Landscaping a small yard? Even with limited space, you can still design a front yard or backyard with style and improve your home’s value! From building a fire pit to adding a shade structure, here are 23 small yard landscaping ideas to get started.
Create a Landscape Design
Before you start yard landscaping, you’ll want to decide what features you want to include and whether you have the space and budget. For your outdoor living space design, be sure to identify specific areas for vegetable gardens, flower gardens, lounging, playing, socializing, or other features you want to prioritize. Coming up with even a rough sketch of your ideas for your small yard’s landscaping layout can help you create a space that’s balanced and not overwhelming.
Pick the Right Plants for Your Yard
If you’re landscaping a small yard, it’s likely you’ll opt for several smaller plants—or a large one! But size isn’t the only thing to keep in mind. When selecting landscaping plants for your small yard, consider your climate conditions like rainfall patterns, temperature extremes, amount of sunlight, and hardiness zones—and choose plants that would thrive in your area. For example, poppies and hostas are commonly found in the Midwest, whereas dahlias and sword ferns frequently grow in the Pacific Northwest. Other important factors could include HOAs and whether your city or state has banned or restricted the plant.
Go Vertical with Plants
You can create a garden by taking advantage of vertical space in your small yard! Vertical gardens open up your ground area, leaving room for seating or other backyard features. Space-saving gardens can come in many shapes and sizes—whether you want to incorporate a living plant wall, wall herb garden, hanging baskets, or vertical planters. Build a plant trellis for climbing flowers—and save even more room by planting flowers, greenery, and more along the side of your home, shed, or pergola. Petunias, ivy, and begonias are great flowers for vertical gardens because they can give your small yard lots of color and life.
Try Container Gardening
If you want to add more plants to your small front or backyard but don’t have the space for intricate landscaping, consider making a container garden! Almost any plant can grow in a pot or raised planter, allowing endless opportunities for your limited space. Place a planter box along the side of your home or between sections of your yard as a divider. Or arrange large pots and planters along the sides of your patio or deck. Flower pots and portable raised garden beds can help a small yard seem lush and bring an element of flexibility into the space, as they can be relocated, repurposed, or tucked away when not in use. This backyard landscaping idea is also great for renters since it doesn’t require permanent changes to the yard itself.
Research & Create a Pollinator Garden
Pollinator-friendly gardens have many benefits like purifying the air and water, providing habitats, and more! To encourage pollinators in your garden, you’ll want to incorporate various pollinator plants found in your region, eliminate pesticides, and add nectar resources. As for plants that attract pollinators—like bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds—you’ll want to plant perennials like milkweed and zinnias and herbs like anise and dill. Turning your small yard into a pollinator garden will also bring a ton of animals to your backyard that you can watch and enjoy.
Save Room with Window Boxes
Wanting to plan an urban garden but don’t have room? Add window boxes instead! This small yard landscape idea is great because you save ground space by hanging DIY window boxes off railings and underneath windows. You can use plastic planters or opt for a metal window box, which you can stylize with burlap or small potted flowers. Once you have your window box planter, fill it with thrillers, fillers, and spillers like geraniums, Creeping Jenny, or marigolds.
Install Edge Garden Beds
Placing a barrier between your lawn, pathways, and garden beds is another way to define space between your flower bed and your yard. Garden edging is a physical barrier that creates clean lines by keeping grass from growing in your garden or preventing mulch from collecting on your pathways, helping to reduce yard maintenance. You can use many edging materials like unused bricks, concrete, stones, metal, plastic, and more!
Plant Trees
If you think there’s not enough space in your yard to plant trees, think again! The right types of trees can be great for small yard landscaping by providing shade, natural beauty, and increased property value. When choosing small trees for small yards, you’ll want to opt for ones that grow up instead of out—like ornamental or dwarf tree species. Prairifire crabapples and Royal Star magnolias are some of the best trees for small yards because they stay relatively small while beautifully accenting your landscape.
Skip the Backyard Fence
Looking for some backyard privacy? You may want to stray away from a privacy fence or traditional backyard fencing to allow your small yard to feel more open. Instead, opt for a more organic fence, like flower beds, raised planter boxes, bushes, short hedges, or a tree fence! Any one of these can create a sense of privacy while making your small yard feel spacious instead of closed in.
Incorporate a Variety of Textures
Using different textures while landscaping a small yard can help break up the space. Not only do different textures create visual depth—which can make your small yard seem bigger—but they also allow you to play with a wide range of landscape styles like grassless yards. Mix and match stone, gravel, wood mulch, grass, and other greenery to create a unique outdoor space!
Create Depth with a Layered Landscaping Design
To make your small yard look larger, you can landscape in layers of varying heights, adding a mix of trees in the back and plants in the front. You can also divide your space into 3-4 layers, starting with the largest trees and then working down to the ground layer, where you plant the smallest flowers to keep your landscape visually interesting. Not only is it essential to add plants of varying heights, but be sure to play with color by adding annual flowers like cornflowers and foxtail grasses or perennial plants like lavender.
Choose a Low-Maintenance Lawn Replacement
Having a low-maintenance yard makes small yard upkeep extremely convenient. Replace grass with no-grass lawn ideas like concrete pavers, wood, or groundcovers like moss, clover, and more to keep your landscape’s design sleek and easy to maintain. If you live in a dry climate, xeriscaping requires little water to maintain a beautiful yard. Consider adding artificial turf for a modern green space without the hassle of having to keep your lawn maintained every year. Or go with eco-friendly lawn alternatives like hardscaping, which helps limit water runoff and erosion.
Take Advantage of the Side Yard
Just because it’s not as visible as the front or backyard doesn’t mean you should ignore your side yard. With the right side yard design, you can transform your narrow lawn into usable space. Some side yard ideas include planting flower beds around your house or edging around existing plants. Try transforming your narrow yard into curb appeal by creating a DIY garden pathway out of mulch, gravel, or pavers.
Lay Down Path
Looking for DIY landscaping ideas for your small yard? Think about building a stone path! Yard pathways highlight the favorite parts of your landscape design like the lead-up to sitting areas in your small yard. Limestone, slate, granite, and sandstone are popular options for backyard stone pathways and are available in many different shapes and sizes to customize the path in your backyard. Plus, stone yard pavers are often anti-slip, making it safer to walk about the yard. Or consider using an alternative material like wood, brick, bark chips, or gravel.
Incorporate Curved Landscaping
Create a more natural feel in your small yard by dividing the space between the yard and garden, walkways, or seating area with a curved path. Curved landscaping helps a small yard feel larger because they can be tucked behind plants rather than revealing a sharp end. By adding rounded edges to flower beds, stone pathways, or a patio, you can help all the elements of your yard flow in harmony.
Install a Small Patio
Consider adding a backyard patio if you want a small yard landscape idea that’s easy to care for. Having a small outdoor living space like this can help you save room in a tiny yard by having an all-in-one entertainment and outdoor cooking space! Whether you choose to pour a concrete patio or install a DIY patio with bricks, pavers, or flagstones, this feature can give you the perfect place to relax in your small yard. To top it off, you can take advantage of the storage spaces and decoration opportunities that having a patio provides.
Try a Sunken Patio
Thinking a traditional patio isn’t the best plan for landscaping your small yard? Go for a sunken patio instead! These can help your yard feel larger than it is by creating depth in your overall landscape design. Design and style it with unique sunken patio ideas like a conversation pit, fire pit, built-in seating, hidden speakers, and more. Make it cozy by edging your sunken patio with bushes and shrubs.
Build a Backyard Shade Structure
Patio shade structures like a pergola, arch, or gazebo offer privacy and protection from the sun while creating a point of visual interest—even in small yards! Frame a view of your yard or home with a trellis or arch. Take advantage of a pergola or gazebo’s height and try vertical gardening—or hang comfy seating like a swing from the roof.
Construct Your Own Fire Pit
Want a simple way to add flair to your small yard and boost home value? Incorporate a fire pit! Depending on where you live, this small backyard landscaping idea adds a source of light and warmth to your space and can potentially be used year round. Customize it to your landscape and unique outdoor living space needs by building a DIY fire pit. Or opt for a portable outdoor fireplace and store it away when you’re not using it.
Add a Backyard Water Feature
You don’t need a huge yard to add a water feature to your landscape design. The best part about a water feature—whether it’s a wall fountain, waterfall, or even a small pond—is that you can build them as big or small as you need for your space. Looking for small backyard pool ideas? A plunge pool is small and can be easily incorporated on a deck or patio, making it a great pool for a small backyard!
Clear Clutter with a Small Shed
If you need a place to store gardening equipment or items for outdoor recreation, consider building a small storage shed! While it may sound counterintuitive to devote some of your limited yard space to an outdoor storage shed, it clears and keeps your lawn equipment all in one place, which gives you more room in the long run. As a designated place to store outdoor furniture, tools, and recreational equipment, sheds help free your lawn and home from any clutter!
Add a She Shed
Use the space in your small yard to design a she shed! A she shed is a great place for personal hobbies—like a crafting space, hosting area, and reading nook. Or you can transform it into a home yoga studio, home office, outdoor living space, home library, and more she shed ideas! Creating a she shed can be as simple as repurposing an old shed, or if you don’t have a shed, you can buy or build your own.
Hang Yard Lights
Highlight your landscape design with outdoor lighting! Yard light setups can draw attention to your flower beds, stone pathways, and other landscaping in your small yard. Layered lighting can add depth and make your small lawn feel larger. And adding string lights or outdoor lamps to your outdoor seating area makes your space usable in the dark, so you have a cozy hang-out spot for both day and night!
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