Small-Garden Plans

Add big impact to a small 3-by-5-foot space with this long-blooming garden. It offers tough plants that stand up to the harsh growing conditions surrounding a street-side mailbox. The plants included here stay low, so they won't block your view as you back out of the driveway.

Fill a little 5-by-6-foot corner of your yard with color from this cheery little garden. It features ferns that look good from spring to fall, and a spring show from bleeding heart and foamflower.

Add sizzle to your summer with the bold red, orange, and yellow tones found in this 5-by-6-foot garden. Featuring tough plants such as yarrow, sedum, daylilies, and more, you can count on this border to look good no matter how hot it gets.

Turn a shady, 4-by-8-foot corner of your yard into a pocket of brilliant color with this beautiful garden. It offers seasons of bloom from bleeding hearts in spring to ligularia in summer and anemone in fall.

Enjoy beautiful scented roses, cheery daisies, and easy-care daylilies in a 6-by-6-foot spot in your yard with this plan. The varieties we've picked hold up to drought and other tough weather conditions so you can just sit back and enjoy the show.

Create a cooling effect during hot summer days with this beautiful garden. Featuring plants in purples and pinks (including daisies, phlox, and catmint), it's a perfect way to decorate a 6-by-6-foot pocket in your yard.

You're sure to love this small 6-by-7-foot garden. It offers a big show with long-blooming, easy-to-grow plants such as 'Happy Returns' daylily, award-wining 'May Night' salvia, and fragrant 'Laura' phlox.

Why not add a splash of color to a 6-by-7-foot shady spot in your yard? This garden is perfect for it. The show starts in spring with bleeding heart and goes into summer with bold red astilbe. A perennial geranium blooms throughout the summer and adds bold red foliage in fall.

Put in a small pond and enjoy a stunning display with this great 7-by-7-foot garden. Filled with tropical plants, it looks great all summer long.

Coneflower is a classic summer bloomer, and this 5-by-10-foot garden features it with other easy-care plants such as Russian sage, yarrow, and catmint. It packs in so much color that everyone will think it's bigger than it really is.

Give your home's foundation a colorful skirt. This 17-by-3-foot shady garden mixes long-blooming annuals with hardy ferns, so you can be sure your foundation looks great all season long.

Grow your own roses! You'll love this little (5-by-11-foot) rose garden that features six different varieties (including extra-tough 'Knock Out') surrounded by a ring of no-fuss lady's mantle.

At home decorating a retaining wall or perfectly beautiful on its own, this 7-by-8-foot garden is filled with veronica, bluebells, and more, so you can enjoy a great show all summer.

Attract scores of butterflies and hummingbirds to your yard with this simple 6-by-10-foot plan. Fragrant butterfly bush and phlox provide treats for your nose, as well as your winged garden guests.

Soften your sidewalk with this lush cottage-style garden. Measuring only 6x10 feet, it offers loads of color from easy-to-grow old-fashioned plants such as geraniums and nasturtiums.

Bring an arbor from functional to sensational by planting around it. This simple 6-by-10-foot garden is perfect for that purpose. A variety of climbing roses add color, while carefree daylilies and yarrow put on a show down low.

Here's another take on turning an arbor into a showcase in your yard. This 5-by-13-foot garden offers big perennials such as Joe Pye weed and 'Herbstonne' black-eyed Susan instead of vines.

Blue is the rarest color in flowers -- so celebrate it with a whole garden! This 7-by-10-foot garden will fill your yard with soothing hues from sky blue to midnight.

You can fit plenty of tulips, daffodils, and early season perennials in a 12-by-6-foot garden. Here's a great example that's a perfect start-of-the-season treat for your landscape.

Make a statement on a difficult-to-maintain hill with this practically carefree 8-by-9-foot garden. Colorful sedums look great with thyme and New Zealand flax and take care of themselves.

Go bold in your yard with an all-red garden. Here's an easy-to-grow plan for a partly shaded 8-by-10-foot space. Enjoy beautiful lilies, dahlias, and more all summer long.

Red not your color? Try yellow! This cheery 8-by-10-foot garden serves up hosts of blooms from favorites such as zinnia, daylily, and cleome.

If flowers are your thing, this is the garden for you. Seven high-performance perennials will give you plenty of flowers, all summer long and into fall. Tuck the 9-by-9-foot garden into a corner or plop it in the middle of the lawn -- these plants will put on a show.

This 14-by-6-foot plan features easy-to-grow, reliable plants that require minimal care. There will be something happening in the garden throughout the growing season. In spring, Siberian iris starts the parade. Summer is anchored by coneflower's cheerful flowers. Pink sedum completes the show in fall.

Blousy and comfortable, cottage gardens practically ooze with charm. This 7-by-12-foot version offers lots of blooms that look great in the vase and garden.