Garden layout ideas on soil, in raised beds, spacing, varieties, plans & design secrets to help create a productive garden.

Making a garden layout area for your home or space takes time and lots and lots of planning. I’ve basically lived on small plots of land where my home sat all my adult life, so I didn’t have much space to work with. But you know what? It doesn’t matter the size of your growing area or if you only have a porch or live in an apartment. You can grow so much in a minimal area.

Always remember that growing anything takes time and lots of learning of what plants grow in your zone conditions. Make mistakes, learn from them, and move on. Using a journal to help you keep up with what happens in your garden is a great way to learn what works and what doesn’t.

I hope these garden designs will inspire your inner garden sense to get out there and get yer hands dirty.

Let’s start small

Growing a garden on a deck is easy with large pots. The example above is perfectly done with one large plant (tomato) in one pot and several smaller plants (herbs) in one pot. Just remember that the size of the pot will make a difference in watering schedules.

If you live in an apartment or condo, this idea works just as well with smaller pots. There are also so many different sizes of hydroponic growing devices you could use indoors as well or in smaller areas.

This DIY salad garden is planted in wine crates — which is ideally portable and perfect for small spaces. Be sure to drill holes in the bottom. This type of garden would be perfect for the kids to have their own area. Crates can be found in wineries, liquor stores, grocery stores, hardware stores, arts & crafts stores, home decor stores, eBay, and Craigslist.

What I love about this small area is that it’s hidden by a fence to keep critters out and there is no weeding to worry about since all the pots sit on gravel. As you see, they are using tall tomato cages to get the job done. Check out my DIY tomato cage that could be made for any size garden.

A compact garden would be perfect for someone who has a hard time getting around. In the picture, you will notice the seated garden cart that holds your garden tools, I had one of these and loved it when I had a larger garden. Just sit on it and scoot along.

Growing with your garden

Several different things are going on in this quaint medium-sized garden. The small greenhouse in the back, obelisks save on space growing veggies up instead of out, the edging is made of stone, and the large watering trough is planted with veggies. Notice there are flowers to help with pollination in the garden. Bees are important in our growing world.

Another excellent example of using the backyard as a garden and not having to worry about grass. Grass can be so expensive to keep up and this is a great way to save money and grow veggies instead. There are pots around the fencing, a mini greenhouse example, and a few raised beds for veggies. This area would be so easy to maintain

I’ve been seeing more and more of these galvanized raised gardens and just love the look. This is about as simple as it gets and it’s getting plenty of sunshine for sure. I love the whiskey barrels scattered about growing tomatoes and other small plants.

This vegetable garden features cedar-raised beds and has a relaxing sitting area with a fire pit. If looking for raised beds that don’t rot, try untreated cedar. Cedar is high in oil, therefore it is naturally rot and insect-resistant.

Growing large with gardening

Let’s just pause for a moment and go aaahhhh. What a beautiful garden area this is. Tall raised beds and an adorable gardening shed while all fenced in. My favorite part is the chairs on the front porch of the shed to sit and just enjoy the garden.

When you don’t have flat land for a garden, then make a step garden. Fenced in to keep the critters out and depending on the animals is how high the fencing would be. For deer, you have to go at least 8 feet tall. I love that each bed isn’t large and easy to reach all around.

I believe this garden is about as beautiful as they come! Very large and I can’t imagine how much produce is gathered in a year. Very neat and compact to keep down weeds. You can see the before and after which helps to put everything in perspective.

Oh, the work it took to make this beautiful English-style garden. The brick paths are just wonderful! There are so many different things growing in each section. Companion gardening is a great device to get more out of each space and one plant may keep pests away from another. Some Marigolds for example will keep bugs away and some varieties also keep nematodes away from the roots.

Something special in the garden

This is my dream garden. Not large with the beautiful shed in the back and the chicken coupe to the left. Chickens eat bugs and are perfect for the garden. The coupe was put on an old garage concrete slab. Taking an area that isn’t productive and is now feeding the family is the way to make things useful.

Don’t have room for a gardening shed? Then use the wall. This is a perfect example of using a space that is just a wall but now makes a statement in the garden.

And this greenhouse from Shiplap and Shells just makes my heart happy. Her backyard faces the water and is full of beautiful flowers and whatever she is growing at the time. Her shed sits proudly amongst it all and her whimsical items throughout make her garden fun! Isn’t that what it’s all about?

my thoughts

Start off small with maybe one large pot and work your way up to something you feel comfortable with. Starting out with a very large garden leads to disappointment and then abandonment of the garden. The picture above is what my garden is today. I used to have a larger one, but with age, I just wanted something small and easier to take care of. The garden bags are perfect for a small garden.

Wondering about the chicken wire in one of the bags? Well, Mr. Squirrel loves to dig in fresh dirt and when he does, he will end up killing small plants. I made a cage out of chicken wire and problem solved.

God planted the first garden and it’s a wonderful teacher for everyone at any age. It teaches us to have patience and is wonderful for the soul; but above all, it teaches us to trust. Gardening is something that you pass on from generation to generation.

And most of all is to remember there are no gardening mistakes. Just learning experiences.

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