Create Appealing Small Streetside Gardens Inspired by Cape May

Densely populated or historic areas often mean that front yards remain limited in size, inspiring homeowners to strive for gardens of varying heights and plentiful color.

Using Ideas From the Gardens of Cape May

While this seaside resort at the tip of New Jersey has a different climate zone than most of the United States, residents show how to make gardens with great impact and little maintenance.

Because Cape May’s land is at a premium due to the proliferation of spacious beach cottages and Victorian homes on little plots, local gardeners follow the lead of many European gardeners by making the most of small front yards and pay close attention to proportions with their homes.

Gardens for Large and Heavily Ornamented Homes

Many of the homes are multi-storied on small lots but retain architectural elements such as gingerbreading, cedar shakes, and second or third story porches, suggesting that the front gardens should be bold and tall in relation to the home.

These small gardens revel in striking foundation plantings of 10 to 12 ft. tall crepe myrtles with red, pink or white flowers; hydrangeas bursting with red, pink or blue blooms; densely planted rhododendrons; and mature flowering hibiscus while accenting them with lush plantings of annuals and bright perennials.

Although hibiscus usually will not survive the winter outdoors in non-coastal areas, they can be put in pots or temporarily planted to achieve the same effect if their saucer-sized flowers of pinks, peaches, and reds are desired.

While the gardens are often tightly contained leading to a house-framing look, requiring the viewer to notice the glorious reaches in height, other gardens exhibit a more relaxed, meandering approach and may extend from the front porch all the way to the sidewalk or enclosing fence.

Gardens for Single Story or Simpler Homes

For homes whose roof-lines are closer to the ground, gardens often use the hydrangeas or Shasta daisies for height with smaller geraniums or other annuals clustered around them.

If the house’s exterior is neutrally painted or unadorned, gardens with bright reds, yellows or other attention-getting hues can jazz up the exterior.

In some cases, Cape May gardens reach for the unexpected by showcasing a line of enormous butterfly bushes sculpted as trees and extending along the fenceline.

Whimsy Adds Humor and Personality

For gardeners with a preference for light-hearted touches, Cape May horticulturalists show how to add restrained garden art for more formal gardens or how to use unexpected elements to complement the flowers that they chose to accent their homes.

Many of these residents make the most of their small plots with bright color and a bit of whimsy to create unique gardens that often intrigue even non-gardeners, including children.

Playing off red Echinacea (coneflowers), black-eyed susans and hibiscus, one garden revels in flights of fancy with metal flamingo and butterfly sculptures while another has reclaimed metal dragonflies hanging from low branches in a shady garden.

In other gardens, restraint rules with water-smoothed rocks or large conch shells utilized as borders or by pairing decorative elements with plants of similar heights, leading to hidden surprises for close views.

Using Small Gardens From Other Areas for Inspiration

With an emphasis on color and low-maintenance flowering plants, small front yards can make a bold statement while harmonizing or dressing up the house’s architecture with careful attention to the gardening zone’s limitations and a passion for planting.