You don’t have to have a big backyard to have a nice garden. There are many ways to bring more plants into and around your home. Bringing more nature into your home offers many benefits. Nature provides a sense of balance and stress release. Plants add oxygen to their surroundings and growing your own food is healthier (and often cheaper) than store-bought herbs and produce. Taking care of a garden also offers feelings of well-being. The important thing to remember about gardening is that it all starts with just one plant and there are many ways to bring plants into even the smallest homes.
9 Ideas for gardening in smaller spaces
- Make the most of all available space. With these ideas you can bring life into almost any part of your home from the entryway to the backyard. Don’t have a backyard? Most of these are perfectly suited for patios and balconies too.
- Spruce up patio walls with rustic tables, potted plants, and climbing vines to create dramatic vertical displays.
- Vertical gardens can also be built from pallets and other materials and work great for growing herbs and greens to create an edible garden so you can go from “garden to table” right in your home.
- Another way to add height to a garden and utilize less ground space is with hanging gardens. Hanging baskets are easy to find and hang from trellises and patio roofs. Or pick up a plant stand like the Yard Tree Hanging Garden (Link) to create a beautiful array of plants with a variety of pots and baskets.
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If you have a small yard with a hillside, stair gardens provide more surface area for planting and level out the soil rather than just planting right on the hill. They also offer more protection against erosion.
- Consider scale when planting in a small space. Too many small plants will make your space look cluttered while too many big plants will obviously be crowded and won’t grow as well. Using one or two larger plants as focal points with more medium plants and just a few smaller ones to fill in gaps will create a much better look.
- This technique works with container plants too. Many trees can be grown in large pots and dwarf fruit trees add an element of fun to your yard. Flower gardens are also great for containers with taller varieties in the center and shorter ones around the edges for stunning layers of color
- Raised beds are a terrific way to grow to a small garden and still get a lot out of it. You can put them almost anywhere and reap great benefits. Plants like tomatoes, radishes, carrots, onions, cucumbers, leafy greens, and lettuce varietals all will grow well in a raised bed. Nothing tastes better than home grown.
- Don’t forget your windows. Window baskets are a traditional spot for herb and flower gardens and look great from both inside and outside of your home.
The best part about small space gardening is that you can bring whatever plants you like into your home to create a natural environment that’s uniquely your own. Gardening is a great way relax and bring a bit of the outdoors to your home.