When starting off to landscape a small yard, think of the yard as a small square end table beside the rumpus room sofa. Everything must be functional and still look nice at the same time. There’s no room for a row of large yard blow-up comic characters, and if you try to squeeze them into your landscape a small yard project, you will just end up looking like a messy yard sale from the street.
How to landscape a small yard:
The first thing to learn about how to landscape a small yard is the designer concept that the front yard is a stage displaying towards the street, and that the backyard is a stage displaying towards the house. While gathering ideas on how to landscape a small yard, instantly discard the ones that will not be displaying in the right direction to fit your needs.
Large items should go towards the back of your landscaping stage area and they should be interspaced with shots of bright color that will draw the viewer’s eyes completely across the yard from the stage front. This can be accomplished with traditional water guzzling plants, a tall rock garden with whimsical colorful statues, or a fence with multi-colored whirligigs on top.
After planning the background for the landscape a small yard stage area, decide what functions the small yard landscaping must perform. Do you need a cooking area? Trampoline area? Food garden? Do you want to see out of your windows? Plot your functions into your small yard landscape project next. Cooking goes near the water supply, garden goes near the water supply, and for safety the trampoline goes in the middle.
The sides of the landscape a small yard stage can be done in two ways. Using more large items can act as a barrier between you and your neighbors. Or, you can start large in the back and gently drift down in size towards small near the front of your stage. Accent areas that you would like people to notice with more bright shots of color.
Now it is time to fill-in around your backdrop, sides, and functions in your landscape a small yard project. My personal taste is totally against using grass as your filler: Grass takes expensive scarce water to maintain. Mowing around items in a small yard is a pain. So many other rocks and plants are much prettier than grass.
With today’s rising food, gasoline, and water costs coupled with our global warming weather changes it does not make sense to fill-in your leftover landscape a small yard stage areas with anything other than low maintenance rocks, potted plants, and food:
Rocks: There are many wonderful ways that you can use small designer rocks, stepping stones, or laid decorative bricks as filler in your landscape a small yard project. To use these items, you must first remove all grass and weeds from the area that you are working in. Next, sterilize your soil so that nothing will grow for awhile with a full bottle of household bleach. Then, lay three layers of commercial-grade weed stopping material down before putting your rocks on top. Do not scrimp on weed material; use 3 layers.
Potted Plants: The logic behind using potted plants as filler in your landscape a small yard project is that they need less water than those in the ground, and you can control their weather environment. If a sudden large storm hits, you will not lose the money that you have invested in plants, they can be moved easily to a safe location. Before planting large pots, put wheels onto the bottom. Then, even small people can move big trees.
Food: When using food to decorate with in your landscape a small yard project, it is important to know that it comes in four sizes: short, medium, large, and gigantic. Strawberries or Dwarf Blueberries make a nice ground cover if they will grow in your area.
Various colored lettuce makes nice borders in the landscape a small yard project around functional areas. Popcorn is a fun dividing spaces plant if you need to hide the bar-b-que. Herbs have nice smaller flowers that can go into very colorful pots. To save money on your landscape a small yard project, plant food with a designer flourish wherever possible.
The bottom line in how to landscape a small yard is the fact that each small space is unique unto its owner. Nobody knows what will make you happy more than you do.
What not to do on your landscape a small yard project:
To landscape a small yard, don’t waste your money on a computer program that will allow you to view interchangeable landscaping ideas. Normally, a small yard is a fixed area needing to meet specific functions and these computer programs are made for large yards that have room to explore many options.
Instead of buying a computer program to landscape a small yard with, gather ideas that appeal to you and then go decorate your stage: back, sides, functions, and then add the filler. I worked with a landscaping firm for some time, and this formula worked on our landscape a small yard adventures quickly and easily every time.
Never forget that your landscape a small yard project is a stage, and that you are decorating this stage for maximum audience enjoyment.
