Squeezed between the house and the fence, side gardens are often dark, damp and weedy spots. What’s there to love?
When it comes to residential garden design, front and backyards are where we have traditionally focused all of our energy. Too often, side passageways are not given any serious thought or acknowledgement. It is these spaces however, between your front and backyard, which have the potential to develop into stimulating threshold spaces.
There are plenty of ways to develop and enhance a side garden. Instead of using these spaces to store recycling bins and garden sheds out of sight, why not turn these narrow yards into a compact garden or an attractive thoroughfare?
The secret to designing a functioning side garden is to treat it like a hallway; the “walls” need artwork and the “floor” needs a carpet. Depending on the size of the space you are working with, there may even be room for some furniture. That narrow, long space has a lot of potential!
Side yards are an overlooked asset, especially when space is at a premium. With only a metre or two, you have the ability to turn an underutilised side garden into a beautiful and useable garden corridor.