Explore 83 Creative Patio Garden Ideas for Small Spaces (2024)

What does your backyard look like right now? Is it a plain slab of concrete? Or perhaps you have a wood deck? If you have an empty patio, then it’s time you do something about it. It’s fine to start with patio furniture and decor. However, you need to go one step beyond this.

These patio garden ideas will help you turn your plain humdrum design into a beautiful and vibrant outdoor living space. Perhaps you add gardening spaces that allow you to grow herbs. Or maybe you want to grow vegetables that can supplement your family’s diet. Then there are flowers. They may not give you food, but they’ll look stunning in full bloom.

Isn’t it time you try out one or more of these patio gardening ideas with your home?

1. Enhancing Your Backyard With Patio Garden Ideas

Adding plants and gardening in your backyard takes a plain yard and turns it into a beautiful escape. If you have a small yard, tall plants and hanging baskets can give your backyard a whimsical secret garden feel. Larger backyards benefit from sweeping landscaping that defines the property into multiple usable spaces.

Start your patio makeover by looking at backyard ideas. This will help you to understand what works and what doesn’t in the space you have available.

Large container gardening may work well on a large patio. However, smaller patios don’t have the space for these large containers. Vertical gardening is a smart idea for small patios and balconies. However, it’s a bit unnecessary for large patios.

Pavers are beautiful but can become very expensive when you have a large space planned out for your patio. Hanging planters give you additional gardening space but only work if your patio has a stable overhead covering that can support the hanging planters’ weight.

2. Elevate Your Deck With Creative Solutions

If you already have a wood deck area, then you’re ahead of the game. You have an empty space that’s prime for turning into a beautiful outdoor living space or dining area.

It doesn’t have to be huge; you just need enough space for a table and chairs or sofa. Scale your patio furniture to the amount of floor space that you have.

One of the most common balcony garden ideas is to use potted plants. These are nice because they allow you to grow plants without needing access to dirt in the ground.

If you want to make things easier on yourself, keep the plants in the pots that they come in from the store. Place that pot inside of your decorative ones. Then when the annuals die; you can easily pick them up and replace them. If you prefer to grow perennials, you can transfer your plants as they outgrow their pots and then easily put them back in the larger pot you had it in.

3. Crafting Thoughtful Designs

Consider patio design ideas and plan the layout of your backyard patio or balcony garden before you start buying plants or outdoor furniture. It can help to outline your patio on paper and then sketch where you want to grow plants and where you want to place the furniture. This ensures you have enough space to walk around your backyard patio.

Don’t forget to look up and down. You don’t want everything to be on one level. This means having some plants in pots sitting on the ground and others on boxes or benches. You could also add hanging planters from the patio covering.

For increased privacy, grow plants that will vine and drape out of the hanging pots. This creates a natural curtain to act as a sight and sound barrier from those around you.

See Also

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4. Explore Do-It-Yourself Inspiration

You don’t need to buy fancy structures or hire landscapers to build your patio garden. Build your own container garden out of water troughs, Rubbermaid tubs, or 50-gallon drums cut in half. For small spaces, hang grow bags on the exterior of your home or from your patio ceiling.

Look for DIY garden design ideas that let you grow the types of plants you want to grow. They should also work with the space you have available on your patio. Some gardening design ideas look beautiful, but in practice, aren’t functional.

Building your own planters ensures you have the right-sized planters that perfectly fit on your patio. You could build railing boxes, a plant ladder for potted plants, or have a single large pot in a corner.

Consider alternative materials for growing your plants. A hanging shoe rack can hold several small herb plants when hung on the exterior of your home. A wood pallet can also work as a planter while giving your patio a rustic or farmhouse feel.

5. Warming Up Your Patio Garden

Adding a fire pit to your patio garden makes it an enjoyable place to be throughout the year. Place your fire pit in the center of your patio and arrange your patio furniture around it. Try to keep your patio garden away from the fire pit. You could have container plants placed next to and behind the furniture.

You don’t want to have your plants too close to the fire pit. This presents a fire hazard and can damage the plants. You can build your own fire pit with bricks or pavers. Build up the sides while building in vents for airflow. This will encourage the best fire in your pit.

Get more use out of your fire pit by buying one. You could purchase a fire pit that’s in a table. Then during the warmer months, when you aren’t using the fire pit, you can cover it and have a large table surface for entertaining. Remove the cover and have the fire pit when temperatures drop.

6. Adding a Floral Touch

Many people assume that you need to plant vegetables, fruits, and herbs when you think about gardening. However, that’s not your only option. Planting flowers around your patio space can create a whimsical and colorful space.

If you’re interested in planting and caring for your flowers, then annuals may interest you. They bloom for a season and then are done. If you want flowers that return season after season, then consider perennials.

Plan how your flowers will look in bloom. You could have spring-blooming flowers that overwhelm your patio all at once. Or you could have a variety of seasonal flowers. Then you’ll have a few plants with flowers throughout the year.

Hang some plants from pots, have others along your patio railing, put some in various-sized pots, and then finish by placing small pot plants on your patio table.

7. Embrace Texture With Gravel

If you don’t currently have a backyard patio, you need to build a patio area before you can start growing plants around it. Pea gravel is an affordable way to build your patio.

Start by marking out where you want your patio and walkways. Then remove all of the grass and other plants currently growing in those areas. Level the ground and lay down landscape sheeting that prevents weeds from growing up. Spread the pea gravel out over the landscaping tarp.

Create a large space that can serve as your seating area. It can be sizable with enough space for a dining table and chairs. Or it can be just large enough for typical garden furniture, such as a bench or cafe table and chair.

While most people go with white for their pea gravel, it isn’t your only option. These tiny stones come in a variety of colors, and choosing a color like black can give your backyard a modern feel. You can also use different types of gravel to create a design or define different spaces.

Try using pea gravel for the main walkways and then lining the walkways with larger river rocks. The larger rocks will keep the smaller pebbles in place.

8. Creating an Outdoor Oasis

Plants need sunlight to survive and thrive. However, what do you do when you lack the property space to grow plants outside? Living in a condo or apartment means you never have to worry about backyard landscaping, but it also means you don’t have outdoor space for growing a garden.

All you need is a small balcony to have an outdoor garden. A vertical garden lets you maximize your available space and grow as many plants as possible. You could hang a planter that has several spaces for growing individual plants.

Some vertical plants can stand on their own, with spaces encircling the planter for growing plants. Both of these vertical planters are nice because you can grow different plants based on the amount of light and water they’ll receive.

Plants that need more water should be towards the bottom of the planter, while plants that like arid ground can go towards the top. Plants that need more sunlight could be on one side, while those requiring less could be on the other.

9. Paver Pathways and Garden Delights

Give your backyard garden a finished look by using pavers to build the walkways and patio areas. This makes it safer to move about the backyard by creating a smooth and even surface to walk on. It also elevates the look of your paver patio floor.

What’s nice about using pavers is that they blend well with small patio ideas. Because the space you want to cover is smaller, you can splurge on a more expensive paver or stone style. You could also use two different paver styles to create a unique look.

Outline the patio area with a decorative trim paver. Or create a pattern that covers the entire patio area. Whatever you do, either have professionals install your pavers or be sure to do it yourself correctly. You don’t want them to sink or shift, making your patio look derelict.

10. Plant Selection for Patio Gardens

The type of plants that you choose for your patio garden and make or break its success. You need to pick plants that grow in the amount of light available and thrive in the climate you live in. What’s nice about container gardening is that if your containers are small enough, you can move them around your patio for the ideal amount of light.

This works well if you have a small garden space on your balcony. As the seasons change, so does the sun’s movement. You may find that a different spot is better in summer than in winter.

If you want a garden space for a patio vegetable garden, then you need to plant the right vegetables during the right time of year. An herb garden may thrive in the warmer months, but you may need to bring them inside in winter.

Another popular option is succulents. These slow-growing plants tend to be small and require minimal maintenance. This makes them perfect for the person who wants to grow plants but isn’t very good at it.

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