The addition of level changes, colorful plants, containers, and accessories adds layers of interest to a small space.
The addition of level changes, colorful plants, containers, and accessories adds layers of interest to a small space.
Exploring a smaller backyard is akin to peeling back the layers of an onion. The first layer is the most immediate: What do you see when you first step outside? Design strategies that extend a garden’s footprint — either literally (by planting in unexpected places) or imaginatively (by crafting the illusion of more space) — help sidestep the unwelcome sensation that with one quick look around, you’ve seen all there is to see.
Sight is the most direct way to engage with a garden, but it is not the only way outdoor spaces pull us in. In a thoughtfully planned garden, our initial assessment of it only stokes our enthusiasm to delve deeper — it should hint at nooks to be explored and pleasures to be uncovered. This is where the intimate scale of a small backyard becomes a real asset. By incorporating details that add layers of visual intrigue, you can create a uniquely intense, interactive garden experience that isn’t easily replicated in large backyards or broader landscapes.
One key to expanding any garden’s perceived size is to utilize nontraditional spaces. So while the logical place to begin a new backyard design is with an accurate measurement that clearly represents its total area, it’s equally important to remember that a backyard can be much more than just the ground immediately underfoot. Likewise, to add additional impact to an existing space — one with patios and planting beds that won’t be changing, or can’t — you must look beyond the ground plane.
One of the most popular and enduring trends in recent years has been vertical gardening, for the straightforward reason that turning walls, fences, and other upright structures into growing surfaces is a clever way to add more plants to tight spaces. Growing plants on walls is often employed as a utilitarian solution, for example by vegetable gardeners in search of ways to grow more edible crops. But going vertical also provides ornamental gardeners with a fantastic opportunity to make an impact. Instead of leaving fences bare or smothering them with unruly vines, consider turning some of these surfaces into focal-point walls.
When we enter a space, our eyes have a natural tendency to follow the strongest lines. In a garden where large expanses of wall or fence are left exposed, these become the dominant lines of the garden by default, naturally drawing the gaze of visitors even if these elements have long since become invisible to owners. It is hard to imagine a less impactful, inadvertent focal point than a plain wood fence. To remedy this, consider a design strategy more commonly associated with interior design and treat your fence like a blank wall that would benefit from embellishment or accessories.
Your approach to how simple or complex to make a perimeter wall’s decoration should depend in part on the furnishings and plants close to the wall. For surfaces located behind planting beds, particularly if some of those plants are tall enough to obscure part of the wall, simply adding a wash of paint may be enough to transform it from mundane to remarkable. Choose bold colors to make a dramatic statement, or softer tones for a subtler impact. Providing your plants with a colorful backdrop also integrates vertical and horizontal elements, turning what may have been a simple grouping of plants into a true vignette.
Adding art to plain surfaces, particularly a fence or wall adjacent to a planned seating area, is another effective way to take advantage of the space you have. Keep in mind that because a garden is alive, the exuberance of even a lightly planted garden necessarily means a certain level of visual chaos. Because of this, consider limiting wall décor to a single, bold item such as a planted living wall, a mirror, or an outdoor wall sculpture. Mimicking the type of focal points used with interior design in an outdoor space also helps reinforce to visitors that a patio’s seating area is a distinct destination — which in turn creates another type of space on which the eye can rest. The placement of other outdoor décor items can further reinforce this if they are grouped to highlight the wall’s accent piece.
One carefully sited piece of living wall art is enough to turn a simple fence into a focal point wall.
In many ways, small gardens are a boon, as it is possible to create more atmosphere with much less effort. Still, there’s no question that they can feel confining. Fortunately, the yardstick that measures a successful garden is less about the perfection of its individual components, and more about how we respond to the space as a whole. That’s where illusion comes in. Incorporating a few simple techniques that give the impression your garden is bigger than it really is will combat that too-small feeling.
Well incorporated, mirrors can be a simple but effective tool for expanding a garden’s perceived boundaries. There’s a reason a mirror over the fireplace mantel is such a popular design choice in living rooms — reflecting back a portion of the room is an easy way to add spaciousness and elegance to an enclosed area. A mirror hung on an outdoor wall or fence performs a similar function. When positioned near a seating area, it helps give the space a finished appearance, and by reflecting back the details of the garden, it creates the illusion that the space is larger than it actually is.
Incorporating mirrors in more adventurous ways can add a truly magical element to a garden. Since a mirror hung outdoors is not expected, it’s often not instantly recognized as such. Nestled among the foliage, reflecting back the greenery of the garden, it feels like a viewport to another realm. To maximize the impact of unconventionally placed mirrors, play around with locations. High on a fence, a small mirror masquerades as a window to a different part of the garden. Leaned against a wall lower down, it creates the impression of a child-sized door to a secret garden, particularly if a few artfully placed stepping-stones lead up to it. For maximum effect, place mirrors in heavily planted areas. Partially obscuring a mirror with plants and outdoor décor makes it that much harder to identify, adding to the likelihood that people will walk over to it to investigate. It is important to be aware of what the mirror faces — branches, leaves, and flowers are what you want the mirror to reflect. Hanging one opposite a blank wall or open stretch of garden will destroy the fantasy. If the place you want to hang a mirror doesn’t have the best reflected view, you can always try tilting it toward a greener part of the garden.
Any strategy that leaves the impression there is more garden to explore will add to the illusion of extra space. While the tendency may be to focus all your design energy on the primary living spaces in the backyard, remember that you don’t have to relegate a side yard to becoming a utilitarian storage area or uninspiring pass-through. Even when it is impractical to fully landscape your home’s side yards, using even a portion of them to visually extend a garden’s area will avoid making it look like your garden ends abruptly at the edges of the house. Stopping the backyard’s interesting areas flush with the sides of the house creates an unbroken line, reinforcing the long, narrow profile the overall layout should be trying to minimize. Even when the design focus is primarily on the main backyard, you can incorporate what I’ve dubbed “disappearing pathways.” Extending a path and its surrounding plantings just a few feet around the corner creates the illusion of spaciousness and leads the viewer to believe there’s more garden to see. The fact that the pathway may lead to nothing more exciting than trash receptacles or the compost bin can stay your little secret.
Mirrors don’t always need to be eye level.
There are a few practical considerations when placing mirrors in the garden. Shady areas, where bright sunlight won’t be reflected back, are ideal. Not only will placement in these darker locations keep annoying or even hazardous flashes of light from reflecting back into the garden, but a shadier spot will also minimize the possibility that the mirror is in the flight path of birds.
Walls are a time-honored method for adding structure to a garden, but in small backyards, using plants to create separation between spaces accomplishes the same goal, without overwhelming the yard or blocking it off visually from borrowed views or other areas of the garden. Sheared, dense shrubs can also have the undesired effect of making a garden seem as if it’s been separated into small, disconnected spaces, inadvertently creating a cramped feeling — the opposite of what you want to achieve when adding greenery. To make a small yard feel luxuriously private without crowding, consider what are dubbed see-through plants. Tall and airy plants create a permeable border that subtly separates one area from the next, as the gaps between their branches or leaves allow glimpses of the garden beyond. Grasses are an obvious choice for this, but many perennials and annuals provide a similar effect. Look for plants with an open framework of stems, as opposed to mounding plants with an abundance of leaves or flowers.
For the most part, herbaceous plants — those with soft stems, such as most perennials — work best to create a see-through effect, as woodier shrubs tend to be tightly formed. Plants that are less densely leafed and can be pruned into an open, attractive shape are the exception. Moderately sized manzanitas (Arctostaphylos densiflora) such as ‘Howard McMinn’ or ‘Sentinel’ are good examples. With attractive cinnamon-colored bark and naturally sculptural forms, both of these cultivars can be trained into small, open tree shapes to create a tall, permeable border.
Avoid placing mirrors too high, and stick to shadier spots where birds are unlikely to encounter them.
Don’t stop patios or pathways flush with the edge of the house. Continuing hardscape around the corner of the house — even a few feet — creates the illusion of a larger space.
Even small gardens benefit from structural elements that help define spaces, but incorporating them without overpowering the landscape can be tricky. Because of their open, loosely branching habit, see-through plants create the illusion of separation, while still allowing views into other parts of the garden.
| Plant | USDA zones | Description |
(Sanguisorba menziesii) |
4–9 | Slender stems and narrow-profile blooms create an attractive see-through effect. Dark maroon flowers that resemble pussy willow catkins top feathery, blue-gray foliage. 18 inches wide by 2.5 feet tall. |
(Bouteloua gracilis ‘Blonde Ambition’) |
4–9 | A hardy ornamental grass, 2.5 to 3 feet wide and tall, with striking blue-green foliage. Medium-sized spikes of wheat-colored stalks topped by unusual, flag-shaped flowers in summer. |
|
dwarf lion’s tail (Leonotis menthifolia) |
9–10 | An evergreen shrub whose structure resembles that of a perennial. Tubular whorls of fuzzy, orange flowers on tall stems add both architectural interest and color. 4 to 5 feet wide and tall. |
(Verbena hastata ‘Rosea’) |
3–9 | Delicate arching flowers grow in cup-shaped whorls on stalks, resembling an elegant candelabrum. Notable for dark pinkish purple buds that open to a rich rose color. 2 feet wide and 3 to 4 feet tall. |
(Anigozanthos spp.) |
9–11 | Flowers rise on slender stalks 2 to 4 feet above a base of strappy green leaves. Seek out selections from the Velvet series, whose leaves are less susceptible to turning black in cold weather. 2 to 6 feet high and 18 inches to 3 feet wide. |
(Kniphofia uvaria) |
5–9 | Stately, narrow flower stalks rise above slender, bright green leaves. Stems grow from 2 to 5 feet depending on variety, so check labels. Heat, cold and drought tolerant. 2 to 5 feet high and 1 to 3 feet wide. |
By its very nature, a small garden has a correspondingly intimate scale. This means visitors will be able to see most of it up close as they move through it. Consider this an advantage: it presents the opportunity to include details that make the garden truly welcoming and unique. One of the simplest and most enjoyable ways to add a sense of discovery and to encourage thoughtful and leisurely strolls through a small garden is to tuck in a few surprises. This can be as simple as rethinking placement of ordinary garden elements, like containers and garden art.
Rather than limiting containers to traditional locations like patios and stairs, consider scattering them throughout the landscape. When set unexpectedly into the back or middle of a planted bed where they aren’t immediately on display from the most-trafficked areas, they invite closer inspection. Including structural elements like containers in untraditional spaces like planting beds also provides welcome contrasts in texture and pleasantly confounds our expectations.
From a practical standpoint, containers can also be problem solvers for parts of the garden where planting is challenging. A good example of this might be under mature trees whose established root systems leave little space for new plants, or trees whose physiology makes them inhospitable to other plants. Trees like this are referred to as allelopathic, which means their roots secrete biochemicals that interfere with a nearby plant’s ability to thrive. Common examples include black walnut (Juglans nigra), sycamore (Platanus spp.), and eucalyptus. Because it is generally a chore to hand water the outer perimeter of the backyard, avoid high-maintenance plant choices for containers and opt for low-water shrubs and perennials that can thrive with a minimum of attention. In warm climates, for example, succulents are an excellent choice.
Containers aren’t just for patios and porches. Mix them into the landscape for more layers of visual interest.
A tiny sports figure tucked in a planting bed is a whimsical way to show support for your favorite team.
Requiring minimal care, succulents make a good choice for containers located away from a ready source of water.
Besides mixing containers into the landscape, why not tuck surprises into the containers themselves? Half-hidden by leafy greenery, what could be more fun than discovering an unexpected garden fairy or pint-sized gnome peeking up at you? Surprises like this don’t need to be traditional outdoor décor purchased at the garden center. Tuck in toys or figurines — have a sense of humor about it. Or choose small items that reflect your personal hobbies. Personalization adds a whimsical, memorable touch to a garden.
Young guests have come to love the hiding starfish in my garden.
While visiting a craft fair, I purchased three inexpensive ceramic starfish from a local artisan. Although I initially placed them carefully throughout the garden to highlight pathways and flowering perennials, over the years, the starfish have taken on a life of their own, traveling around the backyard seemingly at will. One of my favorite ways to enjoy their refusal to stay in one place is to make a game of it. When young children visit me, I’ll send them out into the garden to hunt for the starfish. Once they’ve been successfully located, I invite my guests to place the sea creatures in new hiding places — for the next visitor to discover.
Garden designs that rely on diagonal lines have a particularly bold impact in narrow backyards and side yards, because they effectively combat the bowling-alley effect. Unlike traditional geometric designs, where layouts are usually parallel or perpendicular to the house, this approach tilts axis lines on an angle to make a garden feel spacious in multiple ways. Just as the hypotenuse is the longest line in a right triangle, arranging the dominant line of the garden between opposite corners rather than from side to side aligns the garden with the two points that are farthest apart. By interrupting the strong rectangular shapes created by the lines of the house and the backyard’s boundaries, a diagonal axis helps our eyes skip from focal point to focal point within. This effect can be amplified by varying the width of any patios or pathways along that line in a staggered pattern, so that planting pockets and hardscape intermingle. Ensuring that hardscape is nestled into lush plants also keeps activity areas inviting, while the plants’ free-form shapes are crucial to breaking up the line of sight. This in turn brings an air of mystery and a sense that more of the garden is yet to be uncovered. On a practical note, this design strategy also helps create activity areas with ample space in proportion to the overall area of the yard.
Arranging the seating area on the diagonal helps break up the boxiness of this small suburban courtyard.
Diagonal design does not have to be an all-or-nothing proposition. Although it is an exciting way to organize a small garden or side yard overall, its principles can also be used to soften any strongly rectangular space in an existing garden. Laying square-shaped pavers, tiles, or flagstones on the diagonal will help counterbalance a rigid, rectangular patio. Even a simple gesture like orienting an outdoor area rug or furniture at an angle is enough to soften rectangular spaces.
Creating pathways that zigzag indirectly through the garden is a time-honored and excellent way to encourage visitors to slow down and enjoy the space, but one word of caution: don’t go overboard with directional changes on any path that is used for primary circulation. Forcing walkers to shift direction repeatedly when they really just need to get from Point A to Point B quickly becomes an annoyance. If people are forced to go too far out of their way on a daily basis, the unintended (but likely) result will be that they tramp a shortcut through your carefully planned garden beds.
Of all the things we can grow in our backyards, a lush, green lawn is probably the single most popular element, so ingrained in our sense of what makes a backyard respectable-looking that it transcends regionality and even practicality. For over 75 years, a backyard with a huge swath of lawn has been an integral part of the iconic American suburban lifestyle. When I began my career as a garden designer fifteen years ago, it was the rare client who didn’t request the inclusion of at least a modest-sized lawn in a backyard landscape design. Lately, the question of whether a garden plan should include a lawn at all comes up a lot more often.
The expectation that lawn should be an automatic component of a backyard is beginning to change. Recurring droughts in the Southeast and West have made homeowners much more selective as to where scarce water resources should be spent. Concerns for the impact on watershed health in the Northeast have also led communities to question the wisdom of using standard lawn-care chemicals. In the Midwest, a rediscovered appreciation of the biodiversity that occurs in native meadows has resulted in a shift in the definition of what a lawn can be. All these examples point to a growing national awareness that lawns — at least those grown from non-native species that require supplemental water and chemicals to sustain — are not always the best choice.
When your lot is modestly sized, a thoughtful approach to how much turf (if any) to include should be part of your planning process. If the goal is a design that maximizes impact, lawns by their very nature work against this effect. Traditional sod lawns eat up a disproportionate amount of real estate, crowding out the living spaces, structures, and ornamental spaces that bring a small garden to life.
That said, there are good reasons to keep some space devoted to lawn. Although there are other ground covers that can handle foot traffic, it is hard to beat traditional, regularly maintained sod for many outdoor activities. If you have young children, including a patch of turf for play can be a smart lifestyle choice. Likewise, those with dogs often want a place for their pets to exercise. Even so, before you opt for lawn, take time to think through how much you really need. In modest yards, lawns may be too small to be practical. If there isn’t a stretch big enough for throwing a Frisbee or playing a game of tag, you might be better served using the neighborhood park for such activities and devoting the backyard to different kinds of creative play besides sports, such as a sandbox, playhouse, or play structure.
There are, however, a number of compelling reasons to consider eliminating — or at least downsizing — a backyard lawn. First among these is a desire to spend more time enjoying a garden and less time maintaining it. Ditching the weekly drudgery of lawn care is one of the easiest ways to make this happen. While trimming or weeding can be ignored for long stretches with no real damage done, skipping the tasks associated with regular lawn maintenance isn’t an option. If a lawn is just being used as something pretty to look at, do you really need one at all? After all, that’s real estate that could be used for growing vegetables, fitting in a quiet spot to read or relax, or adding more entertainment space. In general, lawns add an aesthetic quality that’s perceived as nice to an average-sized backyard, but that’s about it.
One of the challenges of limiting or eliminating lawn in a backyard is figuring out exactly what to do with that space instead. If you know you want more patio space to accommodate additional seating or garden features, then it’s a straightforward transaction of swapping lawn for hardscape. But if the goal is to create a more attractive and interactive aesthetic, suddenly all that newly liberated space can feel daunting.
As much as I applaud downsizing lawns for cultural and lifestyle reasons, from a design standpoint, a lawn does make it easier to come up with a pleasing layout. A large swath of lawn creates negative space, which acts as a resting place for the eye that keeps the overall design easy to read. In a traditional backyard, the lawn typically occupies center stage next to the patio, with planted areas and other garden elements orbiting around its edges. Because of this, it becomes the neutral connection that unites these different garden elements. If you exclude lawn in the new design, it is important to introduce a new unifier.
One solution is to borrow the concept of a stroll garden. Popular on English country estates in the 1800s, this design style is characterized by meandering gravel walks leading through an open park. Trees and shrubbery were planted in groupings to mimic nature — replacing the hedgerows, parterres, and straight lines that had been popular until then — while whimsical small structures and statues were placed artfully throughout to create stopping points of interest and contemplation. The goal was to blend the house into the surrounding countryside and to create a more enjoyable, relaxed way to interact with the outdoors than was possible with the more formal garden styles of preceding generations.
Fortunately, you don’t need a large estate to create your own version of a stroll garden. Introducing a series of winding, interconnected paths is an easy way to break up any amount of real estate into manageable garden plots. This makes selecting plants, planting, and maintaining each mini-garden much more manageable. Paths could be traditional gravel, concrete, flagstone, pavers, granite fines — even simple mulch. An advantage to gravel or mulch, however, is permeability. Because they allow water and air to percolate into the soil below, gravel and mulch walkways can be widened or redirected easily to incorporate mature trees or large shrubs into a new design when overly enthusiastic roots do not allow for under-planting. Regardless of the paving you choose, consider material in a shade of gold or tan, which contrasts pleasantly with the planted areas. As long as you use a consistent material throughout, the pathways will perform the same visually unifying function as a lawn.
Be cautious of inadvertently creating too many intersecting pathways, however, which will result in a chaotic, crowded-looking design. If, after laying out the new walkways, the resulting planting areas feel too large to comfortably maintain, consider adding what I think of as junior pathways. Instead of a path made from the same material as the major pathways, allow two or three broad stepping-stones to twine a few feet into a bed. These will also simplify maintenance and encourage a closer inspection of the garden.
For the mini-gardens themselves, rather than planting flat and flush with paths, take advantage of the smaller garden beds by shaping garden soil into mounds. These mounds, often referred to as berms, are an excellent way to vary the topography even in a small space, a particularly appealing feature while the garden is still filling in and the plants are small and uniform. Man-made mounds will gradually compact and settle over time, so plan on building them up to a greater height than what you ultimately want to wind up with. Berms are most attractive when they have a free-form shape, so rather than mounding them into perfectly conical anthills, vary their width and height. They are also a practical way to reuse any excess soil from the pathway excavation — just be sure to amend the soil with compost if the native soil is dense clay or lacking in nutrients. Finally, berms are also an excellent way to improve drainage, a particularly important consideration in gardens with heavy clay soil.
An appealing aspect of this design as a replacement for lawn is the opportunity it makes for creative play. Curving pathways make great play spaces for games where children chase each other, and are certainly exciting highways for tricycles. For older children, why not give them their own garden bed, to plant and care for as they choose?
Perhaps you want to keep the functionality and the look of a lawn, but want to reduce maintenance chores or dependency on supplemental water and chemicals. Fortunately, homeowners nationwide have been moving toward more sustainable options, which has led to the introduction of a range of lawn choices appropriate for different parts of the country.
A California native no-mow mix handles full sun and light foot traffic, while using 40 percent less water than traditional turf grass.
Not all lawn options perform equally, so before settling on one, take time to determine what your performance requirements are. Questions to ask include:
• How much foot traffic must the lawn be able to handle?
• Is water conservation an issue?
• How much maintenance am I willing to do?
Despite their ubiquity, most commonly used turf grasses, such as Kentucky bluegrass, zoysia, and tall fescues, are not native to any portion of the country, but in fact are European imports. For a long time, grass species like these were the only options available. Fortunately, in recent years growers and nurseries have developed native and ecological turf selections that are adapted for local growing conditions throughout North America. Traditional turf grass is usually a monoculture, meaning it is made up of a single type of plant. While this creates a uniform look, it also results in a lawn that performs well only in very specific situations. In contrast, ecological lawn alternatives are made up of a blend of native and adapted species. Mixed lawns like these are bred to perform better in specific regions of the country, and are designed to thrive on minimal supplemental irrigation and fertilization. For the most part, they do not appreciate regular mowing (although there are some exceptions), which means that while they can be walked on comfortably, they shouldn’t be mowed to the short, uniform height of a traditional lawn. While this makes them a poor choice for sports fields, their reduced maintenance requirements and regional appropriateness make them a smart choice for most backyard gardens.
Grass-like species in different heights create more variety and interest than a single expanse of lawn.
Native and ecological lawns come the closest to replicating the look of a traditional lawn, but if all you are looking for is a swath of green that doesn’t need to handle much foot traffic, numerous ground cover plants can work in place of grass. One challenge, however, is that they are generally only available for purchase in small sizes; most are sold as plugs or cell packs. Unlike traditional turf, which is either rolled out as sod for an instant lawn, or hydro-seeded for relatively fast results, ground covers planted as individual plants can take months to years to completely fill in. This can make weeding a more regular chore than most of us like. For that reason, I recommend limiting the size of a ground cover lawn and opting for species that fill in more quickly.
A blue grama (Bouteloua gracilis) grass meadow lawn requires only 8 to 9 inches of water a year, making it an excellent choice for this Arizona garden.
Traditional turf grasses aren’t the only options for achieving a lush sweep of manicured lawn. Though they can’t handle the high foot traffic of sod, these ground covers offer some of the same advantages of turf grass, while using less water and providing more environmental benefits.
| Plant | USDA zones | Description |
|
‘Coastal Gem’ grevillea (Grevillea lanigera ‘Coastal Gem’) |
9–10 | A low-growing, mounding shrub, this attractive ground cover sports grayish green, needlelike foliage that stays evergreen all year round. Bi-colored flowers in shades of pink and white bloom almost continuously throughout the year. |
(Chamaemelum nobile) |
4–9 | The finely textured, rich green foliage of chamomile forms a solid mat and makes an excellent ground cover for a small area. Although its yellow flowers are inconspicuous, chamomile releases a heady herbal fragrance when stepped on or brushed against. Mow or shear occasionally. |
(Thymus serpyllum ‘Elfin’) |
4–9 | With small, closely spaced leaves and lilac-colored flowers that bloom in spring or summer, thyme is a classic choice for a lawnlet or between stepping-stones. May become leggy if it receives less than 5 hours of sun a day. |
(Waldsteinia fragarioides) |
4–7 | This ornamental strawberry-like plant makes an attractive, leafy, semi-evergreen ground cover. Cheerful yellow flowers appear in late spring. It is not particularly tolerant of heat and humidity, making it a good choice for more northern climates. |
(Rubus rolfei) |
6–10 | Forms a dense mat and is equally at home cascading over ledges or terraces. It produces insignificant white flowers in spring and occasionally fruits in summer. The real attraction, however, is the fall foliage: textured, thumbnail-sized leaves that begin a medium green and turn bright red to deep burgundy. |
(Ajuga reptans ‘Catlin’s Giant’) |
3–9 | A low, mounding form and shiny, bronze-tinted leaves make this a good option for adding contrast and texture to shady areas. In early spring, bright blue flowers are held on short spikes above the foliage. An excellent option for compacted soils near mature trees. Plants die back somewhat in cold weather, but return with vigor in spring. |
Drought conditions and sporadic mandatory water rationing have played havoc on traditional lawns in the western United States. Not surprisingly, this has led to increased interest in artificial turf as a no-water, evergreen alternative. Indeed, synthetic turf does provide some advantages over living lawn. It liberates you entirely from the tyranny of weekly mowing, not to mention semi-annual applications of fertilizer, yearly aeration, and the ongoing need to monitor and maintain irrigation. In the past, artificial turf was manufactured in a uniform green, but most products on the market today are significantly more natural looking — manufacturers have added in patches of brown or thatch, and offer grass blades that mimic specific lawn species. Where you place artificial turf can also affect how realistic it looks. Avoid the temptation to keep the lawn pristine, and instead allow some debris from nearby trees and plants to fall on it. You may have heard concerns about lead content; these relate to artificial turf manufactured before 2009, not to currently produced varieties.
On the downside, if you are choosing artificial turf for a sunny play space, be aware that unlike grass, it heats up when exposed to direct, hot sun. Manufacturers are beginning to address this by designing newer versions with some heat reflecting ability — worth looking into if you live in a warmer climate zone. Synthetic lawns are also not completely free of maintenance; they must be regularly rinsed down to stay clean, which in parts of the country with limited rainfall means hosing them down by hand. Areas that become mildly or heavily soiled must be sponge mopped with the cleaner recommended for the type of the stain. Tree sap, animal waste, and mold all have the ability to discolor artificial turf. In addition to cleaning, regular brushing is required to keep artificial grass from flattening out, especially in high traffic areas.
As irrigation is not required, synthetic turf can be cut into a variety of shapes to accommodate a design.
Environmentally, artificial turf earns a mainly neutral score. While it does not adversely affect the environment while it’s in place, neither does it offer any benefits. Unlike plant species — including traditional turf — that have the ability to sequester carbon, filter stormwater, and even provide pollen or food for insects and wildlife, artificial lawns don’t contribute to planetary or neighborhood health. As is true for many synthetic products, once your lawn has completed its useful lifespan, it cannot be recycled — it must be taken to a landfill.
If you limit yourself to creating a garden design from a bird’s-eye view, you risk ending up with a garden that looks beautiful on paper but is less than ideal once constructed. It’s equally important to imagine yourself walking through the space, and to create a view plan based on what you will be able to see as you do. Both are helpful ways of visualizing your space, and I encourage you to consider each perspective as you create or renovate your garden. I usually start by making at least a rough sketch of where the most important features will be, then I balance this with a 3-D perspective. Positioning the garden’s primary elements (such as patios, lawns, and planting beds) via a plan view sketch is important for establishing the right scale, managing circulation, and also for ensuring that each area is appropriately sized for whatever activities it needs to accommodate. Incorporating a third dimension allows you to understand how areas within the garden relate to one another as they will actually be used, as well as how the backyard interacts with the house and surrounding scenery.
Incorporating views is particularly important in small backyards, as it adds yet another layer to the garden. But where and how do you create views? To keep from getting overwhelmed during the design process and to make sure you highlight the garden’s most important attributes, establish a hierarchy of views. Begin with wherever you plan to spend the majority of your time. For most of us, that will be on a primary patio or deck located just outside the back door. Where will the furniture go? Can it be oriented to look toward the most attractive aspects of the garden? If not, can or should the garden be redesigned in the places that will be seen? In addition to establishing pleasant views, are there any unsightly areas that should be hidden, or that suggest rethinking the placement of the patio itself? It’s normal for some of your answers to these questions to fall into a gray area. Furnishings and structures like stand-alone barbecues and storage sheds may not be intrinsically unappealing, but if they inadvertently dominate a key view and block more attractive garden areas, consider adjusting your design.
Other views to consider are those that open up as you walk along and around the pathways, as well as any secondary activity areas your garden includes. Views from within the house should be considered too! Finally, think about how the spaces you create will be influenced by their proximity to your backyard’s fences or by what you can see beyond your property line.
Emphasizing views allows you to actively shape how your garden will be experienced. To better understand this, imagine your garden as a movie, and yourself as its director. During filming, the director’s goal is not just to tell a story but also to influence how the audience will react by setting mood. A director uses direction — and sometimes misdirection — to point us toward what he or she wants us to see, think, or even feel. By considering things besides just the basics of plants and hardscape, you become a director in the most literal sense. As such, one of your most effective tools for directing views is the thoughtful selection and placement of focal points. Focal points are generally defined as unique visual accents or elements, such as a fountain, bench, or standout plant, that draw the eye. But not all focal points function in the same way. Before siting any garden décor, consider what you hope to accomplish.
A beautiful garden is like a painted composition, and well-placed focal points give it interest and visual balance. In a small garden, visitors rarely need help navigating the garden in a literal sense, but there is still an opportunity to influence the way they interact within the space. Strategically placed focal points attract and arrest attention, providing a space for the eye to pause before moving in to explore. Because a progression of carefully considered focal points allows a garden’s beauty to be revealed at a gradual pace, anything that forces a pause is a boon to a small garden, where the tendency is for a visitor to try to digest what he or she can see all at once.
Virtually any object can act as a focal point, as long as it stands out from what surrounds it. For collectors of plants, containers, or outdoor art, focal point placement is particularly crucial. When objects designed to invite contemplation are lumped too closely together, the result can be visual chaos or the risk that no single item can be appreciated for its uniqueness. Conversely, when scattered thoughtfully throughout the garden, inherently interesting objects become an invitation to stop for a moment before moving on. Each object helps define the character or mood of its own little piece of garden. If you have room for more than one focal point, avoid the urge to line them up rigidly or space them equidistant from one another — the result will be that they look like a matched set connected to each other, rather than to the space they inhabit in the garden. A placement that is slightly off center or more organic encourages the eye to move in more than one direction, once again slowing down the pace at which the garden’s features are absorbed.
Consider the scale of objects and plants before you decide on a permanent placement for them in the garden. Small or intricate pieces work better close to seating areas or pathways where their detail can be appreciated. Statuary and plants that are farther away should be large enough to be understood at a distance, although conversely, if the object hints that a closer inspection will be rewarded with additional details, this invites visitors to range deeper into the garden. The choice of focal points may not be entirely under your control, however. If your backyard possesses a large or distinctive tree, for example, it will typically become a focal point by default. If this is the case, feel free to celebrate its prominence by adding a birdhouse, wind chime, or other type of garden enhancement. This is a particularly desirable approach for trees or large shrubs with a short season of interest.
Tall, vertical art pieces that contrast with surrounding foliage make excellent garden focal points.
Smaller pieces of art that are best admired at close range make attractive focal points near patios or other spaces where people congregate.
On field trips in my student days, we often asked the instructors to point out various real-life examples of design principles. Whenever one of our teachers was asked to identify the unifying element in a garden, “the lawn” was his inevitable response. I wasn’t quite sure that was a satisfying answer at the time, and now that I see so many homeowners choosing to minimize or remove lawns altogether, I’ve begun noticing and creating other ways to make a garden feel cohesive. Focal point placement works as an excellent strategy for connecting two or more spaces visually. Placing an object that is attractive when viewed from multiple sides (such as a circular water feature, small tree, or oversized urn) between multiple activity areas simultaneously creates both a subtle connection and a division. Activity areas are defined while remaining integrated. This works with multiple layouts, but is particularly effective with L-shaped patios, as placing an object with mass in the right angle created by the patio’s inside corner helps relieve the flatness of the surrounding hardscape.
Focal points can also be created from more than one object. This is particularly true if you are dividing a large expanse of continuous hardscape. In this instance, a lone object might appear too isolated, but a grouping of ornaments — such as containers of different heights with a similar finish or material — could work beautifully. Be sure to keep the grouping fairly cohesive and simple; for example, three containers of similar material, but no more.
Using focal points to create and guide views can be expanded to encompass more than just vistas within the garden itself. In fact, one of the most overlooked ways to get the most impact out of a small garden is to make it function like living wallpaper for your home’s interior. Windows often become default focal points inside a home, because the movement and color of the garden beyond naturally draw the eye. Make the outside view a prominent window showcases even more effective by anchoring the view with a focal point. This does not need to be distinct from focal point trees or objects you’ve already chosen — use whatever you’ve already decided should unify the garden. But when considering the placement of any new elements outdoors, factor in which windows or glass doors in your home overlook the backyard, and adjust the locations of newly introduced objects to create pleasing vistas from inside the house.
The standard advice for laying out small gardens is to focus on blocking undesirable views and planting trees or incorporating garden structures to ensure privacy. While this can be a good idea, rather than shutting out the space that lies beyond your property line, consider incorporating the extended environment into your own design if at all possible. The Japanese word shakkei is often translated as “borrowed scenery,” and refers to the design principle of incorporating the surrounding landscape into your garden composition. Desirable scenery can range from something as grand as distant mountains, a city skyline, or even a well-planted golf course to something as simple as an attractive tree in your neighbor’s garden. Using taller shrubs and trees to frame desirable views essentially extends the walls of your own garden — at no additional cost to you. If views are entirely open rather than glimpsed through structures and trees, consider adding low-growing plants in your garden to help anchor the space and further accentuate the frame.
Neighboring yards don’t need to have obvious focal-point plantings to factor into your design strategy, however. Note the location, size, color, and habit of the trees that border your own property. These can — and should — impact your plant choices for your own yard. If your neighbor has planted evergreen trees close to your shared border, for example, don’t just plant more in an effort to make the palette consistent. Why not choose a tree with silver or burgundy leaves for your side of the fence, essentially taking advantage of their landscaping choices to create an attractive background that will be a visual foil for your own? Likewise, note any seasonal highlights in their backyard that are visible in yours. If your neighbor has chosen trees for spring blooms or fall color, take advantage of that in your own planting strategy.
