Small Garden Design Considerations

A garden, even a small one, can accent and add beauty to a home. If you’ve avoided creating a garden because you think that you don’t have the space, you may want to rethink it. You can make a nice little garden in an unused corner or even an area as small as a table top and it doesn’t matter whether you are living in a condominium or an apartment. It simply takes a little creativity and focus on detail to make it happen.

Small gardens, whether a small vegetable garden or flower garden, obviously don’t require as much work compared to a larger plot. However, they do require the same degree of passion, interest, and like I said, a lot of attention to detail. If you’re not a master gardener or if you have little time to putter around with your plants, you can still condense a beautiful garden into a small space in the backyard or on the balcony of your condo.

Small gardens take a little more strategical thought and placement of plants and elements in order to make the most of the small space. You should design with future growth in mind so that when the plants reach maturity they don’t get into the spaces they don’t belong in.

The same as all gardens, you’ll need to check the basics before you can intelligently design and plan a small garden. Because of generally being closed in, sunshine, shade, and heat are main influencing factors. Too much of one or too little of another is a main influence as to what type of plants you can use. Most flowering plants cannot thrive in blistering heat nor can they grow well with little sunshine. Soil is another consideration. Know it or fix it so you can get the right varieties of plants. Not knowing is a preventable costly mistake.

If the garden is to be viewed, the shape and the size of the small garden should be taken into account. You should assess shape, size, and visibility to identify which areas should have interesting highlights that may be viewed from the living room window or from the dining or other room. So whether you are indoors or outdoors, you can enjoy the view offered by your garden.

Visualize or draw how furnishings and sitting areas in the garden will affect the functionality of the area. If your garden is to be placed in or around an outdoor activity area, your plants shouldn’t get in the way of the traffic. Your little garden should not hamper the usual activities in the rest of the landscaping. Instead, the colorful flowers and the attractive shrubs should frame the patio and regale the eyes with a burst of coordinated or mixed and matched colors.

Your plant choices and colors can create a lot of atmosphere as well as illusions of more space and there should be a purpose for the choice of plants if you want to create a themed garden. And you may also consider seasonal plants so there would be something interesting in the garden all year long.

For a little space, you might not be able to grow all the flowering plants you love and you may have to give up a few of your favorites. However, with a little creativity and thought, you can furnish the garden with colorful pots, a water fountain, lanterns, and other decor to make a beautiful garden even out of the smallest spaces.