Backyard Garden at a Terraced House

Garden at a Terraced House - Want a Beautiful Garden and Own a Terraced House? We'll Advise You on What to Choose and How to Keep Your Small Garden Well-Maintained

Owning a terraced house often comes with a modest outdoor space that can be transformed into a beautiful and functional garden. Even a small garden can become your personal oasis where you can relax, grow vegetables, or create a play area for children. The key is proper planning, choosing suitable plants, and regular maintenance that won't take up too much of your time.

Planning Your Small Garden

Before you start arranging your garden, it's important to consider what you want to use it for. Do you dream of a peaceful corner for relaxation, a vegetable garden, or a combination of both? With limited space, it's essential to prioritize and plan every square meter carefully.

Measuring and Mapping the Space

Start by measuring your garden and creating a simple sketch. Mark existing elements such as fences, paths, or trees. This will help you visualize how to best utilize the available space. Consider which parts of the garden receive the most sunlight and which remain in shade throughout the day - this information is crucial for plant selection.

Dividing the Garden into Zones

Even a small garden can be divided into functional zones. You might create a seating area, a planting section, and perhaps a small storage space for tools and equipment. Using vertical elements like trellises or wall planters can help maximize space without making the garden feel cramped.

Choosing Suitable Plants

Plant selection is key to maintaining an attractive garden throughout the year without requiring excessive maintenance. For small gardens at terraced houses, it's advisable to choose plants that don't grow too large, are undemanding, and ideally offer interest across multiple seasons.

Ornamental Plants

For small gardens, compact shrubs, perennials, and ground covers are ideal. Popular choices include:

Lavender - fragrant, drought-tolerant, and attracts pollinators
Hostas - perfect for shaded areas, decorative foliage
Dwarf conifers - provide structure and greenery year-round
Ornamental grasses - add movement and texture to the garden
Climbing plants - utilize vertical space without taking up floor area

Edible Plants

Even in a small garden, you can grow your own vegetables and herbs. Focus on plants that offer high yields in limited space:

Cherry tomatoes - can be grown in containers or against walls
Herbs - basil, parsley, thyme, mint - ideal for pots
Lettuce and spinach - quick-growing, can be harvested multiple times
Climbing beans or peas - utilize vertical space
Strawberries - suitable for hanging baskets and vertical growing

Garden Maintenance Without Excessive Effort

A well-maintained garden doesn't necessarily mean hours of daily work. With the right approach and tools, you can keep your garden looking beautiful with minimal time investment.

Mulching

Applying mulch around plants is one of the most effective ways to reduce maintenance. Mulch suppresses weed growth, retains soil moisture, and gradually improves soil structure. You can use bark chips, wood chips, or compost.

Automatic Irrigation

For small gardens, installing a simple drip irrigation system or soaker hoses is worthwhile. This ensures plants receive regular watering even when you're away, and you'll save time on manual watering.

Choosing Low-Maintenance Plants

Opt for plants that don't require frequent pruning, are disease-resistant, and can tolerate varying moisture levels. Native plants are often the best choice as they're adapted to local conditions.

Regular Minor Tasks

Instead of letting tasks accumulate, spend 15-20 minutes in the garden several times a week. Remove weeds before they seed, deadhead spent flowers, and check plants for pests. Prevention is easier than remediation.

Maximizing Space

In a small garden, every centimeter counts. Here are some tips for making the most of limited space:

Vertical Growing

Use walls, fences, and vertical structures. Install trellises, wall planters, or hanging baskets. Climbing plants like clematis, climbing roses, or ivy can beautifully cover walls without taking up ground space.

Raised Beds

Raised beds not only look attractive but also offer better drainage and allow you to control soil quality. They're ideal for growing vegetables and herbs and are easier to maintain as you don't need to bend down as much.

Container Gardening

Pots and containers are perfect solutions for small gardens. They're mobile, allowing you to rearrange the garden as needed, and you can grow plants that might not thrive in your native soil. Choose containers of various sizes to create visual interest.

Multi-Functional Elements

Opt for furniture and elements that serve multiple purposes. A storage bench can serve as seating while hiding tools and equipment. A raised bed can double as a garden border.

Creating Privacy

Gardens at terraced houses are often closely surrounded by neighbors. Creating privacy is important for comfortable relaxation:

Living screens - bamboo, tall grasses, or evergreen shrubs
Climbing plants on trellises - quick and attractive solution
Decorative screens - wooden or metal panels
Layered planting - combining plants of various heights

Seasonal Maintenance

Each season brings different tasks that help keep your garden in top condition throughout the year.

Spring

Soil preparation and fertilization
Planting new plants and sowing seeds
Pruning shrubs and perennials
Checking and repairing irrigation systems

Summer

Regular watering and feeding
Deadheading spent flowers
Pest and disease monitoring
Harvesting vegetables and herbs

Autumn

Planting spring bulbs
Collecting leaves and composting
Preparing the garden for winter
Final lawn mowing

Winter

Protecting sensitive plants
Planning changes for the next season
Tool maintenance
Feeding birds

Practical Tips for Small Garden Owners

Here are some proven tips to help you make the most of your small garden:

Start small - don't try to do everything at once, gradually expand your garden as you gain experience
Observe and learn - spend time in your garden, notice which areas get sun, where water collects
Invest in quality tools - a few good tools are better than many cheap ones
Use light colors - white and light-colored elements make the garden appear larger
Create focal points - an attractive container, sculpture, or water feature draws the eye
Don't forget lighting - proper lighting extends garden enjoyment into evening hours

Conclusion

A garden at a terraced house can be a beautiful and functional space that brings joy throughout the year. The key is proper planning, choosing suitable plants, and regular but undemanding maintenance. Don't be afraid to experiment and adjust the garden to your needs and preferences. Even a small space offers endless possibilities for creating your own green oasis.

Remember that every garden is unique and what works for your neighbor may not be ideal for you. Be patient - a garden is a living organism that evolves and changes over time. With care and attention, you'll create a space you'll love spending time in and that will become a true pride of your home.

Garden at a Terraced House

Do you have a new terraced house and are you thinking about how to design the front garden and the small backyard? Or have you bought a terraced house that was already lived in and are you preparing to transform the garden to your own image? Or has your lifestyle simply changed and you want to modify the garden and instead of vegetable beds create a patio, pathways and a well-maintained lawn? Then you're in the right place and you can read some interesting tips and recommendations.

First of all, it's necessary to consider what purpose your garden will serve. You can also take a piece of paper and pencil and prepare a garden sketch and draw what's most important to you, in which part of the garden "it" should be located, and what will grow around it. You can also make a list of what you'd like to have in the garden, from a patio, through pathways to flowering annuals.

The composition of this narrow, small garden at a terraced house, mostly partially shaded, must be simple, clear and acceptable for both users and observers. It should evoke a pleasant, harmonious feeling.

So list what your garden should contain:

What garden furniture (size, bench, table and chairs, fire pit, complete garden seating set, garden gazebo with shelter, etc.).
Whether you'll use garden lighting, where it will be and what type.
Do you have a weakness for large stones, sculptures, fountains?
Pond
Pathways - width, shape, edging (single material, combination of paving, wood, block paving, stones, etc.).
Vegetable bed, herb bed
Flower bed
Garden structure (greenhouse, cold frame)

What would you like from an aesthetic perspective:

Geometric regular shapes or curved organic ornaments (pathways, shelters, pond)
Colours
Natural materials - modern materials
Garden style, type (Japanese, orchard, manor, like at grandma's in the countryside,...)

And what would you like to plant and grow in the garden:

Lawn
Solitary shrub, tree

Hedge

Climbing plants for pergola, facade, ...
Annual bed full of flowers
Taller plants around the patio
Conifers
Vegetable bed

And what about the front garden? Keep that in reserve for now, in case something essential from the plants you want doesn't fit in the backyard.

Does this seem like a lot to think about? We can now eliminate this and adjust according to the garden's location and the position where individual plants will be placed. In terraced houses, the part of the garden closest to the house is more or less shaded for most of the day. The middle of the garden will be most heavily used for movement and seating. And the end of the garden will either be a green, carefully mowed lawn or vegetable beds. There may also be climbing frames for children, a pen for guinea pigs and rabbits.

So try to divide your sketch/garden design into thirds. You can make these thirds smaller or larger depending on which part of the garden you will use the most. Don't forget to physically walk through the garden and look at it from every angle and corner. Even from the window - so you know what you long to see every morning (whether it's a blooming magnolia, a bird house, or an oleander that reminds you of your holiday in Greece).

For a small garden, the biggest nightmare is buying something you currently like and placing it somewhere. A small garden then becomes a disjointed and unconsidered dumping ground for various plants and things and looks unkempt and neglected.

Inspiration - is important, look for it everywhere, on holiday, in films, in nature and also in your lifestyle.

We recommend for a small garden

Lawn - in a small garden always maintain it carefully, use suitable tools and a mower. Don't hesitate to invest in quality pieces. If a fresh green lawn forms the larger part of the garden, its area will seem larger. The garden will always give a well-kept impression, especially if you really dedicate yourself to the lawn and bring it to perfection (regular mowing, fertilizing, raking and filling in bare spots).

Path - a path running through the middle of the garden visually reduces the garden and "breaks up" the harmonious arrangement and flow of your steps. The frequency of using a path in a small garden is not that high. You will walk back and forth around a small garden. Ideal is therefore a path of stepping stones in the first third of the garden, or paved around the house. Where the highest movement is expected. Paths should not have unnecessary edging and thus be unnecessarily emphasized and limit your steps. A precise route to the perennial bed, etc.

Sloping terrain in a small garden - we can modify it either in terraces, or naturally model the slope. With a smaller elevation difference, neither a terrace nor a retaining wall is necessary. In a terraced garden, it is suitable to combine conifers.

Conifers - for a small garden we do not recommend spruce or silver spruce, it is decorative but quite prickly and can eventually grow to large dimensions at the base. Suitable are conifers of narrower and smaller stature - e.g. juniper, cypress and pine.

Deciduous trees - interesting and suitable in terms of growth are, for example, catalpa, Japanese maple, magnolia. If we are planting trees to create a more intimate seating area, we recommend planting ornamental shrubs or a hedge instead.

Flower bed - we place it around the seating area, where we will enjoy it the most. We can combine bulbs that will peek out in early spring with annuals and perennials, which we arrange according to our taste. For a smaller garden, it is advisable to choose fewer species and color combinations. Rather, plant more pieces of one species. The flower bed should have a simple shape.

Fruit trees - we choose dwarf varieties and carefully trained fruit species. We plant these mainly along the fence or dividing wall. We tie the trees into espalier form. Suitable choices are apple trees, pear trees, and also grapevines.

Vegetable beds - place them according to the light requirements of the cultivated vegetables. In a small garden, it is always necessary for the beds to be well-maintained, have a precise shape, and be located in one place in the garden. If you want to grow, for example, blueberries as well, place them on the edges of the beds, etc. Do not create various clusters randomly across the garden area. If you want to grow, for example, gooseberries and currants, do not place conifers in the garden anymore. Keep the garden purely for these plants and small trees with tasty fruits.

Specimen plants and features - if you are not passionate vegetable growers, nor particularly fond of flower beds, you can dedicate yourself to art in the garden. Place a statue, stone, or amphora with flowers on a well-maintained lawn. This way you will create an outdoor gallery where you will enjoy spending time. Relaxing in the company of art is extremely inspiring. You will see for yourself.

North side of the garden - will be best utilized if we plant rhododendrons and yews there.

Of course, it is also possible to let the garden grow only with lawn, plant climbing plants around the perimeter along the fence, or a hedge (but be careful with that, shading a small garden this way can be unnecessarily dense and make the garden sad and dark). For the athletically inclined, this creates space for a ping-pong table, an area for petanque and other games (e.g., croquet, one or more holes for golf putting practice, etc.). The garden can also be a suitable place for children's climbing frames, a sandbox, a pool, and pets.

Author: Hana Michalíková