Who says you need a massive backyard to create a visually appealing landscape? While extra space is always nice, there are plenty of ways to spruce up small yards as well. So today we’re going to reveal some helpful landscaping tips and tricks for small yards.
Avoid Unnecessary Decorations
I know this probably sounds like common sense to most homeowners, but you should limit the use of decorations in small yards. This includes things like arbors, statues, decorative sprinklers, and other accessories.
Adding too many decorations to a small yard will create a cluttered appearance that takes away from its natural beauty. This doesn’t necessarily mean that you should avoid all forms of yard decorations, but you should keep them to a minimum to ensure a visually appealing landscape.
Define the Edges
Allowing grass to encroach upon your driveway and garage is a mistake that should be avoided, especially if you have a small yard. Grass can quickly overtake your yard, growing over the concrete that makes up your driveway.
To prevent this from happening, it’s recommended that you define the edges by trimming away overgrown grass around these areas. Ideally, the edges should be clean and well-defined, without having any overgrown grass or brush.
Keep it Watered
Some people view small yards as a disadvantage, but they actually have a few benefits, one of which is ease of watering. Watering a large, multi-acre yard can be downright expensive, with some homeowners shelling out hundreds of dollars per year in water alone. If you have a small yard, though, you can expect to pay a fraction of this.
Whether you have a small or large yard, you should check your local city/county’s office to see if there are water restrictions in place, and if so, what they consist of. Watering your yard when a ban is in place could result in a hefty fine, negating the otherwise cost-saving benefits of having a small yard.
Create a Front Flowerbed
When working with a small yard, try creating a front-facing flowerbed. It doesn’t have to be anything extravagant, as a basic flowerbed with just a few flowers that are native to your area will suffice.
If you need help choosing flowers that are easy to grow, visit a local plant nursery and ask for a recommendation. Most plant nurseries will gladly point you in the right direction.
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Hey thanks for sharing this post! My wife and I want to put in a lot of trees in our back yard. It’s not very big, but we want a lot of shade and we just love the privacy and sense of seclusion it gives us. These are some great tips and we’ll keep these in mind as we create our plans for our landscaping.
This past summer I spent a lot of time fixing up my very small backyard. One thing that I did to make it become more of a place that I wanted to be was instill a rock garden in the northwest corner of the yard. In the center of it there is a really beautiful fountain that I found online for sale. I also put up a hammock in another part of the yard. Doing that really added a lot to the yard and has helped make it a place where I want to be.
It is interesting to learn a little bit about landscaping ideas. I did not realize that there were so many different things that go in to it. I can not wait to apply some of the things I learned from this article to my own landscaping.
Great tips here. I use many of these suggestions in my own landscaping business. They help me be more efficient and keep the yards looking great. Thanks for sharing with others!
I like your tip about defining the edges. I always trim the grass around my driveway to make it have a sharper look. I use the trimmer every week. Keeping a well-groomed yard is one of my top priorities.
I agree with you on that Cheryl. I know that trimming my hedges are super important. What do you use to trim them ?
I really agree with the idea to define the edges of your yard. That makes everything so much neater. I have a smaller yard, so it is hard for me to know what I can do landscaping wise. This really helped me understand more of what I could do.
Thanks for the great post! I have to agree with what you said about having too many decorations in your yard. Too many decorations can make a small yard look cluttered! But the right amount of decorations can enhance the look of your yard, no matter the size! My home has a small yard to begin with, but when we added a fountain to our front yard, it really made it seem like the space was bigger! I’d recommend that people with small yards add decorations to them, keeping in mind to not overcrowd the yard space that they do have.
You made a great point about how defining the edges of my yard can improve the way my yard looks. I don’t have a large yard, so doing that seems like a great tip to avoid letting overgrown grass take over my yard. I’ll try trimming away the edges to improve how it looks next summer. Thanks for the tips!
Thanks for the tips. This is very helpful especially for gardens with limited spaces.
It is interesting for me to learn a little bit about landscaping. We have a small backyard which does not give us a lot of room to do much.I agree a lot with the idea of defining the edges. That is something that I can do.
Thank you for the help. My wife and I have a small yard, but still want to have some nice landscaping done. I love the idea to “define the edges.” That really helps to keep everything clean and simple. I will have to try to plan to include that in our landscape.
I like how you mentioned that small yards can have benefits like ease of watering. I grew up in a house with a large yard. We shared responsibility for cutting and watering the lawn. It was nice when we wanted to play soccer, but not when we had to do yard work. I guess there are pros and cons. Either way, it’s a good thing everyone gets to choose their own landscape. Thanks for sharing!
I really like how you said that, “I know this probably sounds like common sense to most homeowners, but you should limit the use of decorations in small yards. I agree with this very much because then your house can look clutter. My wife loves to decorate everything and sometimes I feel like she goes over the top. Thanks for sharing this because I will have to convince her to slow down on the landscape decorations.
Roy, you make a good point about avoiding unnecessary decorations. I would think that a smaller yard will look more spacious if less ornaments are there to create clutter. I like the idea of designing a landscape [link removed by admin] around the natural beauty that your yard already has.
Great article Roy! I am sure many will learn from this like I have. Thanks for stating that, ” Adding too many decorations to a small yard will create a cluttered appearance that takes away from its natural beauty. This doesn’t necessarily mean that you should avoid all forms of yard decorations, but you should keep them to a minimum to ensure a visually appealing landscape. ” I have a pretty small yard and have been wanting to decorate lately so this post was perfect on helping me know how to decorate my yard correctly.
I would love to landscape my yard this summer to give it some character. I like your advice about avoiding unnecessary decorations. That is smart to pick a theme and stick to it so that your yard appears more centered. I would agree that watering your plants and glass is very important to a nice looking lawn.
I am looking to do some yard work and my yard isn’t very big. I will make sure the edges are more defined and not to take over the yard. Hopefully, it works out and looks good.
Your suggestions to keep the yard watered and define the edges are straightforward. However, I didn’t think about creating a flowerbed. I love that idea! Also, I like you idea to keep things simple. Thank you for these ideas!
I liked what you said about the advantages to landscaping a small yard. You’re right about how watering a yard can be pretty expensive. Being able to use the water I need to properly landscape my yard without using a lot of it seems like a great advantage to having less acreage.
I agree with not having unnecessary decorations. I think it just adds cluttered look. I thought it was pretty obvious that you should keep it watered, and it’s easier with a small yard. I think it would be easier to over water, which is as bad as under watering. Great tips. Thanks!
Defining the edges sounds like one of those simple, but great ideas. It is something most people can do and it visually makes things look great. For something small this is great, but for bigger yards, I would probably hire a great contractor to get the job done right. Thanks for the awesome landscaping info!
I liked the insight you gave to define the edges. As you say, if you have a small yard (which I do!) you want to avoid any overgrown edges because it takes up your driveway. Plus, the smaller the area, the worse it probably looks. Thus, I’ll make sure that I take the time to define the edges and make sure that my grass isn’t become overgrown. Thanks for sharing!
Keeping the yard watered really is the best way to make sure that everything looks the best. My husband and I are going to be working on our landscaping in a few weeks but we need to install sprinklers first. We will have to send our designs to the contractor and see what he thinks would be the best course of action for us.
I really like your tip about creating a front flower bed for your yard. My husband and I are going to be doing our landscaping in the spring so we will have to keep these tips in mind. Hopefully, we can find a service to help us with the whole process and give us the yard that we are looking for. Thank you for sharing!
Great article. I really appreciate the insight here in this post and confident it’s going to be helpful to me and many others. Thanks for sharing all the information and tips.
When my wife and I bought our first home, we didn’t feel like our front yard had any aesthetic appeal. I really like how this article talks about building a simple flowerbed to make your yard pop. I have a good friend who is a professional landscaper, and I think I am going to hire him!
This is some really good information about landscaping. It does seem like a good idea to a have a flower bed in the front of your home. I also like that you pointed out that you should not stop watering your plants.
I like how you mentioned that a benefit of small yards is that you have a much easier time of watering it. My husband and I have a pretty small yard and we are going to be doing some landscaping in a few weeks. We want to plant at least two trees, and put in a nice flower bed in the front yard like you suggested. I think that this information will be really helpful to us in the process. Thank you for sharing!
I can see how it would be extremely important to keep your landscape watered throughout the year. My garden has gotten to be extremely dry and ugly over the past few years. I definitely think that I should find some professionals that could easily bring it all back to life.
I appreciate you talking about the importance of checking with your city so you can find out about any watering rules in the area. It makes sense that in places where water is scarce, there would be rules protecting the water supply for every house. We are planning on having a professional help us redo our landscape but want to make sure we know what the water rules are in order to choose the best plants.
Thank you for the interesting read. You mentioned in it that you should try and keep your yard very simple and try using minimal decorations, especially if your yard is smaller. My brother just moved into a home and he’s been wondering about what he should do with the front and back yard. We’ll have to find a place where we could get landscaping supplies, so that he can add a few items to the yard, to really give it personality.
The yard of my new house needs sprucing up, especially the overgrown grass. I’m glad you mentioned trimming grass so it doesn’t start growing on the driveway, which is what has happened in my yard. I’m not great when it comes to landscaping, so maybe I’ll hire a professional landscaper to clean up the edges of my lawn.
Thank you for all the help on how to decorate my small yard! Wow, I had no idea that defining the edges and making sure that your grass does not take over the yard can make it look clean and organized. I really need to take care of the grass in the front and get a weedwacker or something to make those definitive lines. Thanks again!