A LITTLE GREEN

City living isn’t about going without a garden; it just takes a touch of creative thinking.

In a busy urban environment, space is always at a premium, so creating gardens for city homes brings unique challenges. An idiom for small green spaces could be quality over quantity, make every item count when designing or making purchases and spend plenty of time planning. 

Walls and fences inevitably surround urban outdoor spaces, but this doesn’t have to be a downside. Use the structures around you to bring in more foliage by creating green walls. 

You can design and build a stacked planter box system or create vertical gardens and living walls by training climbers to cover a wall or carefully espalier a plant to create a flat green wall. Plant small gardens and add depth using clever layers of greenery up against close boundary walls or fences, creating varying layers of height, texture, and colour. 

Small is beautiful, so don’t be afraid to get creative with your petite outdoor spaces. 

URBAN GARDEN PLANNING TIPS 

• Make good use of every available corner, whether you’re creating an outdoor living area or a focal point to be viewed from inside. 

• Make privacy a priority – think hedges, screens, and small upright trees. 

• Purchase great quality outdoor furniture if you can; it will add style and last longer in our harsh environment. If that’s out of your budget, pile up the cushions, throws, and rugs to add your own style. 

• Make the space a comfortable and inviting extension of your house – add lighting and heating to encourage people to linger. 

• Add greenery – whether it’s a small garden bed, raised bed, green wall, or simply a pot with a feature plant in it. 

Climbers

Trachelospermum jasminoides can be trained to climb vertical, horizontal or diagonal wires or screens; ficus pumila will find its own way up any wall or screen to create a flat, dense covering. Plant in shade. 

Espalier

To espalier a plant is to train the branches to grow flat against a wall, supported by wires or a structure. Most fruit trees are suitable for doing this, especially apple or pear species. Camelia sasanqua species will also respond well. 

Hedges

Tilia or prunus luscitanica are excellent varieties for pleaching if you need high screening or try varying height species to create layers – such as corokia, meuhlenbeckia, buxus, lavender, or even the edible ugni molinae.