A picturesque surprise on a gently sloping, sunny bank could be a wind-blown mugho pine beside an outcropping rock that’s lightly draped by a sprawling cotoneaster, with colorful sempervivums clustered at the base. Or in the light shade at the base of a clump of white-barked birches, there could be a group of dwarf rhododendrons displayed against dark, humus-rich soil or a pine-needle mulch. On a patio or terrace, it could be a contemporary grouping of low, fluffy juniper, perennial lavender, and water-polished rocks.
These are miniature gardens—not complete landscaping plans for small properties, but appealing plantings that often pop up in unexpected places and bring beauty into otherwise unusable or undecorated areas. They’re gardens because, by definition, they are groups of plants that achieve an effect a single plant could not create alone. They’re miniature gardens because they occupy small space, and because most of their plants are of miniature proportions. Properly designed and executed, they’re equally effective in large grounds or small, with contemporary suburban homes, in informal settings, and even on estates with traditionally formal landscapes.
There’s a special enchantment in these miniature gardens. The eye is attracted by their modesty and restraint, and by the utterly natural way they seem to suit the scene. Each plant is seen intimately, in close-up; its character is revealed in each small detail. And in these gardens the creator can express his individuality so easily; seldom does a design even resemble the one next door.
Miniature white poppies featured in a tiny garden beside an outcropping of rock
Part of the appeal, of course, lies in the charm of miniature plants—tiny annuals and perennials, small or slow-growing evergreen and deciduous trees and shrubs, available in amazingly wide variety if you take the trouble to find them. There are also frequent opportunities to use inert objects with special effect. Small gardens can be designed as settings for works of art or products of the hand-craftsman—ceramic bowls and urns, authentic wrought-iron grilles, wood carvings, statuary, sundials, pools, even fountains and waterfalls. Or a garden may be designed with a background of well-placed rock, a tree stump, or a piece of driftwood. A bench, arch, gate, antique hitching post, or well-house may inspire a miniature planting. Inanimate ground covers such as gravel are often a definite part of the design.
In some ways miniature gardens are easier to design than, for example, standard items such as flower beds and foundation plantings. It’s easier to achieve originality. Mistakes are usually small and easily corrected. On the other hand, really good design is more critical than in large plantings where space can swallow errors and provide lucky effects. In miniature, even a minor defect shows up immediately, and may be a major calamity.
The first and basic requisite is an idea the garden is to express, a theme for the picture it is to create. The objective may be to embellish some neglected nook, disguise an unattractive corner, feature an unusual plant or art object, soften the lines of a small pool and blend it with its surroundings. Once the goal is set, it is pursued without deviation. For example, a featured plant is kept dominant—not necessarily in size, but always in visual importance—and everything else is subordinate. A pool planting does not become so elaborate that the beauty of mirrored reflections or rippling water is lost.
In both conception and execution the design for a miniature garden should be in harmony with its surroundings. Nearby buildings may call for certain harmonious lines and proportions. Land contours, and constructions such as walls and steps, may dictate size and shape. The architecture of a house and its landscape has a style that should not be violated.
Our Connecticut landscape demands informal or naturalistic design in no uncertain terms. Straight lines and formal geometric shapes would be not only out of place, but practically impossible to achieve. The land’s slopes and rises call for beds with flowering curves. Points of interest such as massive lichen-trimmed boulders, gnarled old trees, or a winding stream are sublimely situated by nature’s unerring instinct for what looks right. We’ve merely cleaned them up and made the most of them.
For not-too-modern houses built on regularly shaped, level lots, some sort of formal design is easier to achieve and much more suitable. In the traditional style, elements of equal size and weight balance each other. There is strict adherence to a predetermined pattern. Identical beds may make a formal dooryard garden, for example; matching groups of plants may ornament opposite sides of a gateway.
For houses of contemporary architectural style there are gardens of contemporary design, often featuring paved areas and patterns with distinct angles and curves. Plantings are based on the tone, texture, and form of the plants themselves. The object of interest is off-center, balanced by a larger area of subdued importance.
Miniature gardens should be not only in harmony with the style of the surroundings, but also in proper proportion. A birdbath with miniature roses planted underneath can look lost in the center of a spacious lawn, but could be in correct scale for a niche or arch in a brick wall.
Simplicity is extremely important. The smaller the space, the faster it will take on a spotty, cluttered look when crammed with too many different plants. The smaller the space and the plants, the more care and thought should be given to combining various types, forms, textures, and colors for best effect.
In addition to aesthetic principles, there are practical aspects to designing miniature gardens. Any site should be checked for cultural and environmental conditions that favor healthy plant growth. Is a wall so high it throws too much shade for sun-loving plants? Is an area too exposed in winter for questionably hardy plants? Is the spot so low that water collects and stands in the soil, making it suitable only for bog plants?
Think of the work of maintenance, too. Use ground covers instead of lawn in areas so small you can’t move a mower around. Avoid fast-growing plants that need constant trimming and pruning. Don’t use plants that require a lot of protective spraying or dusting unless you have time to keep up with the job. A healthy dwarf barberry is more attractive than a neglected, sickly rose.
There are a number of ways to use small-scale versions of the familiar mixed-flower border. Annuals and perennials can be selected for continuity or succession of bloom, and arranged so that colors harmonize, textures contrast, and carefully placed taller spikes or spires provide accent and relieve monotony. In the background there may be dwarf evergreens or flowering shrubs, a low fence or wall, the side of a tool house or other small building.
Use miniature flower borders to add interest to tiresome areas such as long, narrow strips between the house and boundary line of the lot, or along a service walk. Use them at the edge or in corners of small lawn areas—never scattered through it—or at the base of low foundation plantings. Use them as visual space dividers between driveway and front yard or entrance to the house.
Miniature beds are also effective at one side of a breezeway, at the edge of a terrace or patio, or beside the back door. If they are raised slightly, perhaps the height of just one brick, the small plants are nearer to eye-level and their full beauty is more clearly revealed. I’ve also seen a tiny cutting garden, by the back fence, that was as colorful and pretty as any border.
Whenever there are walks, there are spots for miniature beds—in the diamond-shaped points where two walks join; as little islands along the curves; in the angles where corners turn. Or use small formal beds for dooryard plantings.
The intimate dooryard garden, by the way, is enjoying a revival. Instead of advice to keep flowering plants away from the front of the house, we’re encouraged to plant little gardens that can be seen from the picture window and also will make the house more attractive to passers-by. These don’t replace foundation plantings and front-yard landscaping, but supplement them in a small way. And the small gardens help relieve the monotonous sameness of many modern house fronts.
All kinds of corners are obvious sites for ornamental treatment with tiny gardens—architectural corners between front entrance and house wall, between one wing of the house and another; the back corner of a lot where, perhaps, a small tree is a focal point or background or where, if you’re fortunate, a small stream winds its way across your property.
On almost any grounds there are natural nooks that seem to be made for miniature gardens up and down the sides of informal steps, at the top or base of low walls, in a patch of soil at the foot of a high-branched tree.
Landscape or architectural focal points can often be enhanced by little gardens—gates, bay windows, sundials, the mailbox, a birdbath, or a well. Little pocket-handkerchief gardens are built right into patios and terraces. Little creepers planted in crevices between paving stones make a miniature garden of their own.