Create an ideabook for your next remodeling project!
Browse more than 1,500,000 photos from top designers and save your favorites
Gardening
Top Ideabooks
- Enjoy the Peak of Spring Gardening — Here's What to Do in May
- 11 Perfect Plants for a Moonlit Garden — in Pots
- 6 Beautiful Plants for a Shady, Wet Site
- 6 Captivating Roses for an Alluringly Fragrant Garden
- 5 Essential Considerations for a Landscape Design Project
- Get on a Composting Kick (Hello, Free Fertilizer!)
Landscape Design
Top Ideabooks
- How to Turn a Side Yard Into a Glorious Garden Room
- How Low Can Hedges Go? Discover Unusual Garden Borders
- 5 Essential Considerations for a Landscape Design Project
- See 6 Homes That Rise to the Rural Landscape
- Take Your Garden on a Rural Route With Plant-Dominant Designs
- 8 Outdoor Playspace Ideas to Nurture Kids' Imaginations
How to Turn a Side Yard Into a Glorious Garden Room
With just 8 feet or so, you can turn a plain side yard into a garden that lets you get carried away
Houzz Contributor. Debra Prinzing is a Seattle- and Los Angeles-based outdoor living expert who writes and lectures on gardens and home design. She has a background in textiles, journalism, landscape design and horticulture. A frequent speaker for botanical garden, horticultural society and flower show audiences, Debra is also a regular radio and television guest. Her five books include Garden Writers Association Gold Award-winning Stylish Sheds and Elegant Hideaways (Clarkson-Potter/Random House, 2008) and The Abundant Garden (2005). She is now at work on her new book about seasonal, local and sustainably-grown cut flowers with photographer David Perry. You can read more about it at www.afreshbouquet.com.
Debra is the new contributing garden editor for Better Homes & Gardens and her feature...
Houzz Contributor. Debra Prinzing is a Seattle- and Los Angeles-based outdoor... More »
Front yards and backyards are well established in the garden playbook. But the space between the exterior of your home and the perimeter of your property is often an overlooked asset, worthy of attention.
There are many wonderful ways to design even a narrow side yard, but if the space is wide enough — measuring, say, 8 to 10 feet or more — you can practically treat it like a garden room. In a medium-scale side yard, all sorts of experiences can occur, transporting you and your guests with a garden stroll, offering a quiet and private retreat, or even capturing a pastoral scene to be observed from indoors.
There are so many great ideas for side yard designs that it made sense to divide this theme into two parts. The solutions you see here are mostly ornamental in nature. Stay tuned for a follow-up ideabook on more functional design ideas for side yards.
Here you'll discover some of the most attractive design treatments you've ever seen in a midsize side garden.
There are many wonderful ways to design even a narrow side yard, but if the space is wide enough — measuring, say, 8 to 10 feet or more — you can practically treat it like a garden room. In a medium-scale side yard, all sorts of experiences can occur, transporting you and your guests with a garden stroll, offering a quiet and private retreat, or even capturing a pastoral scene to be observed from indoors.
There are so many great ideas for side yard designs that it made sense to divide this theme into two parts. The solutions you see here are mostly ornamental in nature. Stay tuned for a follow-up ideabook on more functional design ideas for side yards.
Here you'll discover some of the most attractive design treatments you've ever seen in a midsize side garden.
| Like it? Save it to your Ideabook »
|
| A circle in a square is a classic design motif. Here it is expressed in a beautiful gravel garden. This side yard is wide enough to accommodate a circular focal point (with a well-proportioned urn at its center). There is ample room for Mediterranean herbs and annual bedding plants to flourish along both sides of a pathway, which parts around the center urn and ends at the garden gate. |
| A long border worthy of a grand main garden fits into this transition space between a brick home and its garage. The room effect is enhanced here, thanks to the connecting breezeway. It gives the broad path a destination and accommodates deep planting beds for the textural borders on either side. This is just the sort of secondary spot that could have been paved for parking. Instead, it is a dreamy area for a stroll, still providing access for those approaching. |
by ROOMS & BLOOMS
»
Like it? Save it to your Ideabook »
Every room needs a doorway, right? Here is a full-size door, inserted in a humble wooden fence. Its presence heightens the sense of entry into a verdant side garden. There's even a stone threshold over which to step.
This is a beautiful way to add a sense of mystery and encourage anticipation for anyone approaching the bower inside.
This is a beautiful way to add a sense of mystery and encourage anticipation for anyone approaching the bower inside.
|
by Statile & Todd
»
Like it? Save it to your Ideabook »
|
| A gently curved flagstone path draws pedestrians from the front yard, through the spacious side garden, toward the rolling lawn in the distance. An opening in a row of trees frames the view. Within this side garden, however, there are plenty of beautiful plant combinations that provide interest. From the flowering thyme in and around the flagstones to the repeating mounds of perennials (irises and lady's mantle) and soft shrubs (azaleas), the design is inspired and appealing. |
| Like it? Save it to your Ideabook »
|
| Gotta love this tic-tac-toe design for a side garden that's completely engaging for anyone who happens upon it. This idea can adapt to most any dimension or cultural condition, because you first design the grid, then add the plants. Starting with off-the-shelf concrete or cut-stone pavers from a home improvement center (super affordable), lay out the path. Then alternate crushed rock for easy drainage and ground covers that can tolerate a little bit of foot traffic. Your side garden will finally have a stylish attitude — and you can probably accomplish this in a weekend. |
|
by Cottam Hargrave
»
Like it? Save it to your Ideabook »
|
| Attention, minimalists! Less is more in this side yard. Here's what makes this design a winner: 1. silhouetted plants against the perimeter wall; 2. uplighting for evening drama; 3. a flame source (fire pit); and 4. the continual ground plane in the form of decomposed granite. Depending on where you live, the floor of a side courtyard could be poured concrete, concrete pavers, crushed rock or even turf. Just treat it like a carpet runner and you'll create an evocative side-garden destination. |
| Side gardens aren't just about the garden floor; they're also about the vertical plane: the walls, so to speak. That notion is expressed beautifully here. Sustainably harvested ipe boards, installed horizontally, alternate with sections of stucco to enclose and retain the side garden. This is a well-furnished room with benches for seating, pockets for plants and even a fireplace treatment. There's a graphic rhythm to this space that makes it enjoyable both to view and to spend time visiting in. |
Like it? Save it to your Ideabook »
In reading the designer's notes, I was surprised to learn that this secret side garden was once an asphalt driveway! Wow. The freestanding wall of unstained lumber acts as a screen to hide the pathway from passersby.
But step slightly to the right and you discover the walkway of flagstone and crushed rock. This is an inviting way to experience the garden, yet I love how it remains private — for those allowed to enter.
More:
8 Splendid Designs for a Narrower Side Yard
But step slightly to the right and you discover the walkway of flagstone and crushed rock. This is an inviting way to experience the garden, yet I love how it remains private — for those allowed to enter.
More:
8 Splendid Designs for a Narrower Side Yard
Ideabook updated on July 21, 2012.
What are you working on?
News From Our Partners
Latest Ideabooks
People found the photos in this ideabook after searching for:
View over a million photos:
It's all so peaceful and I would love to own such a beautiful garden!!!!!!!!
RDWOODONLINE.COM
It is great to grow plants, plants do provide a means to absorb carbon dioxide and produce oxygen, but as we also go to do our shopping for groceries our vehicles produce much more carbon dioxide then our plants can ever absorb. Why not grow more plants that cut these trips out.
It is a thought.....
http://www.hyattlandscaping.com/2013/3-additional-ideas-for-spring-landscaping-charlotte-nc/