Don’t let your small yard get you down.
When you don’t have as much space as big yard boasters, you just need to be smarter about making every inch count.
What are some great landscaping ideas for small yards?
Read more about landscaping ideas for small yards, including:
- Patios for Intimate Gathering Spaces
- The Best Plants for Small Orlando Backyards
- Trees Fit for Small Yards
- Save Space with Vertical Gardening
- Create Gathering Spaces Under Pergolas
- Soften Hardscapes With Raised Planters
- Stand Out With Feature Walls
- Landscaping for Borders & Privacy
- Building Right-Sized Walkways
- Kids? Dogs? Maintain Space to Roam
- Fire Features & Fountains for a Premium Touch
You can maximize your backyard to fit your needs, even in small spaces.
Use multi-tasking patios and pergolas to maximize the use of a small but practical space. Save space with planters. Plant vines that grow up, not out. Add flow and direction with small walkways.
While space may be limited, your inspiration shouldn't be.
Patios for Intimate Gathering Spaces
A patio is a great small-yard multi-tasker, offering space for seating, grilling, and entertaining. One space, so many uses.
It’s such a backyard must-have that Ground Source landscape designer Eric Frisch starts with a patio, no matter the size of the yard.
“Let's design the hardscape first and then look at what's leftover to work with,” Frisch says.
Landscaping for small yards means focusing on how you want to use your backyard space. Do you want to host dinner parties, morning meditations, or kid-friendly birthday parties?
Your answers will help you and your landscape designer create a space that looks great and works great for your outdoor life.
Consider more than one patio, even in a small yard. A multi-level landscape design can create the illusion of a larger backyard. Use each level for a different purpose, expanding the use of your small backyard.
One practical thing to note: patio construction often involves moving heavy equipment into your backyard.
“That could be a problem with smaller yards,” Frisch says. “Labor costs would be higher for anything we can't do with the help of equipment.”
The Best Plants for Small Orlando Backyards
Some plants are better than others for small yards.
“Focus on plants with a narrow spread,” Frisch suggests.
A few suggestions:
Podocarpus
This shrub stays nice and narrow — 24 to 36 inches wide — so it won’t overwhelm your small yard. It has soft, fine-textured foliage that eventually becomes thick and luxurious.
Lorapetalum
Also called Chinese Fringe Flower for its delicate clusters of lightly scented blooms, this compact shrub sports colorful foliage that looks great year-round. Many varieties have deep purple or burgundy leaves.
Sweet Viburnum
A sturdy hedge with sweet-scented white blossoms, this popular shrub offers two options: Keep it manicured if you like the clipped, tidy look, or only occasionally trim it for a more rounded, natural look.
Trees Fit for Small Yards
You might assume the dwarf Roebelenii Date Palm is your best bet for landscaping ideas for small yards.
This petite multi-trunk palm is often used in small landscape beds or inside pool screens.
But not so fast.
“Palm crown size is a factor,” Frisch says. “Roebelenii might be a dwarf palm, but the crown is closer to the ground and can be 10 feet wide. A taller palm species just has the trunk to deal with since the fronds are above your head.”
Try a Christmas palm, he suggests. “It’s a dwarf palm that’s more upright, so you can get around it a little easier than a Roebelenii.”
(This is why you hire a skilled landscape designer. They know stuff.)
Save Space with Vertical Gardening
Vertical gardening saves space and looks great.
Try Confederate Jasmine, Frisch suggests, a moderate grower that stays small.
Known for its fragrant blooms, it grows in full sun to heavy shade. In spring, it blooms with white, sweet-smelling flowers and offers nice dark green foliage the rest of the year.
Pack a Punch with a Pergola
A pergola makes a small space feel special, creates a focal point, offers shade, and acts as an entertaining spot…heck, why wouldn’t you want one?
Create a custom pergola in any size. Then, make it work even harder in your small yard landscape design with lighting, climbing plants, and hanging baskets.
Soften Structures with Raised Planters
Planters are among the great landscaping ideas for small yards.
They fit just about anywhere, and you can fill them with anything from bright annuals to graceful ornamental grasses to small palms to vegetables.
Planting beds are great, but they can quickly eat up real estate. With raised planters and planting pots, you can add splashes of color anywhere in the landscape—and move them on a whim.
Have Fun with a Feature Wall
“Feature walls with hanging baskets or pots could be a way to decorate a space with smaller plants, annuals, and succulents,“ Frisch says.
“They’re more expensive to build than just putting plants in the ground, but some spaces don't give you many options to incorporate plants into a design.”
Privacy Landscaping for Small Yards
Small yards are a challenge for privacy. You’re often pretty close to your neighbors.
Want to use plants as a screening wall in your landscape design?
Try Viburnum or Clusia, Frisch suggests. They grow bigger and faster than other plant varieties, so you won’t need as many to make a wall.
“Buy larger pot sizes and space them two feet apart to get the wall effect,” he says.
"Dwarf bamboo is another option for privacy," Frisch says, “but it can get pretty tall and hard to maintain.”
He recommends keeping bamboo root barriers under control and says, “Don't use anything bigger than ‘Graceful’ bamboo in a tight residential space.”
Or, get privacy the old-fashioned way with a fence.
“Fencing gives instant and complete privacy six feet in the air, so that's enough for most situations,” he says.
Building Right-Sized Walkways
Need space-saving landscaping ideas for small yards? Create smaller walkways with stepping stones instead of space-hogging paths.
Paver walkways are great and add a premium touch to your outdoor spaces. Sometimes, walkways don't need to be features, but suggestions.
Small-scale stepper walkways create flow and direction without occupying much space. Steppers can be placed in turf, mulch or gravel, saving you the large-scale work that hardscape installations like pavers can become.
Often, small spaces present themselves all at once. Even a small stepper walkway can create the sense of path needed to take you from one area of a small backyard to the next.
Kids? Dogs? Maintain Space to Roam
“If homeowners have a dog and a fenced-in yard, then a lot of the bare space would be open lawn so the dog can do their thing,” Frisch says.
“With kids, it could be the same situation. Try to give them a lot of room to play and eliminate as many of the beds as possible.”
Avoid fragile plants that could be trampled, Frisch advises, and focus on trees or palms for shade.
Border plantings near your property edges can still be installed for privacy and easier maintenance, but maintain as much space as possible for dogs and children.
Fire Features & Fountains for a Premium Touch
Don’t assume your landscape design doesn’t include cool luxury features like fire pits and fountains.
Although you may not have room for a full-size fire pit, you can still incorporate a fire focal point into your landscape design.
Opt for a fire table that offers the fun of flickering flames and doubles as a table to gather around or enjoy a meal.
A small fountain is a great focal point for a small yard landscape design and adds soothing, stress-reducing sound.
Water features can also make your small yard look brighter by reflecting light.
Need Landscaping Ideas for Your Small Yard? Trust Ground Source
A big yard isn’t always better. There’s more to mow, weed and water.
Small is cozy. Let us help you make the most of your small yard with creative landscape design in Central Florida that puts every square foot to work.
Let’s get started.
We’re landscape design experts, but our skills don’t stop there. We’re with you every step of the way as you plan your perfect outdoor space.
Are you ready to enjoy the vibrant, impressive landscape you've always wanted? Request a quote today! We’ll help you review your options and then transform your property.
