Long, narrow, awkward side yard garden makeover – Case study

When it comes to garden design, some gardens are definitely more challenging than others. A particularly tricky one is the long narrow side garden, which often ends up as a junkyard. It’s not really large enough to do anything with, that’s the problem.

Well actually, with a few cunning design tricks, you can turn that awkward side area into something eye-catching and dramatic that becomes an intrinsic part of your whole garden.

So, how do you design an awkward side space garden?

Step 1

The first thing you need to do in any long narrow space garden is to try and make it look wider. The wider you can make it, the more interesting a garden design it will look and the less likely you will be to use it to store junk!

You do this by having either focal points strategically placed or by the garden design shapes you use. In the garden featured below, we did both. The planting punctuated each changing direction and the different types of gravel were used in a sweeping serpent shape which forces your eyes to move from one side of the space to the other.

Step 2

Make a dark space look brighter. The dark wall segments were rendered and painted cream. The lighter colour helps bounce light back, making the space brighter and therefore look larger.

Step 3

Link the side area into the main garden. It’s important that the garden works as a whole entity and isn’t seen as a series of unrelated parts. By having the gravel path and stepping stones wrapping around the decking area at the end of the garden, it helped link the two areas together. The continuity of materials also helps link the two areas together.

By clearing out the junk, lightning the walls and creative use of the space, this dark dingy side garden looks twice the size and will hopefully never be used to store junk again!

Need more help?

If you have a long, narrow or rectangular shaped garden and would like ideas, plans and a step-by-step guide on how to transform it, check out the Small Garden Design Formula Course. It’s an online course with written content and video tutorials that will guide you step-by-step on everything you need to do to completely transform any long garden into something amazing.

View our FREE training on designing ALL size & shape gardens

If you’d like to join in our upcoming web class on the Fast Track Formula for designing gardens, please visit: https://www.successfulgardendesigner.com/free-classes

The FREE training is approximately 40mins and will show you exactly what it takes to design your garden quickly and easily.

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