DESIGN TIPS FOR A SMALL GARDEN

Fran Brown found it surprisingly challenging to design a small garden. She offers a few tips for tackling the project:

Be patient. Even if you want it done yesterday, live with the space for a while to get to know it. See where the light hits at different times of the day and in different seasons, watching how it moves over your future garden. Deliberately choose simple hardscape, such as stone, for a path or patio. If not, it will dominate people’s impressions of the space when it is plants that deserve the spotlight. If possible, hire an arborist once a year to feed and perhaps prune your trees. The Browns brought in mature trees to anchor their new garden and want them to look their best.

If there are existing plants, you may want to get rid of some or all of them to open both your mind and the garden space to new possibilities. Take time to enjoy the design

process: “Every garden is a work in progress, but working on it will give you a heightened sense of well-being.”