TIME advice

7 Ideas to Maximize Your Small Garden

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Time to get creative

It’s time to make your garden dreams a reality. Ideally, we’d all have gorgeous backyards with tons of space to grow all of the flowers, vegetables, and herbs we’d like, but for most of us that’s just not the case. If you’re working with a smaller space, don’t be discouraged! You can build a beautiful garden of any size with good planning and a little bit of creativity.

Vertical Planters from Ruffles and Truffles

If you don’t have much space in your backyard, work vertically! This option is also great if you don’t like bending over your flower beds all day to weed and water, or if you’re growing veggies that you’d like to keep out of reach of hungry rabbits.

Pallet Herb Garden from Pink When

Pick herbs that don’t need much room to grow, then stack them on top of each other with a cute DIY pallet planter. This layout also makes it easy to find the herbs you want right away, so you’re not trying to push aside a giant basil plant to get to the peppermint.

Balcony Gardens from AnnaMKB at Hubpages

This blogger has a very extensive how-to for creating balcony gardens. One of the best tips? Put your plants in separate boxes to keep the ones that have a tendency to spread from taking over your whole space.

Hanging Gutter Garden from Apartment Therapy

Plants with shallow roots can be planted in hanging gutter gardens. You can even attach the gutters to a fence or the side of your home to save even more space.

Shoe Organizer Herb Garden from Curbly

If you want to grow herbs in the summer, but don’t have much space, use a hanging shoe organizer. The large number of pockets lets you have a variety of plants, but you can hose it off and store it in the colder months to free up space.

Cinder Block Planter from Traditionally Modern Designs

If you want to plant a garden in a space with a lot of concrete, embrace your materials. Cinder blocks are resilient enough to stand up year after year and will give your space a unique look. You can also decorate them however you want to liven up the space.

Windowsill Garden from Shelterness

If you have no outdoor space at all, hang individually potted plants from a rod in your kitchen (or any sunny room in your home). Spray paint the hooks, rod, and pots the same color to bring all of the elements together.

This article originally appeared on All You

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