How to Make a Small Yard Appear Large

When do you need to make a small yard look big?
In many parts of the Houston landscape, you find places where beautiful and very stately homes are situated on relatively small tracts of land. These small yards often appear disproportionate to the magnitude of the home. In order to correct this, we have to develop ways of making small yards look big so that residential landscape design becomes a truer reflection of residential architecture.

How do you use garden design to do this?
Special garden design is one element we can add to the Houston landscape that will make almost any small yard look large.

Some techniques for doing this include using small plants or dwarf species. Small hedges like boxwoods can be used to line gardens and boundary areas between gardens and hardscapes. Even small trees like dwarf yaupons can be trimmed narrow and short and used to either soften the view of adjacent Houston landscapes or create zones of special interest within a landscape master plan.

All of this works to make the relative space seem larger than it really is. More importantly, it also prevents plants from taking over an entire area and making it look small. Using plants that are low to the ground, and even hedges and trees with very small leaves, all has the ultimate effect of enlarging the space within the yard.

Interestingly as well, plants with darker green, non-reflective leaves are much better for this than plants with brightly colored leaves.

Can altering hardscape make a small yard appear larger in relationship to the surrounding Houston landscape?
It certainly can. One very simple way to do this is to design pathways that are smaller than one might expect. For example, a path only 12” to 18” across is still large enough to comfortably walk down, but narrow enough to make everything around it look larger.

Sometimes, too, hardscapes and gardens can be designed in such as way as to trick the eye by getting smaller or narrower as they progress away from the main house. This creates a heightened sense of perspective that significantly magnifies how large the yard appears to look.

How do you construct outdoor buildings?
Outdoor buildings can also make a smaller yard look larger than it actually is by constructing these buildings with smaller profiles and working from reduced scales.

What special or ornamental features are used?
Mirrors, steel posts, or other reflective elements can be added to a garden. This not only magnifies the garden, but it captures other elements of the surrounding Houston landscape and helps magnify the proportion of the relationship.

Are there any other special landscaping designs that can be used to magnify yard size?
Murals can be added to greatly increase the feel of a narrow space.

What neighborhoods do you most have to do this in?
The neighborhoods that most need this service tend to be the more family-oriented or cozy parts of the city. We commonly do such work in West University Place, Bellaire, Southside Place, Stable Wood, and The Heights.