The Tiny Garden, from Ault Park to Your Balcony

Landless gardeners and those confined to tiny yards and balcony gardening are an optimistic and creative bunch. We have learned, out of necessity, how to make the most of our small green spaces. We embrace the challenge knowing we can create divine designs with a little ingenuity and creativity.

When we come across gardens in person or in magazines, you may hear a deep sigh as we dream for a moment about how lovely it would be to have so much space to play with. But in a flash our garden gears are set in motion. We take in the landscape and find ways we can incorporate the feeling, the colors, textures and design style on a much, much smaller scale.

Ponds and large fountains are right out when your plot is a few strides wide and deep. However, a millstone set flush to the earth, resting on a sturdy grate over a water reserve and finished with polished stones is a rather nice water feature as well; in perfect scale to a tiny garden.

Maple trees and large expanse of grasses are swapped out with Japanese maples, ground hugging perennials and dwarf grasses. 

And the large veggie garden is brought down to single serving size, perfect for balconies and other small sunny spots.

Running out of space- garden up!  Where others see walls we see unplanted territories.

The first native-plants, vertical garden in northern New England coordinated by Lynn Felici-Gallantt of Coastal Home magazine and jointly owned by C.H. and Chuck Hugo of Charles C. Hugo Landscape Design, the designer.

Want a desert garden? No trouble, succulent container gardens do the trick. Like this beautiful design by the expert in all things succulent, Debra Lee Baldwin author of Designing with Succulents and Succulent Container Gardens.

The tiny garden is a tribute to creative thinking and an eye for detail. There is no room for errors in a tiny garden, literally! Every inch counts.