Space is often a limiting factor when it comes to gardening, but you can still find several ways to maximize what you have available and even use size to your advantage. Spring is the best time of year to grow, and these four ideas — perfect for busy plant parents — will help you make the most of your Solstice™ home’s indoor and outdoor space.
Grow Up Not Out
For outside patios and yards, vertical displays will help you when planting in smaller areas. Need help selecting which plants you want to grow? Aim for vines and crawlers that you can guide upwards towards the ceiling, like sweet potatoes or English ivy and roses. Remember to think about location when planning your garden — make sure you consider the areas that get the most sunshine in your Colorado garden and which flowers and vegetables thrive in lots of light.
Shapes Give Your Garden Space
As you pick growth varieties that take up vertical height space, do the same with planters and furniture. If your home garden has a raised area, choose pots that further emphasize it. Try staggering heights of planters and even hanging some from above to create the dynamic illusion of tiered levels. Add fence boxes for extra growing room, or plant in geometric patterns as a creative way to shape a smaller space. In open ground planters, triangles of different plants allow you to place a wider range of flora to create a visually-appealing arrangement.
Fill in the Gaps
Once you’ve decided on plants and planters, you might also want to decorate your space with furniture. Rely on the borders you already have — fences, walls, and the edges of your patio can provide guidance for placement. Focus your furniture in corners and against the borders to help open up your outdoor environment. Suspending furniture from your porch is a way to open up your patio space — imagine lounging on a hanging bench under the shade of your eaves or laying back in a hammock on a sunny summer afternoon!
Indoor Alternatives
Hoping to avoid dealing with the outdoor elements or want to expand your garden inside? Many options lend themselves to life indoors — for example, a mini herb garden will liven up your kitchen and make cooking dinner more exciting and personal. Bring the summer into your home with no-fuss plants that tolerate many conditions, like most varieties of succulents and air plants — as well as brighter choices including spider plants and bromeliads.
Part of enjoying the Colorado summer to its fullest means embracing its natural beauty. No matter if you have a well-practiced green thumb or are a newly-aspiring gardener, these ideas will get you excited for warm weather days in your Shea Homes® Solstice community.