Know what's great about small outdoor spaces? It doesn't take a lot to fill them with rich, various plantings and materials instead of a high-maintenance lawn. Here are a few tiny outdoor spaces that prove small is cool both inside and out:
• 1 A small home with a gorgeous front yard from Southern Living
• 2 Crushed stone walkways with trees, shrubs and perennials. Image: T.J. Hamilton / Grand Rapids Press
• 3, 4 Two tiny front yard gardens in Boston, via Allan Becker
• 5 A front yard makeover via Little Black Journal
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I love that second photo! I want to do a lawnless backyard with flower/vege beds eventually and this is some nice inspiration.
I love these. More yards, please!
Anyone know hat the tree is in the first pic?
Yes! More of this. I too am working toward an edible front garden with an herbal lawn.
yellowstripes - the tree looks to be a Japanese Maple. its hard to tell 100% but it seems so...
please just say "no" to red mulch!
Oh, larchgirl, I am SO with you on the red mulch. It's so fake looking -- and sadly, our homeowner's association outvoted me and there is a pile of it waiting to be distributed next to my house. With a large orange puddle next to it from the dyes washing out with the rain.
(At least that suggests it won't STAY red for long!)
I think that tree might be a crepe myrtle, common in the south. The smooth bark and multiple branches suggest that to me.
Thank you for this! I have a a big city lot with nothing but sidewalk, lawn, and ONE hosta. The blank slate and thousands of options and ideas in my head have me totally overwhelmed. But I think I just need to start with some of the trees I've been dreaming of to give me some framework to get some beds going, then add the bushes, lilies, and so on......bit by bit. It's so pricey and labor intensive, and I haven't done anything beyond container gardening in my adult life.... but it's time to get started. :-)
The article for the first picture says its a Japanese Maple, don't think I have ever seen on that big.
@SherryBinNH: what's the purpose of dying mulch anyways.. is it supposed to just be for looks? Would seem odd to add dye to something like that that's just going to add chemicals to the soil..
Denver80203, I really think it's a crepe myrtle.
Luckilly, I just bought a house where the previous owners put in native grass, and stonescaping in the front yard, and low maintenace grass/ xeric plantings in the backyard. The lawn takes a little longer to green up in the spring, but I can't wait to sit on my front porch and drink a cocktail while I watch the neighbors mow their lawns!
Given that this is APARTMENT therapy, I'd love to see how apartment dwellers transform porches into "yards" and "gardens" without the benefit of earth beneath them.
I think Chives mixed with Pansies or some other edible flower would look excellent in a container on a porch!
I thought Japanese maples were red.. I suppose there are many varieties.
could also be a vine maple, native to the pacific northwest. Up here we have a billion small maples, they are green, red, variegated, tall, small, weeping, upright, single-or-multi-trunked...in short, they come lots of ways.
This looks like the vine maple in my side yard or the japanese maple across the street. all are good trees for small yards!
there are lots of types of japanese maples, not all of which are red and some of which are only red part of the year. And this one isn't even that huge; some of the old ones one our street are much larger.
That tree looks like an Amelanchier Canadensis (serviceberry).
http://www.huntersville.org/interactive%20ordinance/IMAGES/serviceberry.jpg
Where do you play?
i'm with ande2994: i'd love some photos of green balconies!