performing plants repeated throughout the garden and gathered in groupings, the garden will appear more calming and connected.

It is important to make choices and decide on connecting elements that give your small garden a common thread or theme. Focus on quality rather than quantity to create a superior garden paradise. Every element can be seen up close and detail is important. Many features can have a dual purpose, such as sitting boulders or a sitting wall around a patio. Small gardens can be elegant, romantic, contemporary, contemplative, formal or naturalistic. The right style will be determined by the space, the architecture of the home and your personal taste. Choices are abundant, but once you have decided on a theme, carry it through!

See also Rock Gardens / Mediterranean Gardens.

Vibrant Containers

Containers can frame a deck or seating area, giving it definition as well as adding profuse color, owner's garden in August 2008.

Mediterranean Courtyard

For additional photos of this garden, please refer to Rock Gardens

The stucco wall creates privacy from neighboring homes and shelter from the wind in this Mediterranean-style courtyard, October 2008. The wall also connects home and garden, sporting the same finish and paint color as the home's exterior.

Residential Townhouse: Town houses are a popular choice for urban, in-town living or second homes. They require less maintenance than larger, individual homes and can be more affordable. The gardens, while small, can still contain many desired landscape components. Creating privacy is often a priority.

The small backyard of a residential town home in Hood River, Oregon in early April of 2004.	Boulders stacked to form an informal wall surround the patio below and furnish enclosure. Natural, raised plantings boost privacy, late May 2005.
Return to: Residential Gardens