Small Properties

We can all dream about having lush flowering gardens with stepping stone paths winding their way through them, a babbling brook leading to a blissful water garden, maybe an orchard with fresh fruit and a grand three-level deck for entertaining. The reality is that most of us have a limited amount of space to work with, and we can never possibly fit everything into our landscape that we would like. For those of us with small urban yards, the design exercise becomes all the more important.

	Small properties are a wonderful opportunity to create a detailed and harmonious presentation

There are a few simple rules to follow to achieve a beautiful and functional small landscape. First and foremost, although this may sound rather obvious, don’t try and cram everything into your landscape. Not only will it not work, but you will end up with one big uncoordinated mess that will certainly not be very pleasurable for you in any sense. Pick a couple of key themes and landscape functions that are most important to you, and focus on them through to completion. Trust me, you will be much happier with a couple of functions done well than with a whole bunch done poorly. Keep them coordinated and tied together with common materials or plants, and really, really fight your urges to have one of every plant in your yard! In a small landscape, harmony and balance must be maintained across the entire presentation.

Be cautious about maintaining scale and perspective in your landscape. Excessively large shade trees not only take up a great deal of your valuable real estate, but they also visually dwarf your home, making it appear smaller than it actually is. Select smaller shade trees, and especially those that can serve multiple functions, such as those with valuable ornamental characteristics or interesting features. Rather than an oak or an elm tree, put a hawthorn, cranberry, redbud or amur cherry, which not only function as shade trees, but can be accents in their peak seasons. Seek out the numerous cultivars which have been selected for narrow or pyramidal growth habits, ideal for small properties. Likewise, make use of small, compact shrubs and cultivars in the garden as opposed to sprawling old favorites such as deutzia or mockorange.

There are proven techniques for making your yard appear bigger. Use natural lines that run across the narrow side as opposed to parallel with the narrow side; place low hedges, decorative lattice fences or small accent shrubs across the width as barriers to visually separate rooms within the yard. Plant a coarse accent plant near your house, and a few fine-textured plants far away to give the illusion of depth. Use the natural boundaries of your yard, whether they be fences or tall hedges, as backdrops for your border gardens, and design downwards from there to the garden path or lawn. Remember, space is valuable in the small yard, so don’t let it go to waste.

Make use of every square inch of available landscape, keeping detail fine for maximum effect

You can borrow some tips from the concept of bonsai. Miniature gardens, such as alpine or rock gardens, are ideal for creating interest, and draw attention to themselves as distinct elements within the landscape, despite their small stature. Take advantage of the closeness of the gardens and plants by utilizing highly fragrant plants or those with unusual features, anything that encourages the wanderer to stop and admire the beauty close up. Extend valuable garden space into the air with vines and climbers such as roses, clematis, honeysuckle or variegated kiwi, climbing and trailing over pergolas, arbors or fences.

There are also a few interesting tricks that professional landscapers use to stretch the small yard even more. If you have a number of small landscapes side by side, try borrowing “visual space” from your neighbors. Use their shade trees as backgrounds for your accents, and borrow beautiful scenes from their yards with a break in your garden, much like a picture frame sets off a picture. You can even get together with your neighbors and plant gardens or other landscape features that span across multiple yards, giving the illusion of space and flow. You can also use curves to give the effect of spaciousness; straight lines may be the shortest distance, but they also highlight the shortness by leading the eye too soon to the end of the scene. By virtue of their wandering, curved paths or garden edges can guide you and your visitors to see many different views of the same features of your yard, again giving the impression of variety and scale.

Bare Earth Landscapes

My personal empathy is great for those who have just purchased a new house and are faced with the daunting challenge of creating a landscape from bare earth. It requires great skill at visualizing to actually imagine your landscape 10 years into the future with absolutely nothing there right now. On the flip side, though, this is the ultimate blank canvas, and with planning and some adherence to the basic design rules, you have a better chance of creating exactly what you want than any other landscaper!

	Bare landscapes can look really discouraging at first, but take heart and let the process guide you

There are proven ways to get from your bare patch of earth to your dream landscape, and it is done successfully hundreds of times every day around the world. So, the first important thing is to put to rest your fears about starting from scratch, your fears that you don’t have enough creativity in you. I can assure you, you do, and it only takes a defined procedure to bring this out of you. We will accomplish that in this guide.

Sticking to the design process is the most critical motto for the new home landscaper, and while we will go into great detail about this process shortly, some important points merit discussion here. First of all, spend some extra quality time, maybe curled up with a warm cup of tea and no distractions, thinking about your landscape vision, your dreams. Don’t worry about how to achieve them, or if or how they can be implemented. You must first be aware of your own personal expectations to be able to work towards achieving them. This may sound cliché, but go over this guide once more after your first read, and pay close attention to the parts that make you ponder your needs of the landscape, the parts that make you think of the end goal rather than the process to get there. This is the time for imagination.

Once you have a clear vision of what your landscape could be, start experimenting with the design process to test out the credibility or effectiveness of the various parts of your composition. When proceeding with the design phase, you need to pay special attention to the following considerations.

The first is a lack of a frame of reference. By virtue of their emptiness, bare earth landscapes lack a starting point. Most people tend to think of things within a context, so we need to establish this context for you to base your design on. Start with a close examination of your neighborhood. Look for common styles and themes, repeated elements and plants, things that are harmonious between different yards, and the things that tie these yards to the surrounding nature. Your baseline design should draw from this harmony surrounding you and bring some of it into your yard, to maintain continuity.

Know your given conditions. You really need to understand your existing soil type, pH, your exposure and your prevailing wind situation. If necessary, have soil tests done at a testing laboratory. Look at your drainage situation, and identify the low and high spots in the yard. One strong advantage you have over existing landscapes is that you can undertake major changes to substructures such as grade and drainage, and trust me, you will greatly appreciate such efforts into the future. Plan to change what you can, and accept to work within what you will not change.

Be especially careful to plan ahead for the functions you expect your landscape to perform. For example, if you intend to have a deck or patio for outdoor entertaining, plan for the summer shade trees, the guiding walkways, the night lighting or the necessary flat grade. Each of these needs to be considered to accomplish your goals. Envision your plan 5 and 10 years from now, even 20 years from now. How large will the trees be, and will they be competing with each other? What will change in your landscape as it grows? What will change in your personal interests as you grow?

When it comes time to select materials, remember to follow the principles of composition. Above all, be sure to keep balance and harmony; balance colorful accent plants with dark, uniform backgrounds, balance trees, shrubs and annuals/perennials, balance heights, forms, textures. Utilize some repetition to create unity and harmony, and utilize some accents and hard elements to add interest and spice. Have some of a few things, rather than one of everything.

By sticking to the process, slowly but surely, your landscape dreams will materialize

Finally, when it comes time to make your implementation plan, your road map telling you how and in what stages you will put your ideas into form, pay particularly special attention to the phasing of your plan. I suggest looking at a new landscape as a 5-year project. This may scare you at first, because you and I both want an immediate landscape, but trust me on two things; one, phasing will help spread out the costs of your landscape dreams and therefore make them more achievable; and two, you will find such a plan much more manageable. This will afford you time to relax, you will not be overwhelmed by too much underway at once, and you will even have the time to stop and enjoy what you have done at each step of the way.

Also, be careful what you buy and where you spend your money. If you don’t have any existing trees on your property, it is more valuable for you to purchase one or two large sized expensive shade trees than to buy 10 small and cheap shade trees; you won’t enjoy shade from these for many a year to come. Some things can make an immediate or early impact on your landscape, and they are worth that expense. Others can be put off, and might be worth the wait. It is important for you to look at your plan and your expectations for how quickly your landscape will perform.

Slopes

Many landscapes are built on properties which have significantly varying topography, with contours ranging from swales and gentle undulations in the land, to a gradual hillside slope, to dramatic cliffs with sharp edge drops. The steeper the slope, the more daunting the landscaping design challenge seems. However, there are tried and true methods for managing slopes in a landscape. These techniques are best introduced through an examination of certain key design objectives which must be accounted for when designing for slopes.

The first objective is usability. In general, most human activity, whether it be play, entertainment, or leisure, takes place on relatively flat surfaces. The rule is straightforward; as the grade of a surface increases, its functionality decreases. This is clearly demonstrated in the extremes; a flat lawn or patio space has virtually limitless opportunities for human activity, while a steep slope is essentially useless. Think of the rooms in your house, and how out of place and dysfunctional a sloping floor would seem. This is particularly true in the case of maintenance. It becomes uncomfortable and challenging to mow lawns as the slope increases, and downright dangerous at high enough grades. Even the simple activities of pruning, weeding or removing brush become extremely difficult and unsafe on steep slopes.

A second important objective of slope management is erosion control. Steep slopes tend to accelerate the flow of water, even drainage runoff water from rain. As the water speeds up across the surface of the ground, it gradually erodes the surface and can cause damage. On more gradual slopes, this action can slowly wash away soil and deposit it at the bottom of the grade, and can make wet traffic surfaces slippery and dangerous to walk on. On steeper slopes, it becomes impossible to retain soil without the implementation of preventive design measures, and complete washouts can occur.

There are a number of ways to manage slopes in the landscape. Some attempt to modify the sloped land to make it more useful for human activity. Others simply incorporate the slope as part of the landscape plan, and minimize its negative characteristics. Neither is right or wrong; the correct choice is determined within the context of the overall landscape objectives.

	Note the two levels of this front landscape separated by the short retaining wall, and the walkway steps with generous landings

It is possible to modify slopes to reclaim them as a functional space in the landscape. The secret to making slopes usable and easy to maintain is to break the sloping land up into relatively flat or low grade sections. This is known as terracing. A continuous slope is divided into a series of flat surfaces, which step down sharply onto the next lower surface, and a lower surface, until it reaches the bottom of the slope. This may require significant effort to modify the land for such terraces, removing earth from the higher parts of a section and redistributing it onto the lower part, to even out the surface. However, the end result is a relatively flat, usable space which can now be functionally integrated into the landscape.

The individual surfaces are held up and separated by structures known as retaining walls. These are sharp, almost vertical walls which are designed to bear the loads of the earth, and to facilitate proper drainage without succumbing to erosion. The walls are typically made of brick, stone or concrete, but on gentler grades can also be made from decay-resistant wood. They are specially designed for the strength required to hold up whatever quantity of terraced earth above, and often require professional installation to ensure their integrity, particularly for steeper slopes or larger vertical drops.

Another special consideration in slope management is the design for traffic flows. Walking up or down a slope becomes uncomfortable even at relatively low grades. Beyond a certain slope, walkways should be converted to steps or stairs. These are defined by their fixed rise and run, in a ratio which is comfortable for human walking (typically a 1:2 run over rise).

A winding driveway not only makes the grade of the slope more manageable for driving, but looks interesting too

However, not all slopes fit this exact 1:2 slope, and are either sharper or more gradual. In either case, the best approach is to alternate manageable runs of steps (the exact number will vary) with level sections of walkway, which are known as landings. Landings are particularly important when the slopes are excessively long or steep; in these cases, they serve as comfortable resting points along the way for people to stop and catch their breaths. Creative landscape designers will often use these to strategically show off a particularly attractive view, especially on very high climbs.

The challenge is similar for driveways which must climb a slope. However, the concepts of steps and retaining walls are not compatible with cars, which must have a continuous surface of travel. If the slope is steep enough, and space permits, a popular technique is to wind the road up the slope with “hairpin” curves, which when used in conjunction with retaining walls to hold up the vertical segments can look extremely attractive. If this is not practical, then another possibility is to manipulate the driveway to climb up gradually across the slope to the garage or parking area. Or, the driveway can be extended to tackle the slope over a longer run.

Often, it is neither desirable nor practical to modify the earth itself to manage slopes. In such cases, there are other techniques available to accommodate the slopes and control erosion. Certain plants are naturally good at controlling erosion, particularly those with extensive root systems and those which sucker (this may be one of the few instances in the gardening world where suckering plants are actually desirable!). Such plants tend to naturalize well, and control erosion by binding the soil with their roots. For gradual slopes, even grass can work to control erosion, although it becomes difficult to maintain. Stepped walkways can still be constructed into naturalized slopes, and can actually be made to blend in with the erosion -controlling trees and shrubs!

Finally, it is important to note that some slopes, particularly steep slopes with significant drops, can be potential problems in a landscape, and may require the evaluation of a professional landscape architect or engineer. If you are ever in doubt, do not hesitate to contact one for advice.

Low Maintenance Landscaping

One of the most important concerns of landscapers, particularly those who have already had some previous experience with landscapes, is reducing the maintenance of a landscape. After all, your landscape is being designed for your enjoyment, not to burden you with chores or annoyances. Even if you don’t specifically target a low maintenance landscape, it is still very worth your while to read this section and at best appreciate some of the subtle things you can do in your landscape just to cut down on the work or hassle where possible.

	This front landscape uses absolutely NO grass or lawn, and is about as low maintenance as you can find!

You must first understand the basic characteristics and requirements of a landscape. Of all the landscape factors, two stand out as potentially demanding most of your attention; plants and the weather. The weather provides challenges that need to be considered in regards to maintenance, while plants have needs and characteristics that must be accounted for.

Let’s start with plants, because they are a major building block of your landscape. Let’s also first assume that you have taken into account the basic needs and cultural preferences of your plants long before they went into the ground, or you’ll have a whole other set of concerns above and beyond this discussion. So, let’s assume you did the intelligent thing. On a regular basis, plants need light, water and nutrients to grow. With good planning, you can get all three for free! However, we acknowledge that we will not always choose such plants for our landscapes, so these will demand extra attention. Examples are roses in the garden, which require additional watering, fertilizing and pruning, or the grass in your lawn, which requires frequent pruning (mowing), watering and fertilizing. You can also look a little deeper at other plants in your yard which might grow better with some additional water, maybe a shot of fertilizer in spring, or some pruning to let in sunlight. All regular growing requirements can be accounted for in the planning stage.

Then there are the “habits” of plants. Just like most plants have some qualities that can be considered ornamental, most of them also have some characteristics that can be deemed as undesirable or just outright objectionable, and some more so than others. As a short list, look for the following limitations when selecting your plants, and recognize the maintenance implications of each;

Susceptibility to Insects - Many plants are susceptible to attacks by certain insects, a problem which is augmented by stresses such as not growing in their ideal conditions. Some actually don’t hurt the plant, although they may do cosmetic damage. Others can severely stress a plant, while some can outright kill a plant. In general, the more ornamental or valuable a plant (like fruit trees), the more attention will have to be paid to controlling insect pests. Insects can be controlled, but this often requires dangerous chemicals, and it can be quite difficult to treat large trees. For lower maintenance, identify and select varieties that are naturally resistant to insect attacks.

Susceptibility to Disease - Diseases, like insects, tend to affect stressed or unhealthy plants. There are various types of diseases, and different plants have different susceptibilities. Fungal diseases are common, and can range from damaging to deadly, however, they are the most easily treated. One exception is the Dutch Elm Disease, which has stripped our towns and cities of the majestic American elm and is very difficult to treat. Bacterial diseases are less common, including the canker that afflicts many poplar trees, and fireblight, a highly contagious killer of apples and pear trees. Viral diseases are rare, but some species are more prone than others. Both bacterial and viral diseases are very difficult to control. Where available, be sure to select disease resistant cultivars and varieties.

Suckering - Some plants spread by sending up shoots from underground roots away from the parent plant; this is called suckering. It can work to your advantage if you are trying to naturalize an area (fill it in) or control erosion on a slope. In fact, this is how many groundcovers establish in an area. However, suckering can be quite a nuisance if suckers spring up in unwanted locations in your garden or even in the lawn! This is a characteristic of plants that cannot be controlled other than by removal of the suckers, so choose plants accordingly.

Invasiveness - There are plants that sucker, and then there are plants that are just downright invasive. These are plants which not only spread, but can choke out other desirable forms of life in your yard and gardens. These don’t only spread by suckering (the groundcover bishop’s goutweed is one such invasive plant), but some spread by their prolific seeding habits, such as the Siberian elm or the (inappropriately named) tree of heaven. Use these plants with great caution, and take precautions to ensure that they don’t overtake your yard.

Pruning Requirements - Certain plants are able to attain a naturally beautiful and ornamentally valuable shape on their own, while others require pruning or training to achieve a desirable form. Many plants, especially vigorously growing shrubs which flower on new wood, require frequent rejuvenation pruning to encourage the growth of new wood. You will also need to train most shade trees when they are young to induce a high canopy for purposes of human activity. Young fruit trees have particularly rigid pruning requirements, which are essential to ensure that they produce fruit at a later age.

Fruit from some trees can leave quite a mess, making for high maintenance in fall

Messiness - Many plants can leave quite a mess in the landscape, a factor people often forget. Fruits can be quite a challenge. For example, pear trees are wonderfully ornamental, especially in full flower, but, as the fruit rapidly decomposes when off the tree, the fruit drop can be a nightmare in fall unless you are prepared to remove the fruit as soon as it falls. The same applies to many crabapples and apples, and most of the fruit trees. Nut-bearing trees, such as oaks, walnuts or buckeyes can leave quite a mess behind. Be especially careful when siting trees with such fruit; don’t locate them near a deck, public walkway or even near a lawn, unless you are prepared for significant maintenance. Look instead for trees with clean fruiting habits, or male (non-fruiting) cultivars. Many other “plant droppings” can leave a mess as well; the almost deciduous branchlets of certain willows or the Siberian elm, the prolific fruit of a female ash tree, or the leafy fall mess of large shade trees.

Deadheading - The flowers of some plants do not die gracefully on the plant once they have finished flowering, and can look rather ugly when they have browned but still remain on the plant. These require deadheading, which is simply the removal of the dead flowers with pruning shears. Examples of these include some spireas, many roses and numerous perennials.

Winter Damage - Some plants are susceptible to winter damage, for various reasons. They may not be hardy in your particular area, or maybe they are susceptible to early fall freezes. These plants will typically require removal of dead or damaged wood in spring. Annuals need to be removed in fall, and most perennials need to be cleared back to the ground in spring.

Toxicity - Many valuable landscape plants contain poisonous parts, such as the yew, daphne, or euonymous. While these may not always be of concern, you should be extremely cautious if you have small children in your family, or if you have particularly curious pets.

Then there’s the weather. Which of us actually enjoys clearing snow from the walk? It is possible to design a landscape to manage wind patterns, providing for wind reductions that control the drifting of snow and therefore snow clearing requirements. Use hedges or clusters of evergreens on the windward side of your property and along roads or paths to cut down the wind speed, reducing both snow clearing obligations and windchills.

There are numerous ways to minimize maintenance in the landscape. Here are a few quick pointers;

- know the maintenance requirements of plants before they make it into your landscape

- examine the potentially messy characteristics of the plants you propose to use; fruit type and drop, flowering habits, leaf drop characteristics and branch dropping

- use groundcovers such as juniper, spurge or mulches to reduce the watering and mowing requirements of a lawn

- use plants that are naturally shapely without pruning, such as the linden, pin oak or sweetgum

- let plants retain the beauty of their natural growth habits, rather than trying to shape them

- use natural hedges rather than pruned hedges

- be particularly cautious about weakly branched trees or those with weak wood, which can pose a hazard to nearby structures in wind or ice storms

- choose drought-resistant plants that reduce the demands on water (called “xeriscaping”)

Shady Acres

On the other end of the spectrum from the bare earth landscapes, many existing landscapes or those in older neighborhoods are in need of a rejuvenation, and this is often the reason for undertaking a redesign project. One almost universal aspect of older landscapes is large trees and overgrowth which results in a great deal of shade on the property. Oddly enough, you are actually the envy of most bare earth landscapers who would give anything for a tall tree or two. Isn’t it funny how the grass is always greener on the other side?

	Shady yards require special design considerations for both plants and hard materials

Shade primarily affects plants. Since many ornamental landscape plants have a strong preference for sunlight, designing a landscape in shade can be a challenge. You must also look at shade from the perspective of lighting, in that hard accent features such as statues don’t quite stand out as much in deep shade. As a general rule, colors appear faded and more moody in shade; use brighter and more fundamental colors in shade as opposed to softer pastels.

As you have probably guessed by now, there are definitely ways to work with a shady landscape. The most obvious, although often overlooked, is to place your gardens and accent plants in the sunny spots in your landscape, where they will be naturally happiest. On the other hand, design landscape functions that require shade, such as a deck or patio, or the kids play area, in the shady parts of your landscape. This is one aspect of landscaping in general that is hard to reinforce; change “Yes, but I wanted it over there!!” to “Ah, that BELONGS there!”.

There are circumstances where you will have to design for a shade garden. For these, be sure to choose plants that can tolerate full shade; sun-loving plants such as roses will produce less flowers, become spindly and unhealthy, or even die in shade. This, by the way, is true for all plants; trees, shrubs, perennials, annuals, vines and groundcovers. Each plant has a definite shade tolerance, and you must work within this.

A shady corner can be used to your advantage by converting it into a cozy private nook

You can also make lemonade from the particular lemon of shade. Older growth provides ideal shelter for out-of-zone plants, especially if it is located on the northern side of them. Try experimenting with a couple of “non-hardy” specimen plants in the protective shelter of a nearby forest or overgrown area. A thick green wall of trees can also be used as a background for accent plants or statues, which can really look sophisticated. These are also good locations to put in a private nook, bench or arbor for reading, bird watching, etc.

Finally, when all else is lost, you can always bite the bullet and bring in the bulldozer or chainsaw, and make some dramatic changes.

Landscaping for Apartments

Believe it or not, apartment dwellers also have an opportunity to make their balconies or patios into small landscape retreats. Even if you have the smallest space in the world, you should be able to convert your outdoor space into at least a sitting/entertainment area or a small plant or garden refuge. Don’t be afraid to personalize this part of your world; it will add enjoyment both for you and for passersby.

The rules of landscaping for small properties as discussed above apply very well to apartment space landscaping. Your tools as the artist include color, texture, and even visual mass. Be particularly careful to coordinate your design, matching the hard elements and plants in their characteristics, as harmony is most important is small spaces.

	Don’t be afraid to make your balcony a beautiful outdoor extension of your living space

Plants are incorporated into balcony landscapes through container gardening. These can be fancy clay pots, decorative urns, or hanging baskets. Use a pleasing mix of coordinated flowers selected for color and texture to add variety. Using the additional vertical space afforded by hanging baskets or multi-level planters will help to add visual depth to your presentation.

You are best advised to use only annuals in container gardens in the north. You may be surprised to learn that the roots of plants are much more susceptible to freezing damage that the other parts, since they are typically below ground, and the ground remains warmer that the upper air throughout winter. So, plants that are expected to grow again the next spring must not have their roots exposed to damaging cold, and this is basically unavoidable with containerized plants. You can grow such plants if you bring the containers indoors for the winter, preferably into “cold storage” to maintain dormancy, because most plants will respond to the indoor warmth by sprouting (they think it’s spring inside!).

Apartments are essentially communities of people living and growing together. As such, your common landscape is a shared resource between the families of this community. Encourage your landlord to commit to a greenspace program which provides adequate trees to be enjoyed by all, a garden space, possibly provisions for community gardening. Have them bring in professionals to design creative pathways, decorative shrub borders with “hiding spaces”, and tasteful accents. After all, this too is an extension of your living space, so why shouldn’t it be as beautiful?