Small Backyard Garden Ideas and Late Spring Tour

Working with a small backyard means coming up with a lot of tiny garden ideas. We look for ways to maximize space while keeping it aesthetically pleasing. Our goal is to decrease our dependence on the grocery store a little bit each year so each year we increase the plants that we grow.  We are always adding and changing things as we learn how to design a tiny garden.

 

 

In case you’re new here, we garden in our backyard which is about 1300 square feet. That’s about 0.03 acres. We are so grateful for what we have and while we dream of more property we are working with what we have. This year we also commandeered about 60 square feet of garden on the side of the house which is a 30 x 2 ft stretch. We have over 300 food-producing plants, not including all of the different plants that we are using solely for tea or our flowers.

This is a tour in pictures of our backyard garden (and side garden) in late May 2024. We will hopefully update this monthly so that you can follow along in our journey this summer.

 

Disclosure: Some of the links below are affiliate links. This means that, at zero cost to you, The Homesmiths will earn an affiliate commission if you click through the link and finalize a purchase.

 

 

First is a picture from our back door. On the right we have a stone patio with container gardens and the rest of the yard is obstructed by lilac bushes and raspberry bushes. On the left is a newly built coop and the greenhouse that held several hundred plants this spring for our garden and a plant sale.

Bennett built our raised beds on a budget. Find out how here!

 

Patio and Container Gardening:

 

When we were designing our patio area (check out our post on how we planned for the garden in February!), the one thing that I thought would be fun is for the patio to have some snacking plants. So we have several everbearing strawberries planted and two cherry tomato plants that people can snack on when we are out there. There are also two basil plants in the cherry tomato container.

 

We were also gifted seed potatoes that we knew we didn’t have any room for in the garden beds, so we bought ten ten-gallon grow bags for those. Additionally, we have 2 varieties of melons, four of each, planted in pots along the chain link fence. We are hoping that they will vine nicely up and around the fence creating a living wall for the summer.

 

The flower garden in the patio area consists of a hydrangea bush that will bloom pink, lamb’s ear, ground cover that produces small purple flowers (I don’t remember the name of it, let me know if you know what it is!), and the lilac bushes.

Future plans for this area include adding more seating and possibly some more stone. Bennett made the beautiful bench here and he is hoping to add some more handmade furniture. We also are going to put a tomato cage around the cherry tomatoes.

 

Small Garden and Patio Ideas:

• Have comfortable seating, and a lot of it.
• Have plants that guests can snack from.
• Utilize all available space by using portable pots and grow bags.
• Use plants that trellis to create privacy.

 

Side Garden:

This side garden is pretty new this year. Along the entire span of the side of the house I originally had ripped up grass and planted irises. Last year we ripped out enough irises to make room for four tomato plants but this year we took out even more for space for vegetables. We did amend the soil with a lot of compost at the beginning of the spring and I put more in when I planted so we are hopeful that it is a successful portion of the garden.

Here we have 10 of 35 tomato plants. I have 13 varieties total but only 5 of those varieties are here. Check out our post on the tomatoes we grew last year! We also planted 3 ground cherries but unfortunately, an animal got to them within a few hours. We planted three new ones and covered them with garden netting but they all died and I think that’s because they were too young. I’m going to try to plant new ones when they grow a little bigger in the greenhouse. We also have over a hundred onions that we grew from sets that we got at a local Amish market.

 

Then at the gate to our backyard, we transplanted a lilac start from the back garden last year and peonies that were gifted to us by friends. The lilac is only two or three years old so it will be a minimum of four years before we start seeing it flower. I don’t know if the peonies will flower this year though. Do you have any experience with peonies? Let us know in the comments below!

Future plans for the side garden are to transplant more mature ground cherries and add more compost mid-summer to keep improving the soil health.

 

Side Garden Ideas:

• Define the garden area with rocks or wood.
• Create a welcoming entrance to your backyard with some flowering plants.
• Plant things that you are familiar with growing, especially if you don’t walk around the side of the house regularly, this way you can anticipate the needs of the plant before seeing them!

Tea Garden:

 

This tea and herbal remedy garden is very small but it was an experiment last year that just showed us how much more space we would like to be working with. We are growing chamomile, yarrow, borage, and what I believe is Paridiso Super Echinacea. I planted seeds for echinacea and two varieties of Agastache here last year but nothing came up. This year, the plants are coming in beautifully but I cannot remember what plant it is!  It’s beginning to flower so I’ll be able to tell by then. This is not all of the tea flowers that we are growing, but the ones that spread very easily are over here so they can be contained.

Future plans for this space include harvesting and trimming back the borage, yarrow, and chamomile and figuring out what the unknown plant is! I would also like to have a small but pretty stool to keep nearby to use when harvesting the tea.

 

Tea Garden Ideas:

• Plant tea flowers that spread easily, it will become a perennial tea garden!
• Leave plenty of space in between plants to make for easy reproducing.
• Give yourself a comfortable way to harvest the tea: padding, blankets, or a small stool!
• Make pretty, large labels to identify the plants. This is very helpful for when you’re waiting for them to flower and become more identifiable!

 

Flower Garden:

This flower garden takes up a lot of space in our yard and I know that it can be used for produce but I love having flowers that I can cut all summer. This year I was more diligent with my planning and I tried to organize the different varieties so that they could complement what was around them. Hopefully, I’ll see that as they grow! At the end of the garden is a rose bush, Lambs Ear, a singular Pink Elegance Lavender, and Dianthus. In the front of the whole bed, closest to the rocks, are snapdragons. I put those there because they should flower the soonest. Then, from the roses to the lilacs in order are Dinner Plate and Bee’s Choice Dahlias, Silver Strawflowers, Green Touch Amaranth, Peach Zinnias, Bell’s of Ireland, Gomphrena, Giant Zinnias, Autumn Touch Amaranth, White Cupcake Cosmos, Tall Mix Strawflowers, Beebalm, and Lillys.

Future plans for the flower garden are to harvest enough flowers to make beautiful bouquets for our house and others!

 

Flower Garden Ideas:

• Plant an assortment of flowers, both varieties and colors.
• Layer the garden so that flowers that will bloom first and for the shortest length of time are in front.
• Layer the garden so that the colors, size, or shapes of the flowers flow into each other as you walk down the garden.
• Line the garden so that it is defined. We found the large stones that line our garden for free on Marketplace!
• Place a cute garden accessory somewhere. It doesn’t even need to be noticeable to others, but knowing it’s there will bring a smile to your face and your children’s! We have a gnome and a metal frog birdhouse!

 

Vegetable Garden:

 

This year we tried to be intentional with companion planting and utilizing the space to it’s fullest potential by not just planting in organized rows of the same type of plant.

 

Here we have six tomatoes growing under each of the half-cattle panels. In between we have 4 spinach plants. We currently have a curtain hanging above the spinach because we were having sustained temps in the mid-80s and we have been trying to prevent the spinach from bolting. The hope is that as the tomatoes grow, they will provide shade to the spinach. In the back right of this area there is a stepping stone to make it easier to get to the back and two more tomato plants. We also have marigolds planted to help deter pests from the tomatoes. One of the tomato plants broke due to high winds so I will be replacing that soon.

 

Further down the garden we have cattle panel archers. The first arch has ten yardlong beans sprouting in front of it on one side and ten Chinese noodle beans on the other side. The space to the left and in front of the yardlong beans is for lettuce. I am having bad luck with lettuce this year though. Further in front of the yardlong beans is 3 kale plants. Next in this section we have seven out of fifteen pepper plants (8 varieties). After that it is the next cattle panel arch. On the left side there is 2 Jarrahdale pumpkins and 2 butternut squash and on the right is 2 pink banana squash and 2 cacuzza. In front of the left side is three more kale plants.

 

Then we have another 9 tomato plants with marigolds. In front of these tomatoes, we have seven purple cauliflower plants.

 

To the right of the garage door we have Bennett’s handmade trellis which has fava beans that overwintered. We’re not sure what to do with fava beans, they were a fun, random plant last year. Any ideas you have for their use would be appreciated. We also have 9 cucumber plants on this trellis, spanning 5 varieties. In front of the trellis, we have five purple broccoli plants alternating with five dragon tongue bush bean plants.

 

Moving back to the center of the vegetable garden, there are 8 more pepper plants and 6 brussel sprout plants. Then there are the herbs. I have two Lemoncillo lemon balm plants, 5 varieties of basil, chives, thyme, oregano, sorrel, sage, dill, and cilantro. The smaller plants are in small chicken wire cages to prevent animals from nibbling on them. Finally, at the end, is a lot of spearmint. The usual advise with mint is don’t put it in the ground because it spreads like crazy. It does spread extremely fast so we have a small wood piece separating it from the rest of the herbs and are ruthless about ripping out anything that passes it. Here’s a recipe for mint tea that our family enjoys in the summer!

Future plans for this area include harvesting, replanting the damaged tomato plant, and resowing lettuce in the hopes of better results.

Vegetable Garden Ideas:

• When planning your vegetable garden, utilize every square inch of it by layering plants together, even if they are different varieties.
• If you’re growing your plants from seeds, grow a few extra that you don’t plant. Then, you have them in case you need to replace a few in the first few days or weeks.
• Plant a lot of what you’re familiar with and only introduce one or two new things each year. This way you have the energy, time, and attention to devote to learning about it.
• Utilize things like chicken wire and garden netting to protect your garden from pests. Especially in the early stages!
• Harvest regularly so that you don’t become overwhelmed by a lot at once. It will also help your plant’s health and ability to produce more!

That’s the end of The Homesmiths’ small backyard garden tour! We hope that you’ve found inspiration here. Let us know if you have any questions and tell us what inspires you in your garden!

 

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