Five Tips for Making Your Garden Look Bigger

As any landscape contractor will tell you, gardens are a great way to add color and life to your exteriors. Unfortunately, not all homeowners own huge yards. With such limited space, creating a vibrant garden can be difficult. However, with these tips you can make do with that small space and create a beautiful garden that looks large.

1. Pay attention to the colors.

Color is one of the main reasons for planting a garden, but it’s easy to lock yourself into one or two favorite colors.

Warmer colors, such as brown, orange, red, and yellow, tend to have an exciting effect on the brain. These colors appear to advance towards us as we are at the same time visually drawn toward them. On the other hand, blue, purple, green, pink, and other cool colors visually recede and blend in with the landscape.

Plant flowers with warmer colors near the focal point of your yard, drawing attention to the central point. Plant cooler-colored flowers around the borders and accents of the yard to create the illusion of distance.

2. Plant vertically.

Even with a professional landscape design company, it’s easy to focus only on horizontal surface area when looking at your yard, but remember that the brain interprets size based on height as well. Drawing the eyes up is just as important as drawing them outward and can effectively make a yard appear larger.

Trees are the best way to create that vertical growth, but do your research before choosing a tree. Tree growth takes different shapes, from oval and round to upright and conical. Many trees will grow out just as much as up, which you’ll want to avoid. You don’t want to create a wall of trees.

Overall, you’ll want upright, oval plants that sacrifice the least amount of surface space. Evergreens and deciduous trees grow up without growing as far out.

3. Try to use smaller and fewer paving materials.

When paving, use smaller materials. Instead of large granite tiles, use smaller stone tiles or driveway pavers that are still proportional to the overall size of your garden. At the same time, don’t use paving materials that are too small. This will create a dollhouse effect, making your garden look even tinier than it actually is.

At the same time, do use a few different materials, but don’t use too many different materials. Balance is the key here. Your best bet is to use a few materials of different size and texture.

4. Use lighting for depth.

Lighting is a necessary safety feature for many yards but it can also be used to create depth in your yard. Outdoor lights give you control over what is seen and what isn’t seen. Try to create a balance of light that illuminates some areas sufficiently while creating shadows in others. These shadows make it seem like there’s something more beyond the darkness.

5. Don’t fill in all the gaps.

You’re probably brimming with ideas but it’s okay to leave some space in your garden. Having too many items in your already small garden space will only make things look cluttered. Visible ground is more inviting and opens your space up.