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Choosing plants for small garden spaces
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Looking for some plants to put in your small or awkward garden spaces? Read on.
When choosing plants for small gardens it's important to get something that will bring colour and interest to the space while not dominating it too much.
Simon Reid, a horticultural consultant at Tim's Garden Centre in Sydney, suggests that people with a limited amount of garden space to fill should search for plants that will look good all year round.
"There are numerous plants that could fit the bill, but individual conditions and garden aspects will dictate which plants best suit them," he says. "Then it's just a matter of narrowing down what function you want the plant to perform, and what your personal preferences are in terms of shape and colour."
Two small plants that provide year-round interest are hebes and abelias. There are a number of cultivars of each, but one particularly good variety of hebe for small garden spaces is called Annie's Winter Wonder. A drought-tolerant shrub growing less than a metre tall, with a pleasant rounded shape, its foliage combines pink, white and green, which means that, even when not in flower, it brings interest to any small garden.
As for abelias, a particularly popular form at present is the Kaleidoscope. A delightful lemon yellow during much of the year, its leaves turn reddish in autumn.
Just because you have a small block doesn't mean you can't grow trees. Simon recommends the Littlegem magnolia, which he describes as the "sexiest tree ever". As an attractive evergreen that grows between three and five metres tall, it will provide cooling shade in summer. The crepe myrtle is another option: with a long flowering season, it will provide colours such as white, pink, mauve and deep red much of the year. As a deciduous tree, it will lose its leaves as the weather cools and bring a splash of burgundy orange to your garden in autumn.
Another issue in small gardens - especially those in neighbourhoods where the houses are particularly close to each other - is privacy, and a need to screen out neighbours. Simon says that a Lilly Pilly cultivar named, appropriately, "Goodbye Neighbours", is perfectly suited to this job on a small block.
"They grow quite fast and can get up and provide that screen quite quickly," he says. "Once it's established it's quite drought tolerant, and it's nice and thick and bushy."
Groundcovers to consider include grevillea - a native plant with a number of varieties, all of which attract a great number of birds to your little garden - and verbena, which likes dry conditions and is available in pink, lilac, white and red.
