The ultimate small garden

Sunset, August, 1999 by Kathleen N. Brenzel, Peter O. Whiteley

It packs lots of big ideas into a 16- by 24-foot space

How much good living can you get into a very small garden? That's what we wanted to find out when we planned the one pictured on these pages. After asking ourselves what we considered "must-haves" for outdoor living, we designed and built this space-efficient garden at Sunset's headquarters in Menlo Park, California. Fresh and innovative, it combines new building materials with a rich tapestry of plants to create a garden that's as attractive as it is intimate. All the amenities of a larger garden are here: freestanding benches with storage beneath, a water feature, a barbecue, a deck big enough for a table and four chairs, and planting beds for herbs, vegetables, fruit trees, and flowers. There's even a birdhouse on a post and a doghouse (see page 113) to match the garden's decor.

In spite of its limited size, the garden feels airy and inviting - thanks to a few visual tricks. The peaked-roof arbor at its entrance is generous (4 feet wide and more than 8 feet tall in the center). The lattice-trimmed fence around it looks lacy and open, and the window frames - which hang from the beams of a triangular arbor in one corner - provide the deck with a sense of enclosure without closing it off.

You can copy the whole plan for your own small garden, fit it into a corner of a large garden as an outdoor living room, or adapt its individual components to suit your specific needs. The photograph on page 110 details the plan.

All garden structures were designed for easy construction using a few hand-held electric tools and materials readily available at home improvement stores and garden centers.

The structures

To maintain a unified look, the same materials and colors are used throughout the garden. The framing (use redwood, cedar, or pressure-treated wood) is painted with gray-green exterior latex. (The color is Eucalytpus Wreath from Sunset's paint palette; see "Colors for the Western Home," March 1998, page 88). The white plastic lattice and matching trim pieces forming the fence, entry arbor, and bench sides - and embellishing the citrus containers and doghouse - are from Tuff-Bilt (800/394-6679); they're sold in 4-by-8 panels.

* FENCE. Its lattice panels, cut to 2 feet tall and up to 8 feet long, are edged with ready-made plastic trim and framed top and bottom with wood 2-by-4s; vertical posts are 4-by-4s. Decorative post caps (optional) top the 4-by-4s.

* ENTRY ARBOR. Each side of the arbor has 86-inch-tall 4-by-4 posts framing 4-by 6-foot lattice panels; there are 2-by-4s at the top and bottom of the panels. The gable-shaped "roof" is also lattice. Two containers, both filled with 'James Walker' bougainvillea, flank the entrance.

* DECK. Just 13 square feet, it's built of Trex, a synthetic lumber. Nine modules each measure 52 inches square (size can be scaled up or down). For each module, we spaced the decking boards evenly and screwed them from the underside to four pressure-treated 2-by-2 sleepers. Since the modules are portable, they can be used to cover an existing concrete patio. You can arrange them any way you want; we alternated the direction of the boards, square by square, to create a checkerboard pattern (see photo above).

* CORNER TRELLIS. Three vertical posts, each 8 feet tall (aboveground), are topped with 2-by-8 beams. Seven evenly spaced 2-by-4 joists cap the beams. Lattice fencing covers the lower part of the arbor.

* BENCHES. Two benches that sit on the decking and butt against the sides of the trellis also have lattice on the exposed fronts and ends. The bench frames are 2-by-4s; to support the removable top, they have crosspieces at 16-inch intervals. Bench tops are also of Trex to match the deck; the front edges were rounded over with a router.

* PLANTERS. We purchased four redwood containers (each 16 inches square) at a garden supply center. After painting, these were covered with lattice, cut to fit.

The plantings

Three planting beds provide just the right amount of space for weekend gardeners. Flanking the entry arbor are an herb bed and a vegetable bed, each 5 by 6 feet. Along the fence, the third (3 feet wide by 14 1/2 feet long) shows off a colorful mix of annuals, perennials, and shrubs.

* HERB BED. Golden sage spills from a green-stained terra-cotta urn set on its side in the center of the bed (see photo on page 109). Around it grow culinary herbs, including basil, chives, dill, oregano, parsley, and thyme. Taller plants - lavender and rosemary - are placed in back; low ones such as lemon thyme are in front. A path of granite-textured pavers edges the beds.

* VEGETABLE BED. It's just big enough for a few favorite homegrown crops (bush and dwarf vegetable varieties are best in such mini-gardens): patio tomatoes ('Sweet 100'), two zucchini (Lebanese white zucchini), one squash ('Eight Ball'), four bell peppers, mixed lettuces, and - for color - a scattering of flowers (marigolds, Johnny-jump-ups, and nasturtiums).

* FLOWER BED. TO keep the planting (behind foreground fence in top photo on page 110) from looking too busy in this small space, we chose a controlled palette of cool colors: blues, lavender, and purple with splashes of pink, yellow, and white. Tall plants (blue delphiniums, Echium vulgare 'Blue Bedder', and catmint) grow against the fence, and tall 'Tara's Pink' cape mallow grows in one corner. Medium-size plants (asters, pink snapdragons, and golden yarrow) grow in the center, and low plants (purple and lavender verbena, white Santa Barbara daisy, and white sweet alyssum) grow in front.