50 Small Garden Ideas to Transform Your Space
These beautiful budget-friendly ideas will work for even the tiniest layout.
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So you don’t have a sprawling lawn or a home surrounded by manicured acreage. But what you do have is a patio, a porch, a rooftop, a deck, a balcony — or even just a window. And in even the smallest among those spaces, you can create a beautiful, peaceful environment that conjures the joy of the outdoors with an array of small garden ideas designed to maximize space cleverly and creatively.
In even a windowsill or a stoop, you can plant an herb garden that is fragrant, visually appealing, and adds flavor to your food (while saving costs). On a balcony or porch, you can add a compact fountain or other water feature, plus wind chimes, string lights, and a hummingbird feeder to bring sensory pleasure and charm to your everyday experience of home. And if you have even a small outdoor garden, you can transform it into a delightful retreat with seating and a shade structure, plus abundant flowers and foliage in pots, on shelves, in hanging baskets, in garden boxes, and right in the ground.
Let these small garden ideas and products inspire you to make the most of your outdoor space (or even natural light indoors if that's what you're working with!) to make your own home into the lush paradise you deserve. (No green thumb required.)
Birdbath Planter
Repurpose a birdbath as a splendid planter, overflowing with unique succulents or colorful blooming flowers.
Hammock
You don't need a sprawling space to enjoy the sheer joy of relaxing in a hammock — you just need two points to anchor it, and voila!
Lattice
Train vining plants along a lattice for an eye-catching and manicured look on a wall bordering your space.
String lights have a way of transforming any space, regardless of its size, into a magical wonderland at twilight and after the sun goes down.
Movie Screen
Make it movie night in your small garden with a pull-down screen that tucks away when not in use. Or, if you have a white wall (or even a white sheet!) you can turn your space into an intimate theater with just a projector.
Focus on the Flow
To get maximum enjoyment out of your small garden, “merge the indoors with the outdoors,” suggests landscape architect Blythe Yost, co-founder of the online landscape design company Tilly. “Find ways to blur the lines between the inside and outside so that your backyard can be thought of as an extension of your home. This can mean features like French doors, extending the flooring of your interior into an outdoor patio, installing big windows, or placing some indoor plants near the entrance to your backyard.”
Stay Organized
“When you have a small space, storage is key and will help the space feel organized,” explains Tilly’s Yost. “Having a designated spot for kids' toys, and a place to put your patio umbrella or couch cushions will help your space feel open and not cluttered.”
Vertical Garden
If you don't have space in terms of width, the only way to go is up. Vertical gardening can be done along a wall, fence, or even roof.
Use your walled space to its fullest potential by hanging planters along the perimeter.
Color Blocking
Give your space a tidy, pretty look by color blocking with flowers arranged in a grid pattern.
Sling Chairs
Sling chairs make for comfortable seating with a small footprint. And you can even fold them up and tuck them against a wall when not in use.
Square Foot Gardening
Square foot gardening divides planter boxes into grids to maximize growth potential for a diverse array of plants in a small space.
Hanging Flowers
No matter the size of your space, hanging colorful blooms adds so much visual appeal. Pro tip: For guests or a special occasion, supplement the look with extra stems from a store-bought bouquet.
Everything old is new again! Those '70s macrame plant hangers are ultra-chic again and can help you maximize a small space with hanging greenery.
Container Gardening
Take your deck to the next level by using containers to create a lush look. Plant flowers, vegetables, succulents — whatever you like to create the look (and function) of your dreams.
Potted Fruit Trees
Some fruit trees, such as the calamondin orange shown here, do very well in pots. Bonus: You'll have plenty of fruit to share with neighbors and friends!
You don't even need any outdoor space at all — nor even a green thumb — to create a thriving garden. This hydroponic option is compact and foolproof.
Stair Plants
Make the most of a small outdoor space by using all available real estate for planting: Don't forget the stairs!
Sure, terra cotta is a classic. But you can make your small garden pop with the addition of some colorful planters in coordinating or contrasting colors.
Paper Lanterns
Adorn your small garden with paper lanterns for a chic, decorative, and inexpensive way to dress up your space for guests. (Just don't forget to remove and store them before any rain.)
Alesandra is a digital travel and lifestyle journalist based in Los Angeles whose work has appeared in Good Housekeeping, Woman’s Day, Prevention, Insider, Glamour, Shondaland, AFAR, Parents, TODAY and countless other online and print outlets. Alesandra has a masters degree in journalism with an emphasis on cultural reporting and criticism from NYU, and a bachelor’s degree from UC Berkeley. An avid traveler, she trots the globe with her husband and their twins.
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