Big Ideas for a Small Yard

Dining Deck


Starting with a strong, if somewhat romantic, concept. Inside the walls grow herbs, lettuces, fruit, and flowers for the household. You can emulate the intimate, sheltered garden closely linked to the house. And I'd create it with modern materials, rather than mossy old brick. 

Shown: The deck offers space for casual seating; wide steps provide plenty of room for containers that help blend the structure into the garden. The concrete-paver patio makes a subdued background for bright perennials in shades of yellow, orange, plum, and green.


Trellis
Here, the curved trellis near the back of the yard adds height and a privacy buffer. Planted with sweet peas, it provides valuable growing space in a small garden.

Garden Stairs


To play off the low-key style of the shingled house, I used utilitarian materials like gravel and concrete, and a limited but exuberant color palette to liven up the somber materials without overwhelming the small space. 

Here, a burgundy-red Japanese maple, 'Orange Dream,' underplanted with golden Heuchera 'Caramel' provides a bit of privacy on the deck. Another Japanese maple, 'Baldsmith,' welcomes visitors stepping down into the garden.




Concrete Stepping Stones


An artist once told me that charcoal gray is the ideal backdrop to set off all other colors, so I chose dark gray pavers for the terrace and path. The gray pavers are now a calm oasis in an explosion of exuberant orange, yellow, and purple plantings. 


Here, concrete-paver stepping stones lead to compost and storage areas along on one side of the house. The orange flowers of Lobelia tupa brighten the pathway.

Garden Fountain and Custom Paver


 Lilies, roses, hydrangeas, and even trees are all in these dramatic colors that give the greatest effect per square inch of planting space. 


You can't imagine a garden without water for its soothing sound and light- and sky-reflecting properties. But how to squeeze a pond and fountain into such a tiny space? Here is a freestanding concrete fountain, instead. It merely needs to be filled up and plugged in. Water bubbles up from the sphere on top then flows into a pair of rectangular basins. 


The fountain holds pride of place on the main terrace, next to the dining table. ­Despite its small volume of water, butterflies and dragonflies flock to it, and birds teeter on the rim.

Reading Patio


Tucked into the far corner of the garden, a second, smaller patio with a chaise lounge makes an ideal reading refuge.

Feed-Trough Planters


Here is created topographical interest, as well as better soil and easier-on-the-back gardening, by building raised beds in two different sizes, shapes, and materials.


Four round galvanized-metal feed troughs (with holes drilled in the bottom for drainage) echo the metal used for the screens. Tomatoes and strawberries ripen quickly in the soil warmed by their reflectivity. The 5-foot troughs also serve as low-maintenance planters for yellow gaillardias, Peruvian lilies, pumpkins, and strawberries.

Concrete-Block Raised Beds


The rest of the beds are rectangular split-faced concrete blocks mortared together with a capstone wide enough to sit on when gardening or to serve as extra seating for parties. Constructing them with efficient drip irrigation already in place makes watering the beds no chore at all. 


It's amazing how the narrow garden is visually widened by angling the terraces away from the house and setting the rectangular raised beds—filled with flowers, fruits, vegetables, and herbs like purple sage, chives, and borage—on a diagonal.

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