Creating an Urban Front Yard Getaway

David Epstein: Hi, I’m David Epstein. This is Growing Wisdom here with Gary Koller and we’re going to talking about designing in pretty small spaces today.

Gary Koller: This is a tiny space and I moved into this house five years ago, and this was grass. So what I want to do was turn this into a seating area with the long view. So you look down my path to the rock which terminates the view. The rock is eventually going to have a hedge in either side, so that you won’t see the chain like fence down there or the street. I divided the space so that I would have a walk down in the middle. And one of the things I wanted was focal point, so the rock is the focal point and I wanted a seating area, so that I could have glass of wine or a cup of coffee with the neighbors and chat and looked down to this view.

And then when you look down in my little path, it has evergreen ground cover on either side called waldsteinia, so in the wintertime when I come out. I did want to bald and dirt. So that will stay green. And then I come in about the middle of May and I put the annuals in which holds the space for the rest of the summer.

So what I’m trying to do was make like a green valley with the touch of color.

David Epstein: And you have little water picture there as well.

Gary Koller: I like grass falls because when the wind blows, they float around and they keep changing their position and they reflect in the wind, and you know I’ve little birds who come and drink out of the fountain, and it’s fun to watch all of this.

David Epstein: What did you use here under foot?

Gary Koller: I put this stuff down called crusher run. It’s just granite that’s crushed up in different sizes, and then overtop is just a small area of decorative gravel but what it does is it gives you a very solid base. When the crusher run packs down from the rain, it’s like concrete. Then this still lets the water percolate in through the whole path. So I put this gold forsythia in and the forsythia is supposed to grow up about four feet and then I’m going to trim it so that it doesn’t get too wild and woolly. And it masks the base of the house from the street and from the pathway.

And then at the base of the house, there’s a gravel strip along the base, so you can get it in and service the house from behind the bushes. You don’t even know it’s there.

David Epstein: Gary, thanks for the sage advice. As usual wonderful and I hope this has helped. If you have a very small space, it doesn’t mean you can’t have a beautiful garden. Come back every week for all of our tips, hints, and helps at Growing Wisdom.