Seattle Living

Think You Haven’t Got Space for a Garden?

By Joanna Simmons, Houzz contributor January 25, 2017

SmallGarden

This article orginially appeard on Houzz.com

If your outdoor space is tiny, tricky or totally nonexistent, you can still find a way to grow a little garden. Forget big shrubs or sculptural trees and think instead about window boxes, clever climbing vines and lush indoor jungles. Sometimes simply getting hold of the right planters is enough to unlock the potential for a corner of greenery, while other solutions are more ingenious. Here’s a handful of ripe ideas to try.

West 2nd Street, North Vancouver

Rethink the hanging basket. Much favored by urban gardeners for dangling off lampposts, hanging baskets exist in other, cooler guises too. Great for exploiting unused wall space in a small balcony area, a hanging basket can be any shape or size, provided it’s securely supported.

Try an industrial, trough-like design, something like this one, rather than the traditional round wire version.

You could even construct your own hanging containers using upcycled cans for a beautiful and economical look.

Lennox Gardens - Small terrace and lightwell

Go big with window boxes. Treat window boxes as a mini garden, filling them with annuals, perennials and herbs for maximum variety and interest all year round.

Choose specimens that are reasonably tall so you can see and enjoy them from indoors. Plants such as Verbena bonariensis grow on tall, strong stems that won’t block the light but will bring welcome height to a window box.

Window boxes and planters in the city
 
For something big on impact but, perhaps, lower maintenance, try planting a row of grasses in a window box. Again, you’ll be able to appreciate these from inside, and they create a pleasing green screen that softens an urban view.
 
Window boxes and planters in the city

Decorate outside as you would in. Instead of trying to grow a garden in a tricky, dark courtyard like this, why not brighten it up with geometric tiles and attractive furniture? Treat the low area outside a basement window as an extension of inside so that it’s pleasant to use and great to look at from within.

Related: Finding the Just-Right Sized Patio Furniture

WHAT architecture - Beirutful House

 

 

Exploit a corner. Build planters into a corner to create a green focal point. Trailing plants help obscure the horizontal lines of the planters and, paired with smaller specimens, give a lush, abundant feel to this relaxed seating corner.

Here, the homeowners have adapted pallets to make them watertight, then painted them white.

My Houzz: A Dark Storage Space transformation to a Crisp White Loft

Nurture an indoor garden. Rather than just dotting a few potted plants around, think big and go for an abundant, indoor garden look. Group large houseplants of various sizes and heights together on the floor and use mirrors to max the effect.

Related: The Best Products to Get Your Small Garden Growing

Little Venice Rooms Summer

Alternatively, take the more is more approach, but use a single piece of furniture, such as a low bench or shelf, to organize your potted plant display. Tuck this under a sunny window and watch your plants thrive.

Living room

Introduce climbers inside. Grow vertical climbing plants indoors, trained up a simple, minimal wire mesh partition. This one flanks stairs, but the idea would work well against a sunny internal wall too.

Trees on the Roof

Follow Us

A Light-Filled  Oasis

A Light-Filled Oasis

Mercer Island residence embraces natural beauty by drawing it inside

When Kent and Lisa Sacia decided to put a bow on their latest remodeling triumph, they turned to a trusted collaborator, Sander Groves Landscaping President Dan Groves. He was more than happy to take on the project, a reimagining of a 1972 Northwest contemporary by a noted Mercer Island architect. “I am in a position to…

Living: The Lightness of Seeing

Living: The Lightness of Seeing

Challenging ‘Lopez Lookout’ project places a premium on spectacular scenery

The regulators and nesting eagles weren’t the only ones peering on with interest. The third largest of the San Juan Islands at 30 square miles, Lopez is home to about 3,000 year-round residents known for friendly waves at about anything that moves. Islanders are also known for their intense interest in protecting their remarkable environment….

A History Museum at Home | Sponsored

A History Museum at Home | Sponsored

Creating your own mini galleries with art, photos, and objects you love

  Everywhere you turn in Brendan’s home is a piece of history with a compelling story. A small delicate piece of metal stamped with a man and lion sits inset against a vibrant red matboard. “This is a gladiator fight ticket from the Colosseum in Thracian during the slave uprising in Rome. The time of…

A Poetic Quality of Light

A Poetic Quality of Light

Portage Bay floating home embodies a feeling of spaciousness

Suzanne Stefan rides a housing bubble that bursts many times each day. Stefan, a cofounder of Seattle architecture firm Studio DIAA, combined light, sound, and materials to create a bright, 650-square-foot floating home on Portage Bay (the eastern arm of Lake Union) that reverentially reflects its idyllic surroundings. Bright, but not dazzling, as glare, contrast,…