Westlake Garden Club

How to Beautify Your Side Yard
What lurks in your side yard? Is it a space to hide eye sores, like trash and recycling containers? Do you collect bits and pieces of lumber for ongoing home improvement projects? Or is it simply a bland pathway, leading from the front yard to the back garden, with a privacy fence sheltering your property from neighbors’ prying eyes?
Whether you live in a brand-new urban home with a small yard, a pretty cottage on a mid-sized property, or a renovated 1800s farmhouse on acreage, side yards are notoriously neglected. After all, the front and back gardens are the stars of most homes: the front landscape focuses on curb appeal, making sure the gardens and plantings show off your home to its best advantage, while the back garden showcases your favorite flowers, homegrown foods, hobbies, and relaxation retreats. Most homeowners think of side yards as simply a way to get from point A- the front yard -to point B—the back, without considering the aesthetic appeal.
But as new-builds lots shrink, every square inch of garden should be carefully considered for its practical, as well as pretty, integration into the landscape. And even larger landscapes benefit when side yards blend seamlessly into the overall design of the garden.
So, instead of relegating side yards to drab, unsightly spaces, create an inviting secret nook that’s ideal for reading a book, a pretty, practical pathway that leads to the back garden, or a whimsical, flower-filled space surrounding a potting bench where you can cultivate plants with pleasure. Curious how to create a gorgeous side yard?

Beginner Tip: Just as with any garden space, test your soil before planting to determine its pH, as well to check if the soil needs any amendments.
A soil test typically costs about the price of a cup of coffee and provides a detailed analysis of what nutrients might be missing to help you better prep before planting. Most local university extension offices provide soil tests.
How to Design an Attractive Side Yard Garden
A well-planned garden contains an array of plants that provide structure, texture, color, fragrance, and flowers. In a side yard garden, you’ll benefit from choosing your plantings carefully, because most side yards tend to be narrow, giving you a more intimate experience with the plants.
Brush by a fragrant lily, notice the crinkled patterns of hydrangea leaves, run your fingers through grassy plumes—a well-designed side yard can provide a more personal experience than large landscape installations.
Before you order your first plant or head to the nursery, spend some time evaluating your side yard.
• Consider the space. Measure the area, but also look at the light at different times throughout the day—as well as throughout the year. Many side yards are dark and narrow due to fences or shadows thrown by the house. Determine the amount of sunlight the space receives to help you choose plants that will thrive.
• Determine the function. How will you use the side yard? Do you intend to create a beautiful path between front and back gardens? Is there space for a sitting area or a chair tucked into a nook? Can you place a potting bench–or add an entire garden shed in a larger side yard?
• Dream a bit. Flip through garden design books. Take a garden tour. Create a Pinterest board and fill it with your favorite side yard images. Let inspiration from other gardens help guide your design.
• Create a plan. Draw a rough sketch of the side yard, adding in the elements you desire. Can you create garden beds, or is there space for containers? Will you add vertical plantings along fences, walls, or even a chimney? Place products you’d like to incorporate, like chairs or art, in the sketch, as well as outline pathways.
• Watch the scale. Select plants and products that work within the space. Be careful not to overwhelm small areas with bulky furniture—or bulky plants.
• Let your personality shine. While front gardens tend to complement the home’s exterior, side gardens can get away with a little more whimsy. Add your favorite sculpture. Display a bevy of bird houses. Create a riot of color. Or, if you prefer, tie in your side garden to continue the front garden’s task of complementing your home.
The goal is to prettify a previously neglected space, so choose what appeals to you.

Beginner Tip: If your side yard garden is extremely narrow, avoid planting thorny, prickly plants that may snag your clothes—or your skin—as you pass.

Choose Features to Make a Side Yard Garden Feel More Spacious
Creating a side yard garden mimics many of the same strategies and components used when designing any garden space. An attractive mix of structures, hardscapes, plants, and accessories creates visual appeal. And because many side yards are small and narrow, often vertical elements help create a feeling of spaciousness.
When designing a side yard garden, consider:
• Gates and Arbors: Not only do gates lend privacy to garden spaces, both gates and arbors help define the spaces, creating a notable entry into the side yard from other points in the garden. The height of arbors or pergolas draws the eye upward, giving the side garden a feeling of spaciousness. Allowing glimpses into the front and back gardens from the side yard gives the illusion of a bigger space.
• Pathways: The side garden is a pathway between destinations, so why not make that pathway pretty? Whether you use gravel, bricks, pavers, or stepping stones, installing a curved pathway or irregularly placed stepping stones makes the side garden feel less tunnel-like.
• Accessories: Adding touches like a small bistro table, a statue, art, containers, a bench, or a water feature provides a focal point, allowing the eye to rest. Be careful not to place too many accessories in a small side garden, though. Accessories should make the space feel interesting and spacious, not cluttered. Consider the scale of the pieces you choose to complement the size of the space.
• Lighting: Pathway lights, uplighting, spotlights, string lights. Not only does lighting add ambiance to side gardens, but it also provides an element of safety when strolling along the side garden at night. (Just remember to turn off the lights during peak bird migration seasons.)
• So many plants, so little space. When choosing plants for your side garden, keep in mind the scale of the space. Small, urban side yards require compact plants that won’t overwhelm the space—or whack you in the face as you walk along the path. Plants for larger side yards still need careful selection to ensure that they’ll thrive.

It’s OK to have only a single garden bed on one side of a wide walkway in a side yard garden. It’s better to design a wider walkway than include too many garden beds that make navigating a side yard difficult.
As with any garden, spend some time analyzing your side yard garden space before selecting plants.
Factors to consider include:
• Light. Many side yards tend to be dark and narrow, a small space crammed between a privacy fence and the exterior wall of a house. Plants that thrive in deep shade should comprise your shopping list for a dark side yard. Other side yards may be hot and sunny, with light reflecting off hardscapes. Choose tough, drought-tolerant, sun-loving plants for these spaces.
• Soil. Is the soil rich and well-draining, or is it rock-hard, compacted red clay? Before you dig your first hole, assess the soil to determine its composition. A soil test is always a great idea to determine the soil’s pH and whether you need amendments. Choose plants with cultural requirements that match your soil’s composition.
• Drainage. If deep shade is the reality of your side yard, the soil may tend to stay wetter longer—which is not great for plants that dislike wet feet. Check the soil and add amendments if needed—sand, gravel, compost—to help improve drainage.
• Containers. Decorative containers add flair to the side garden and provide an easy way to control soil quality. Plus, containers allow you to easily change plantings throughout the seasons. However, make sure to select containers on scale with the space. Large containers overwhelm small side gardens.
• Space. For truly space-challenged side gardens, focus on softening walkway edges. Add ground cover plants to create visual interest without overwhelming the space. Larger side gardens can support more plants—even shrubs and trees, when designed well. Limbing up trees allows the space to feel more open, drawing the eye upward.
• Vertical Elements. Small spaces benefit by growing up: vines on an arbor, vertical planters on walls, window boxes on the house, espaliered trees against a fence. If you think you don’t have room in your side garden, always look up—the possibilities are endless.
National Garden Bureau

As the aging-in-place movement gains traction, more and more senior gardeners are choosing that option. This has spawned the term “downsizing-in-place.”

How can you downsize your yard…

Aging-in-place is a movement that helps seniors remain in the home in which they raised their families. The home they love. Contractors are training to remodel homes to meet seniors’ changing needs. Home healthcare organizations are available to provide services to seniors who want to stay put. A first-floor bedroom and bathroom are probably the most important to successful aging-in-place. Other modifications may have to be made to your house to adapt your ability to function alone or with minimal help.

Downsizing-in-place works best if your landscape is mature, which it’ll be if you’ve been in your house for decades. Most mature landscapes require less maintenance. Ongoing maintenance includes lawn mowing. A Riding lawnmower makes this task easy, or you can hire one of the many mowing services in every neighborhood. The only task you should do when your trees need work is to write a check to the arborist you hire.

Perennials & Annuals: Low-Maintenance Solutions

Arguably, the most tiring work you have to do in your landscape is tending to your annuals and perennials. The best adaptive gardening technique for dealing with aggressive perennials is to replace them with shrubs and/or dwarf conifers. Instead of having to dig up your perennials and divide them every year or two, you’ll only have to prune shrubs once a year and dwarf conifers even less. The best adaptive gardening technique for annuals is to grow them only in containers.

Senior Gardening: Less Lifting, More Blooms with Container Annuals

Tending annuals in traditional in-ground beds is time-consuming and can be painful for many senior gardeners. It involves hours on your aging knees or bent over to plant, weed, and deadhead them. The containers you use for annuals may be decorative pots, elevated beds, window boxes, hanging baskets, and anything else you can think of. The only caveat is that containerized plants have to be watered more often than in-ground plants. Don’t plant directly into decorative containers. Rather, buy them or plant them in nursery pots that will fit into the decorative container. That cuts down on heavy lifting. Put the decorative container in place and then slip the nursery pot into place. This works with elevated beds and window boxes, too. If, during the season, a plant dies or becomes unproductive, you can just swap that plant out without disturbing the others. At the end of the season, you can just empty the nursery pot and save it for next season, rather than having to clean out the heavier decorative container. And, you’ll be keeping plastic pots out of a landfill.

From Large Plot to Kitchen Garden: Adapting for Senior Living

If you have a large vegetable garden out in the “back 40,” downsize it to a size that produces only the amount of produce you need to feed your empty nest. Also, move it close to the house – a kitchen garden. Then you only have to step out the back door to harvest tonight’s dinner, rather than trudging out to the former location. This also results in less work tending the garden. Make greater use of containers, including pots, elevated beds, and raised beds, even for your vegetable garden. Elevated beds (those on legs) are preferred to raised beds as you can tend them sitting down. Pots are easy to tend to. You can stand or sit to plant them and then put them on wheeled plant caddies to move around.

Don’t Downsize, Rightsize: Senior Gardening on Your Terms

As you can see, you don’t have to fret about moving from your happy place to a place you dread as aging begins to restrict your activities. You can choose the option that allows you to live your life in the environment you love, whether that’s new or right where you are.

Source: National Garden Bureau