How to Design a Pocket Garden

Explore the world of the small with a garden that fits between the stepping-stones, spills from between the cracks in your garden wall or nestles into exposed tree roots. Turn a narrow path that goes nowhere into a garden destination: Design a pocket garden.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Compost Makers
• Flower Bulbs
• Measuring Tapes
• Plants
• Seeds
• Pencils
• Graph Papers
• Pencils
• Pencils
• Seeds
• Plants

1. Survey your property - large or small - to find the perfect pocket. Look for gaps and nooks that will hold at least 1 c. soil in sun or shade.

2. Fill any dead space with a pocket garden. Use cracks in walls, pavement gaps, and the spaces between tree roots, terrace timbers and stepping-stones.

3. Look down that skinny space between the houses and visualize a garden. Stack up rocks and concrete rubble to build a grotto, then plant in it.

4. See a pocket garden as a focal point, or make it a hidden surprise along a garden path or behind a shrub.

5. Decide where to put the pocket, and assess its growing conditions. Add compost to the crevices and make a simple drawing of the planting space.

6. Make your garden drawing a working tool - measure the spaces and plot them on graph paper. Then note where the sun and shade are and mark that as well.

7. Imagine the pocket with plants. Sketch a combination of upright, trailing and flowering plants. Just one of each can make a great start.

8. Check out the smallest plants at the nursery - alpines, dwarf varieties, succulents and small bulbs. If it can grow to maturity in a 4-inch pot, consider it.

9. Use what's there to personalize your design. Plan for color and texture contrasts between your plants and the surfaces that surround the pocket.

Tips & Warnings

• Use creeping thyme where light foot traffic can crush it and release its scent.
• Collect sedums along a sunny wall - some trail, others clump and most bloom.