Garden Ideas
for Every Kind of
Garden

The garden ideas guide

Garden Ideas for Every Kind of Garden, Space and Budget

Garden ideas on gardenkinds fall into 7 kinds: cottage, flower, edging, small garden design, balcony, fire pit and seasonal. Each kind has its own page with real photos, plant lists, costs and timings. Start with cottage garden ideas for borders, flower garden ideas for color plans, garden edging ideas for clean lines, small garden design ideas for tight plots, balcony garden ideas for pots, fire pit ideas for evenings outdoors and seasonal garden ideas for year-round planning.

Garden Ideas on a Budget

Garden ideas on a budget use 4 low-cost moves: seed sowing, plant division, gravel and secondhand containers. A packet of hardy annual seed, such as cosmos or calendula, covers 2 to 5 m² (22 to 54 sq ft). Dividing a mature hosta or daylily clump every 3 to 4 years gives 3 to 6 new plants. Gravel at a depth of 5 cm (2 in) costs less per square meter than paving and drains faster.

Small Garden Ideas and Garden Ideas for Small Spaces

Small garden ideas follow 3 rules: grow upward, repeat plants and limit materials to 2 or 3. Trellises, window boxes, hanging baskets and wall planters add planting area without using floor space. Our courtyard garden design guide and raised planter ideas for small urban yards show each rule in real gardens.

Backyard Garden Ideas for the Front, Fence, Side of the House and Slopes

Front garden ideas

Front garden ideas that lift a house use a clear path, one layered bed and plants repeated in odd numbers. See front house landscaping ideas and garden entrance ideas for 19 working examples.

Garden ideas along a fence

A fence border works at a depth of 60 to 90 cm (2 to 3 ft). Tall plants such as delphiniums and hollyhocks stand at the back, low plants such as hardy geraniums sit in front, and panel trellises carry climbing roses and clematis. Screens, slats and tall grasses cover fences that need privacy.

Garden ideas for the side of the house

A side strip 1 to 1.5 m (3 to 5 ft) wide takes stepping stones and shade plants. Hostas, ferns and astilbe grow in the 2 to 4 hours of light a side yard receives. The hosta flower beds guide lists 11 layouts.

Garden ideas on a slope

Terraces and boulder steps hold a slope. Creeping thyme and sedum root along the surface and hold the soil. The gardens with boulders guide shows 6 slopes that look settled in their first year.

Low Maintenance Garden Ideas, Rocks and No-Grass Gardens

Low maintenance garden ideas replace lawn with 3 surfaces: gravel, paving and ground cover. Rocks and stones add structure, and a 5 to 7 cm (2 to 3 in) mulch layer cuts weeding. Xeriscaping, which means planting for low water use, suits dry yards. See the desert landscaping backyard guide for gravel, boulders and drip irrigation.

Garden Ideas With Raised Beds, Containers and a Kitchen Garden

Raised bed gardening works best at 30 cm (12 in) tall and 1.2 m (4 ft) wide, so you reach the middle from both sides. A kitchen garden in raised beds grows tomatoes, cucumbers, pole beans, sugar snap peas and fava beans. Railway-style sleepers, 200 × 100 mm (8 × 4 in), build sturdy bed walls. Pallets suit planters when the wood carries an HT (heat treated) stamp. Container gardening uses self-watering pots, hanging baskets and window boxes, and companion planting pairs basil with tomatoes.

Garden Ideas by USDA Zone

• Zone 5 (minimum −29 to −23 °C / −20 to −10 °F): peonies, coneflowers and sedum.
• Zone 6 (−23 to −18 °C / −10 to 0 °F): hydrangeas, lavender and hardy geraniums.
• Zone 8 (−12 to −7 °C / 10 to 20 °F): rosemary, crape myrtle and salvias.
• Zone 9 (−7 to −1 °C / 20 to 30 °F): lantana, agave and citrus in pots.

Before and after garden transformations, such as the slope in the boulder guide, show how much one change does. Save the ideas you like to Pinterest, then pick the kind that fits your yard.