Simple But Effective Garden Ideas For Tiny Spaces | Great Home Ideas

Our inner city suburbs are more popular than ever. You can live, play and work in the same area. But with that comes the noise, comes the traffic, comes the congestion. So if you still want to have a garden, get away from the concrete, you might just have to rise above it. In an environment like this, most of us would just see houses packed tightly together. But the owner of this terrace we're about to look at saw things differently. He saw an opportunity to turn a small space into an amazing garden. So it's not any old terrace we're looking at. What we're checking out is obviously different. And these walls, as beautiful as they are, aren't even what we're checking out. Hello, I need one of them at home. Chris! G'day Jason, how you going? Good mate, and you? Pretty good. I've come to check out the roof, but we've got this as an optional extra. How good is that? Yeah, you've got eight metres of vertical garden there. That's something you see coming straight down the street. Mate, the foliage and the colour contrast you've got here, was it tricky when you first set it up? It is, because obviously the orientation of the house, you need to be selective on your plant species, and we seem to have perfected it. We haven't had much plant loss here, so it's pretty good. Well, if that's the start, I can't wait to see where we finish up. Come through. Every available outdoor space here has been transformed into a lush, green landscape, even the roof. I hope the view gets better. Here it is. It's worth walking up a ladder behind you, mate. That is breathtaking. What a great use of space. It's pretty good, isn't it? I mean, look at the neighbour's options. Plopped up gutters and a few weeds, and a lot of antennas, and you've got this. Now the first thing you should understand, that this is a green roof, and it is not an entertaining area. So if you're thinking about doing something similar, you've got to check with the council regarding both building and safety regulations. Righto mate, show me around. Come along. Building a rooftop garden like this requires some serious engineering, and use of a special lightweight soil that doesn't get compacted when you water it or walk on it. And it just proves, no matter how challenging or small the space, you can still create an amazing garden. What's your favourite thing about it? The overall appearance, really. And I love to put a bit of contrast in it with these sleepers. To me, the sleepers make the whole rustic feel of a garden. Insulating factor's unbelievable. We haven't had to use any air conditioning. Compared to that tin roof. There's no comparison. Yeah, right. You can't get a much tougher environment for plants than on a roof. It's exposed to full sun and the wind. So the solution to that is to use tough plants. And your plant selection, like liriope, I would plant that underneath the tree, but it obviously does okay here in the full, full sun. Yeah, no, liriopes are working really well. We've got over here, we've got some pig face, and we've got a bit of basically seed and succulents. They seem to work the best. The succulents are amazing. That gives you the contrast in the foliage colour. You're not dependent on flowers. But this is fantastic, mate. Have you found a frog that's made its way up here yet? No, but I found a few birds. This garden's pretty impressive. Not just for the fact of where it's built, but clever plant selection has made sure it looks really good. Chris, thanks so much for letting us look around, mate. You really have raised the standards of gardening. Yeah, thanks a lot for coming and allowing me to, you know, show everyone what can be done. Can be done? Well, mate, as soon as I finish this cuppa, I need to go and build myself a courtyard. Yep, even if you're not planning on a rooftop garden, there are design elements here that you can work in any small space. And a little later, I'm going to pinch some of them for a courtyard garden. Earlier, we looked at a rooftop garden. It was one of the trendiest things I've ever seen. I've got some great ideas for small spaces and plants that thrive in the harshest conditions. So I'm going to borrow a few of the ideas that apply to this space here. But you might have noticed that it's not in full sun. It isn't exposed to the wind. In fact, it's the exact opposite. It's quite shady, but the concept is exactly the same. The right plants for your conditions. Now, I love my lawn, but it's not the answer to every situation. There was none on the rooftop. What was on the floor was all ground covers. And that's what we're going to do here. There's no mowing, less maintenance, and it's going to survive in the opposite conditions. In here, under shade. On the roof, in full sun. So when should you give up on a lawn? Well, when you've tried, tried and tried again and you still have more weeds than grass. It just means it's not the right spot. And when you're digging it out, you know you've done the right thing because it comes out easy because there's next to no roots. It's just struggling. So ground covers will be a 10 times better option. In small spaces, it's hard to put lots of features in. So I'm going to make the path a feature, just like Chris did. And I'm going to put a zig and a zag in it. Not going from A to B, but going from A to B to C, all the way over to D. Make it a little bit of a journey. If you grab a dictionary and look at the word rustic, I think it's got a photo of these. These are hardwood railway sleepers, albeit for a very small train. No, I'm joking. They're normally 2.4 metres long and I've chopped them down to 600mm because that's the width of my path. It's a very difficult technique, laying them. Are you ready for it? Put the next one next to it. So there's no road base, no sand, no screeding it off and all the techniques that goes into paving. This is just digging out a bit of dirt. If they're a tad high, bending your back, doing no damage, just adding more rustic charm to the sleeper. And they're that heavy, you don't have to mud them in. They're not going to go anywhere. The fence, it's getting a coat of paint. Now you could be tempted in a small space like this to go for a bright colour. Well, believe it or not, charcoal or black are my preferred choices because they're dark, it means the plants will pop and everything else becomes the feature, hiding the boring old paling fence. Now, just because it's a small space doesn't mean you need to scale everything down. I'm using some of the sleepers that I bought that haven't gone down the path as an oversized sculpture. They look great, but they're also practical. This part of the area is pretty ugly. You've got the hose hanging up, the tap, the drain, the stink pipe. These guys will draw your eye, hide them and give this garden a point of interest. Now, you can dig a bigger hole and put concrete around it, but if you go in the ground about 500, 600mm and ram the earth, they're not going to go in here anyway. It's even more important in a small space to place your plants out, step back, have a good look and make sure you've got it right. I've got the fountain grass, put them at the back, they give a bit of scale to the sculpture and then liriope at the front. It'll only get a little bit higher than what it is and it'll just start to clump up, soften the edges and work perfectly. Now, earlier on the rooftop I saw liriope and I was genuinely surprised how well it was doing in full sun with the wind, but it was working. Here in a more traditional environment, which is semi-shade, it's going to go brilliantly and the variegated one, it's nice and bright. If you think of Chris's rooftop, it was covered in plants. Some of them traditional ground covers and some of them not so traditional. Something like this native violet, I'd call a traditional ground cover because when it's in the ground, it's not going to get any taller than that and it'll look like a carpet. But things like this dianella, the dietes, they're ground covers as well because they're going to clump up and cover the ground, which means no weeds, less maintenance and a better looking garden. Very eye-catching and very striking in a small space. Now, with plants like agaves or succulents, you want to keep them well away from the path because if you bash them up and bruise the leaves, they stay like that forever. This is about as hard as your maintenance gets. These plants will grow up, clump up and pretty much look after themselves. Now, you might never have a space like this but think about areas in your property like down the side passage, where the bin sit or where the trailer used to be and plant it out like this. Taking the bin out has never been as much fun as when you're walking through a beautiful space like this. It's common knowledge that a quarter acre block is an old-fashioned dream. Lots of us are moving into townhouses like this or units and when you think about a unit, you don't think about gardening but there's that outdoor balcony. Well, I reckon you could turn into a fantastic new outdoor living space and the best thing about it is you can still be a gardener which is the number one hobby in the world. Well, pretty typical balcony. It's got walls, floors, it's hot and dry. Now, that is an asset. It's got a beautiful view but why would you come out here? There's nothing to sit on or nothing to really do. I reckon the first thing we should do is work on these walls. Now, this one faces north so you can grow nearly any bit you like here if you keep the water up to it and what I've got in mind will be a real feature. Hands up if you're guilty of going up to the supermarket and buying a sprig of rosemary or basil or sage so you can cook with it. It's a waste of money. For a few dollars more, you can have the whole plant. They'll all happily grow in these tiny little pots. They're plastic, they're sun-tough and they're bright. On the wall, they'll be a feature on their own. What I'm going to do is get the pattern right on the ground and then just transfer it up one at a time and I'm not going to pot them up before I put them on the wall. If the plant was there, I'd just trash the plant. It's nice and random and it's worked out well. Now, what plants go where? Well, you need to think about how tall they want to grow or how much they want to hang down. I'm also going to hang them along the edge of the balcony. Yep, it's that simple to create an easy vertical herb garden. If I think of a beautiful garden, chances are it's got a great big lush green lawn. A bit hard to do in a space like this, but not anymore because synthetic grass has come a long way over the last few years. It's a good looking dance floor. It's long, it's lush and it's got thatch in it so it looks like real grass. We've got to say, this is definitely a fresh look but I still think it's lacking something. I want to create a mini rainforest so you're like sitting in a cocoon. I'm not going for matching pots. I'm going for different shapes and sizes but with a theme of colour and texture on the outside that'll tie them all together. When you're working on a balcony, it's exactly like a pool fence. You need to think of what could potentially go wrong. So putting things near the edge if you've got little ones can double as a step and we don't want accidents. Don't think just about your kids, think about the ones that are going to come and visit. You know, as a nation, we're pretty informal and that goes for our dining as well. So what I'm going to do is create a breakfast bar. It's going to be twice as long as this but I've split it up into two. All we've got here is black butt. I've just butted the joints on the end which is the easiest way to go. And the best thing about it is when you're eating, there's not a screw in sight. And because ours is exposed to the weather, we've made sure we've used stainless steel screws and hinges. How does it work, you say? Well, that's it in its down position, folded away, giving you plenty of space to bust a move. But when it's up, all you need to do is have a piece of timber that's the right length, slide it underneath and gravity will do the rest. When you're not using it, a little piece of timber sits behind there. And when the timber looks this good and you want to keep it looking that way, a coat of oil will keep it pristine. Or you could just let it age gracefully and it'll go grey, like a paling fence. Air conditioners. Fantastic inside, but outside you can still screen them off. I'm going to make a water feature. So what I'm going to use is this papyrus. Best thing about it, it's a water plant. It's really soft and draws your eye up nice and high. Now with the water in the bowl, if you're worried about attracting mozzies, well just get a couple of goldfish. They'll go around and eat all the eggs for you. Well the contrast between what we started with and what we've got now is absolutely dramatic. This little space here is so comfortable. The plants feel like they're giving you a cuddle. You've got the splash of water, the practicality of those breakfast bars. The best thing about this space is it doesn't just add value to your unit, it's going to add value to your life. Sorry Dan, I didn't get your chair, but the grass, it's all yours. Without a doubt, the most difficult place to create a garden is on a balcony or any similar small space. Earlier I planted a Balinese style garden in an inner city courtyard. But now I've got a bigger challenge. Ah, now this is the area. Yes. Pam's desperate to create a garden here. Well it's certainly seen from all corners of the house, isn't it? It is. That's the problem we've had since we moved in really, because you can see it from everywhere. So we're looking for something that is green and is a bit like a garden, but obviously doesn't encroach because it's such a small space. Well I'm sure we can create a little outdoor retreat here for you. That'll be brilliant. Okay, have the time off, come back this afternoon, we'll have it all done. Excellent. Bye. There's lots of natural light with the open roof, but we only have a 4 by 3 metre area to work our magic. Now Pam and her partner want the box to stay. It's virtually their outdoor garden shed, and she doesn't want the plants to encroach. So the only way to go is up. And to me that spells vertical garden. This one is really attractive and very versatile. You create the shape that you want. Each of the garden planters have these lugs that actually join in together. Now I'm going to put the garden in the corner and then extend it across the white wall. Then you can change the design any way you like. Now before I go any further, I need to secure this one to the wall. Right, okay. The great thing is you can just extend it as far as you like. Okay, not only is practical, but it has an architectural look about it as well. Now a bare wall, an opportunity to extend our vertical garden. So my thoughts are some beautiful stags and elks. This wall is facing south, it won't get direct sunlight, so these will never get burned. They'll catch the odd leaf that falls in there. Nice vertical planting, looks great. I'm going to take these loripetalums out because they're nice plants, won't waste them. Put them in the pots and use them elsewhere at the front. What we need here is something soft and delicate, something lush green in the corner. Bamboo, perfect. This is gracilis, a lovely clumping variety. Tall, vertical, it'll soften off the corner, look fantastic in our little courtyard garden. For our little planting pockets, ripsalis, a beautiful succulent. Look at these vertical drops, dark green, lime green, lots of different varieties. Hard up against the wall, but you still get the vertical look. Lovely, fine, lacy one. And then finally, a clump, a real favourite of mine. This is tiger grass, quick growing, lush green, and it'll really fill in this little corner underneath our wonderful hanging gardens. Well, I think Pam now has her urban sanctuary. I hope she loves it. Oh wow, that looks so much better. It does, doesn't it? You happy? Very happy. We love that. It already feels so lush and inviting and with a bit of growth over time, it'll be a beautiful focal point in Pam's home. If you want to pinch some ideas for your garden, the show gardens are fantastic. But these little gardens, they're designed by the superstars of tomorrow, the young landscape designers. So what can we expect in the future? Let's go and check it out. In the achievable gardens category, you can really see the young talent shining through. It's incredible how much you can pack into a space that's only three metres by five metres. This one's got all the elements of nature. With the water, I use the blue foliage plants in the form of a rockery and a pond. With the air, I've used air plants. For the fire, I've used the kangaroo paw with the different colours of reds, yellow and orange, and with the logs around it. And then for earth, I've used the grass tree with just some sort of drumana topping to create that sort of desert feel. But what I really like are these ant mounds, made out of expandable foam and just rolled in sand. Now, if you think you can't have a garden like these because you don't have the money, well, let's just say that you're budget conscious. This garden here is exactly for you. It's all recycled and reused products. You can see that these are secondhand bricks. They've just dry stacked them. And that beautiful daybed, well, all it is is a pallet reconfigurated. Pallets along the back screen off that tin fence, and once those plants start to grow, there'll just be a vertical green wall that's actually practical. And the ones on the side, they're just polypipe cut in half. It's a great use of vertical space, and it doesn't have to cost you a thousand bucks a square metre. Hi. Congratulations on your garden. Ah, thank you. This one's called Oh, the Places You'll Go. Made solely to inspire kids to get off the couch and into the outdoors. And what kids don't love a game? There's a giant TV that doubles as a stage. Hopscotch, knots and crosses, a dinosaur dig, and a fairy garden. And the kids could actually make the garden anyway. And it would be super fun for them. There's also the boutique gardens, a bit bigger at five by five metres. They're a real look at the skills and the creativity of our up and coming landscape designers. For some, inspiration comes from their own backyard. This one's a slice of Victoria's Mornington Peninsula. It's filled with plants that can handle the windy conditions and sandy soil. We're using those rusty raw alum, so the concrete, the mild steel, the rusted steel. I think these little steppers remind me of exactly walking over the dune and not wearing away at the sand. Well, essentially, it's just rough sawn hardwood, but I think it achieves that look, as you said, you know, walking home through the dunes. There's even an outdoor shower, perfect for after the surf. When you sit down to design a garden to show off to thousands of people, you want to reach for the stars. Well, this garden by Lisa Ellis has reached for the stars and drawn them into her space. The telescope is front and centre. Even the fact that the walls and the reflective pond are all dark and moody means this would be the perfect garden to look at the stars at night. I love the vertical wall behind me, the sheet of water coming down, and sometimes mulches are just too bright and showy for a dark garden like this. But I love what Lisa's done. She's used something I've never seen before, coal. You know what it's like after a busy day, all you want to do is wind down and relax. Well, I think I found the perfect space for you. Who wouldn't want to come home to something like this? It's got an outdoor bath and shower. Imagine lying in that in the privacy of your own backyard. All the plants are low care and simple maintenance. I like the fact that the steppers are shaped like leaves and around the steppers you've got ivy. Because it's so fast growing, you can walk over it, wear it out a little bit and it'll grow back and keep nice and green. I like the fact that the sculpture is incorporated into the wall. It's a beautiful shaped foliage of a gymea lily. All in all, this is a garden that you would definitely unwind in.