Perhaps, at your house, it’s merely the hyphen between points A and B, an unplotted segment straight-ruled from front to back, just one long blank, an afterthought of yard.
Perhaps it’s nothing but a tight squeeze between property lines and the dreary walls or fence that abut that line.
Or, worse, maybe it’s a tangled mess of overgrown shrubs and weeds and cracked concrete, one you hold your breath and run through.
Imagine otherwise.
That skinny little strip from front to back might be transformed, might be turned into a little bit of wonderful, a place that beckons you, a place to catch the slant of sun, a place to which you slip away for quiet contemplation.
We believe in those possibilities, that a skinny strip needn’t be cast aside as a “noplace” leading Chicago (
).
“I’ve always loved smaller spaces, urban spaces, because each one is a challenge,” says Prassas, sitting in his light-filled River North studio, where walls are lined with oversize photos of city gardens you wish were yours. “As a landscape architect you’re resolving awkward issues.”
The side yard, he says, is often one of those.
“To a lot of people, it’s a throwaway. It’s a means of getting from the front to the back.”
And for a tight squeeze, it’s one that’s packed with pitfalls.
“One of the biggest challenges,” says Prassas, “is that older houses in Chicago have stone or brick foundations. When it’s paved solid with concrete, that concrete is acting as waterproofing for the basement. If someone’s got an older house, I wouldn’t recommend ripping out the concrete unless you want to waterproof your whole basement.”
Instead, says Prassas, you might consider a raised container garden. “You can really do a lot of fun things,” he adds, flipping through a portfolio of projects where he has done just that.
In one he has made steppingstones into a hopscotch grid for play along the way; in another he has set two chairs beneath a canopy of serviceberry branches, inviting conversation. Or simply staring at the clouds or stars, as you while the hours away, and day melts into night and you never leave your tucked-away wisp of garden.
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The skinny on the strip
Some points to consider in your skinny little strip:
Ask yourself how much you use it. Is it a place you need to walk through every day? Will you need to shovel it in winter? Can you get a hose in there in summer? Is it purely utilitarian, your path for taking out the trash? Or might it be a viewing garden you look into from inside the house?
It’s all about the vertical. Because you can’t stretch out, stretch up. Vines are one way of adding a layer of lushness. (“You don’t need much Boston ivy,” says landscape architect Stephen Prassas, to get a wall of green.)
Consider architectural solutions, a pergola or arch, to create a sense of enclosure, to draw you into the space.
Know this about rain: It never falls straight down, so every house has what’s called a “rain shadow,” an area around the house that never gets much rain. Your skinny garden might be drier than other places in your yard. So what you’ve got is a dry, shady garden, which can be a bit of a challenge. Your plant palette is narrowed, but Prassas’ plant list is rich in great choices.
Because your plant list is limited, and there won’t be lots of color, you’ll want to pay more attention to textures, and shapes of leaves.
Space is limited, so be sure to look at dwarf versions of trees or shrubs. Pay attention to how big a plant will someday grow, not its size the day you plant it.
Remember that soils up close to the house are the ones that have been most disturbed by construction and might need a few years of serious amending. But don’t lose hope. Your garden will reward your efforts. In the short term, containers might be a fine solution because you can fill them every year with top-grade potting soil.
— B.M.
In his words
Landscape architect Stephen Prassas on his design:
Some thoughts from landscape architect Stephen Prassas on his design, which works with a side yard that’s about 6 1/2 feet wide (a 3-foot sidewalk is between plantings of 1 foot on the west and 2 1/2 feet on the east):
“Narrow spaces like this need a vertical green element, and because you can’t typically fit trees, vines work great. I used alternating walls of green: The ones on the west are evergreen walls of English ivy to soften views from the windows of the house, and the east wall is a deciduous wall of Japanese hydrangea (vine).
“I want to lure (people) around the side of the house, wrapping the front landscape into the rear.
“All of the plants are shade-loving with some of the southern plants desiring more light. Because shade plants don’t produce strong flowers, the interest for a shade garden is in the textures, variegations and colors of the leaves, which create ribbons of pattern as you move through the space, breaking up the tunnel effect. I incorporated some plants with lighter-colored leaves to brighten up the space.
“Where space allowed, I used a larger redbud (limbed up high) and Judd viburnum but also a dwarf variety of the oakleaf hydrangea.
“The garden will benefit from irrigation or regular watering since gangways receive less natural rainfall than other areas of a yard. It is a challenging space because not many shade-loving plants tolerate dry soils.”
1. Ghost fern (Athyrium “Ghost”)
2. Chicagoland Green boxwood (Buxus microphylla var. koreana “Glencoe”)
3. Eastern redbud (Cercis canadensis)
4. “Biokovo” cranesbill (Geranium x cantabrigiense “Biokovo”)
5. English ivy (Hedera helix)
6. “Golden Tiara” hosta
7. “Pee Wee” oakleaf hydrangea (Hydrangea quercifolia “Pee Wee”)
8. Creeping lilyturf (Liriope spicata)
9. Japanese spurge (Pachysandra terminalis)
10. Variegated Solomon’s seal (Polygonatum odoratum var. thunbergii “Variegatum”)
11. “Bertram Anderson” lungwort (Pulmonaria longifolia “Bertram Anderson”)
12. Japanese hydrangea vine (Schizophragma hydrangeoides)
13. Judd viburnum (Viburnum x juddii)
Get the picture
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Google Images will provide plenty of photographs of these plants, but for growing information on these, and hundreds more, as well as great gardening advice, check out these websites:
Chicago Botanic Garden:
chicagobotanic.org
The Morton Arboretum:
mortonarb.org
University of Illinois Extension:
urbanext.illinois.edu/hort
Missouri Botanical Garden:
mobot.org
About the series
Planting Your Plan is an occasional series that addresses specific gardening challenges. Go to
chicagotribune.com/design
.