Even If you haven’t a great large space, you can still make your tiny patch of green look stunning. With a dose of creativity and a few smart furniture choices, your humble garden can be picture-perfect in no time.
Check out brilliant space-saving outdoor ideas design ideas below. These small garden ideas have more than enough inspiration to bring style to your home, regardless of your design aesthetic.
1. Lattice Green Wall
Obsessed with lattice? For an unexpected touch to your garden, let the pattern set the foundation for a green wall.
2. Fold-Out Shelf
You can’t go wrong with taking advantage of outdoor wall space. A simple fold-out shelf can serve as the perfect spot to display small plants and outdoor entertaining essentials.
3. Patterned Hanging Planters
Enhance greenery or statement floral arrangements with a pair of potted hanging planters.
4. Globe String Lights
Any outdoor gathering would be so much more fun if classic string lights are in the mix, whether you choose to hang them on a fence or under a pergola.
5. Fence Planters
Window boxes can be used in so many creative ways. Fill one with vibrant blooms—a great match for a white picket fence.
6. Vibrant Chairs
Outfitting a small space doesn’t mean you have to settle for drab furniture. The brighter, the better is the way to go to bring your space to life.
7. Flower-Filled Planters
Instantly boost your home’s curb appeal with bright blooms on each side of your front door. Expecting guests? Steal these tricks
from our home team: Add stems from a supermarket bouquet for extra fullness and mint for a fragrant burst.
8. Fairy Garden
Think small — really small — with this adorable project. Outfitted with a mini birdhouse, rustic stones, and teeny-tiny accessories, this planter is the perfect thing to make with kids.
9. Square Foot Gardening
This highly efficient method divides raised beds into a grid. Vegetables then get planted in one or more squares at a density based on plant size (e.g., you’d plant about 16 radish seeds per square, but only one tomato plant).
10. Dwarf Trees
Averaging about 15 feet tall and wide, many ornamental or dwarf tree varieties can handle tiny spaces. Crowd-pleasers like dogwoods, camellias, crepe myrtle, and crabapples offer both flowers and foliage too.
11. Companion Planting
Placing flowers and veggies together in the same beds doesn’t just save space. It’ll help boost your yields and keep plants happy by attracting more pollinators.
12. Trained Trees
You can actually prune certain types of fruit trees to grow against a wall, a process called espalier. Start with a 1- or 2-year-old tree and attach two supple branches to the wire about 18 inches off the ground. Then take time as the seasons go on to prune your tree carefully.
13. Container Gardening
Green up your patio or deck with oversized terracotta or plastic planters overflowing with anything from tomatoes to wildflowers. (The lush lineup here creates a pretty privacy wall!)
14. Porch Plants
If you don’t have space on the ground for the garden of your dreams, use porch ceilings to display your plant babies in hanging baskets.
15. Vertical Planter
Not only does this DIY take up less surface area than multiple pots on the ground would, but it can also serve as a privacy fence for nosy neighbors.
16. Pallet Garden
Attach clay pots to a pallet with nails and stainless steel cable ties for a living art display that keeps your rosemary and basil at the ready. Space out the pots so your plants have room to grow.
17. Window Boxes
You don’t even need a yard to wake up to a view of blooming flowers every morning. Flowering annuals like geraniums, marigolds, wax begonias, coleus, scarlet sage, and flowering tobacco are all good choices.
18. Shoe Organizer Garden
Hang an old canvas over-the-door shoe organizer on a fence or wall, then fill the compartments with dirt and wispy ferns or vines.
19. Succulent-Filled Birdbath
Hardy succulents, which stow water in their stems and leaves, will thrive in a shallow birdbath perch. Add pebbles to hold more moisture in the soil.
20. Vine-Covered Fence
Covered with ivy, a frill-free fence acts as a natural privacy barrier to shield a patio or garden from view.