Written by Barbara Gee
Well your space may be small but your ideas don’t have to be. Your canvas is minimal but your palette doesn’t have to be and you certainly don’t have to be timid. You can still make bold choices. And the petite size can be a blessing. You have possibilities with a small space that may get lost in a huge landscape. Think of your oh-so-manageable space as a framework within which you must work and this will help you focus your design. Look at what you have: maybe an interesting wall between you and your neighbor, some lovely old shade trees next door, a rustic fence, or great front steps leading directly onto the street… The structural elements of the house or apartment building become more important in the design of a small garden because they’re “in your face.” But don’t dismiss the existing elements. Incorporate them into your design.
There are certain aspects of landscape design that are common to any space whatever the size. Perhaps the most important is getting to know the space. Note how the sun moves around it throughout the day. Look at the growing conditions and the soil which, on a city lot, may need some serious improvement. Think about how you want to use your garden: for entertaining, relaxing, exercising… and ask yourself if it’s more important to you to see your garden from inside your home or outside, or both.
Susan Pasquarelli, a busy college professor is very happy with the size of her tiny garden in Newport, RI, specifically because of its size. “I love the amount of work it takes – or doesn’t take! I can do the spring cleaning in one full day, and lay down mulch the second day while making a list for the garden shop of what plants I may need as replacement.”
Pasquarelli then has time to do the other things she loves which is spend time relaxing in her garden having cooked a gourmet meal for family and friends. “Some gardeners never get to sit and relax in their gardens because there’s always work to be done,” she said.
Pasquarelli designed her garden entirely from the second floor bedroom windows “I could see the whole garden,” she said. “It was easy to get the big picture.”
One piece of advice she has for folks who garden in small spaces is plant upwards. “When I first started the garden I didn’t realize how important the upward climbing plants would be for privacy.”
This is important when people live close to each other. Pasquarelli solved her problem by erecting a trellis and made of it a “living fence” using ivy, honeysuckle and climbing hydrangea. The next thing she did was open up the space by pruning the lower branches of the gigantic and overly dominant holly trees. This gave her room to plant underneath and to build a bluestone “terrazzo” for table and chairs.
Many folks with limited space make use of container planting. Grouping the containers together creatively is a great way of building a garden without having to plant in a bed. You can stagger the height of the containers, place them on steps or hang them from anywhere and everywhere – fences, walls, porches, overhangs, screens, trellises… Pasquarelli planted a selection of herbs in containers right outside the deck door which is near to the kitchen.
In a small space where the eye is intimately drawn to plantings containers allow you to make changes quickly. When something stops blooming you can exchange it for something that’s in bloom – but don’t forget that foliage can be the best feature of a plant. It’s not always about the blooms.
And city gardeners don’t have to go without their home-grown produce: fruits and vegetables can be grown in containers. Tomatoes work beautifully, so do peppers, beans and strawberries, and different lettuce varieties make a gorgeous display grouped together. Don’t be afraid to mix edibles up with non-edibles in the containers – just know which is which.
Shrubs can also be grown in containers and, at a pinch, small trees but these may have special overwintering needs which city dwellers can’t accommodate. There are some wonderful small trees and shrubs that work well in small spaces but if you’re up to the task you can still control a larger shrub and keep it small with judicious pruning.
Garden design isn’t just about the plants. The hardscape and accent ornaments are an important element. Another Newport resident Susan Champagne gardens on a lot that is 3,400 square feet total including the house but this does not stop her from using every inch for planting. She and her husband took out an old deck which took up most of the back yard along with a tiny strip of beaten up old turf and paved the entire area in bluestone creating two levels surrounded by bluestone raised beds. They also built a raised bed running the length of the driveway embellished all the way down with fun statuary and ornaments Champagne has collected over the years. They installed a privacy fence and a gate inviting visitors into the back yard thus creating a little mystery. True to her mission of planting everywhere Champagne designed different area plantings around the house including a “tropical garden” – yes, in New England – which is enclosed between her house and the next door neighbor: “it holds the heat and is relatively dry because the rain doesn’t always finds its way in,” she said, “so I can have fun there.”
City gardens have limitations and some of them may come from next door. Champagne had to contend with two big old trees in the neighbor’s yards that almost completely blocked the sun from her back yard. She pruned them back, with the go-ahead from the neighbors, but still there’s very little sun. Undaunted she incorporated a lot of unusual shade plants into her design and hung plants on the walls to catch what sun there is.
On a final note don’t forget about wildlife even in a city. Birds and butterflies bring life to a garden so hang bird-feeders taking care to place them somewhere that cats can’t reach. Take the same care with the placement of bird baths.
Pasquarelli and Champagne love the economy of work load in a small garden: “nothing bothers us about the size,” they say.
Plants for small gardens
Trees:
Maple ‘Emerald Elf’
Dwarf Alberta Spruce
Shrubs
Weigelia ‘Midnight Wine’
Mugho Pine ‘Slow Mound’
Spirea ‘Daphne’
Chamaecyparis ‘Nana Gracilis’
Lilac ‘Prairie Petite’
Buddleia
Ornamental Grasses:
Miscanthus ‘Kleine Fontaine’
Sesleria nitida
Perennials:
Artemesia ‘Silver Mound’
Campanula ‘Blue Harebells’
Heuchera ‘Chocolate Ruffles’
Daylily ‘Stella d’Oro’
Chrysanthemum ‘White Bomb’
Annuals:
Calendula officinalis
Centaurea cyanus
Scabiosa prolifera
Zinnia peruviana
Well your space may be small but your ideas don’t have to be. Your canvas is minimal but your palette doesn’t have to be and you certainly don’t have to be timid. You can still make bold choices. And the petite size can be a blessing. You have possibilities with a small space that may get lost in a huge landscape. Think of your oh-so-manageable space as a framework within which you must work and this will help you focus your design. Look at what you have: maybe an interesting wall between you and your neighbor, some lovely old shade trees next door, a rustic fence, or great front steps leading directly onto the street… The structural elements of the house or apartment building become more important in the design of a small garden because they’re “in your face.” But don’t dismiss the existing elements. Incorporate them into your design.
There are certain aspects of landscape design that are common to any space whatever the size. Perhaps the most important is getting to know the space. Note how the sun moves around it throughout the day. Look at the growing conditions and the soil which, on a city lot, may need some serious improvement. Think about how you want to use your garden: for entertaining, relaxing, exercising… and ask yourself if it’s more important to you to see your garden from inside your home or outside, or both.
Susan Pasquarelli, a busy college professor is very happy with the size of her tiny garden in Newport, RI, specifically because of its size. “I love the amount of work it takes – or doesn’t take! I can do the spring cleaning in one full day, and lay down mulch the second day while making a list for the garden shop of what plants I may need as replacement.”
Pasquarelli then has time to do the other things she loves which is spend time relaxing in her garden having cooked a gourmet meal for family and friends. “Some gardeners never get to sit and relax in their gardens because there’s always work to be done,” she said.
Pasquarelli designed her garden entirely from the second floor bedroom windows “I could see the whole garden,” she said. “It was easy to get the big picture.”
One piece of advice she has for folks who garden in small spaces is plant upwards. “When I first started the garden I didn’t realize how important the upward climbing plants would be for privacy.”
This is important when people live close to each other. Pasquarelli solved her problem by erecting a trellis and made of it a “living fence” using ivy, honeysuckle and climbing hydrangea. The next thing she did was open up the space by pruning the lower branches of the gigantic and overly dominant holly trees. This gave her room to plant underneath and to build a bluestone “terrazzo” for table and chairs.
Many folks with limited space make use of container planting. Grouping the containers together creatively is a great way of building a garden without having to plant in a bed. You can stagger the height of the containers, place them on steps or hang them from anywhere and everywhere – fences, walls, porches, overhangs, screens, trellises… Pasquarelli planted a selection of herbs in containers right outside the deck door which is near to the kitchen.
In a small space where the eye is intimately drawn to plantings containers allow you to make changes quickly. When something stops blooming you can exchange it for something that’s in bloom – but don’t forget that foliage can be the best feature of a plant. It’s not always about the blooms.
And city gardeners don’t have to go without their home-grown produce: fruits and vegetables can be grown in containers. Tomatoes work beautifully, so do peppers, beans and strawberries, and different lettuce varieties make a gorgeous display grouped together. Don’t be afraid to mix edibles up with non-edibles in the containers – just know which is which.
Shrubs can also be grown in containers and, at a pinch, small trees but these may have special overwintering needs which city dwellers can’t accommodate. There are some wonderful small trees and shrubs that work well in small spaces but if you’re up to the task you can still control a larger shrub and keep it small with judicious pruning.
Garden design isn’t just about the plants. The hardscape and accent ornaments are an important element. Another Newport resident Susan Champagne gardens on a lot that is 3,400 square feet total including the house but this does not stop her from using every inch for planting. She and her husband took out an old deck which took up most of the back yard along with a tiny strip of beaten up old turf and paved the entire area in bluestone creating two levels surrounded by bluestone raised beds. They also built a raised bed running the length of the driveway embellished all the way down with fun statuary and ornaments Champagne has collected over the years. They installed a privacy fence and a gate inviting visitors into the back yard thus creating a little mystery. True to her mission of planting everywhere Champagne designed different area plantings around the house including a “tropical garden” – yes, in New England – which is enclosed between her house and the next door neighbor: “it holds the heat and is relatively dry because the rain doesn’t always finds its way in,” she said, “so I can have fun there.”
City gardens have limitations and some of them may come from next door. Champagne had to contend with two big old trees in the neighbor’s yards that almost completely blocked the sun from her back yard. She pruned them back, with the go-ahead from the neighbors, but still there’s very little sun. Undaunted she incorporated a lot of unusual shade plants into her design and hung plants on the walls to catch what sun there is.
On a final note don’t forget about wildlife even in a city. Birds and butterflies bring life to a garden so hang bird-feeders taking care to place them somewhere that cats can’t reach. Take the same care with the placement of bird baths.
Pasquarelli and Champagne love the economy of work load in a small garden: “nothing bothers us about the size,” they say.
Plants for small gardens
Trees:
Maple ‘Emerald Elf’
Dwarf Alberta Spruce
Shrubs
Weigelia ‘Midnight Wine’
Mugho Pine ‘Slow Mound’
Spirea ‘Daphne’
Chamaecyparis ‘Nana Gracilis’
Lilac ‘Prairie Petite’
Buddleia
Ornamental Grasses:
Miscanthus ‘Kleine Fontaine’
Sesleria nitida
Perennials:
Artemesia ‘Silver Mound’
Campanula ‘Blue Harebells’
Heuchera ‘Chocolate Ruffles’
Daylily ‘Stella d’Oro’
Chrysanthemum ‘White Bomb’
Annuals:
Calendula officinalis
Centaurea cyanus
Scabiosa prolifera
Zinnia peruviana