If you live in the city or in a smaller home, chances are that you have a smaller yard as well. However, a small yard doesn’t mean you can’t have big ideas for your landscaping. Here are some of our favorite ideas for small yard landscaping design:
Outdoor Living Spaces
When it comes to small yard landscaping design, no outdoor space is too small to make it an extension of your lifestyle and preferences. If you have a deck or a patio, turn it into an outdoor living space you can enjoy all year long. Add outdoor furniture, decorative plants and flowers, kitchen features, and more to make your outdoor spaces places you want to get out and enjoy.
If you don’t have a deck or patio, concrete pavers are an attractive and efficient way to create the basis of an outdoor living space, and you can mix plants among them for a luxurious, more natural look.
Pavers are also great for creating aesthetically pleasing walking paths that can draw attention to the best features in your yard.
Water and Fire Features
Few things add beauty and value to landscaping the way water and fire features do. Fountains and bubblers add an elegant, soothing touch. If space permits, consider a small cascade, pool, or water wall. Outdoor fireplaces and fire pits enhance ambience and increase the hours you can enjoy your outdoor spaces.
Optimized Sun and Shade
North Carolina enjoys 4 distinct seasons, and each is one worth enjoying outside. If possible, dedicate areas that are high-sun and high-shade so that they are available for enjoyment at any time of year. Should that not be an option, design a high-value outdoor space that will get plenty of sun at one time of day and plenty of shade at another.
Enhanced Roofs and Balconies
Got a balcony? Have roof access? Bring them to life with colorful plants and flowers, and turn them into outdoor living spaces if you can. What a way to enjoy a sunrise, sunset, or other great view!
Vegetable Gardens
You don’t need a huge yard to put your yard to work for you. Creating your own vegetable garden to grow tomatoes, peppers, and anything else our climate here supports is a spectacular means of enjoying your property in more than one way, and it will save you money at the grocery store, too!
Wild Gardens
If you’ve been to the Tropics, or even just to Florida, you’ve noticed that plants grow really BIG there. A “wild” garden doesn’t mean an untended one that the neighbors will curse as they pass by; it means planting tropical-style plants that can survive in our moderate climate and which will grow big. The result: an exotic, wild look that also makes the entire property appear bigger and bolder!
Decorative Side Yards
When a yard is small, the sides often aren’t that suitable for recreation and relaxation, but that doesn’t mean they have to stay as blank patches of grass. You can add color with flowering plants and shrubs, and you can also plant trees that can both create shade and add welcome privacy when you’re in close proximity to neighbors.
Turf or Stone
Maintaining the grass in a small yard may seem like more trouble than it’s worth, and that’s why a lot of people are now switching to natural-looking, long-lasting artificial grass or stone. On a large property, that can get really expensive, but for a small yard, it’s much more economical while delivering a low-maintenance, eye-pleasing effect.
