Landscape Design To Compliment A Smaller Home
Designing around a smaller home is a challenge for many homeowners. The absence of space makes it difficult to know what to prioritize and where to put plants and hardscapes. We especially see theses issues in the Minneapolis and St. Paul urban areas. In this blog post, we’ll discuss a few tips and tricks we like to use here at KG Landscape when we design landscapes for smaller homes in the Minneapolis area.
Tips for Landscape Design Around A Smaller Home
Scale
Scale is the most important aspect to consider when talking about a smaller home. In the front yard, plants and shrubs should only come up to bottom of the windows, not any higher. Try to use more narrow shrubs/trees instead of wide, spreading ones. We like using holmstrup arborvitaes or pinnacle birches instead of huge red maples or oaks. The same goes for small perennials too. We love tall grasses like karl foerster and flowers like lillies to provide more of that sense of scale in a small yard.
Keep the Lawn
Don’t take up too much of the lawn. Leave at least 3/4 of your outside space as grass. Lawn space is key to making a house feel like a home. It’s also comparatively very inexpensive to install and relatively easy to maintain. A larger home might be able to fit 3 rows of plantings in the front yard but a smaller home could only do 1-2 rows. One of the biggest mistakes we see with smaller homes is not achieving balance in the mulch/rock beds and lawn space. Mulch beds need to be refreshed every year or two and rock is very expensive to install so minimize those costs by leaving at least a little bit of lawn space.
Use a Design
Design is super important. Utilize space and money as efficiently as possible. Depending on your goals, you might need more or less patio space which will allow for more or less plants. A designer can help you narrow down the goals you have and match those goals up with your budget. A big garden with lots of mulch and plants can feel very closed in. Knowing which plants to install will keep your plant beds looking beautiful and open all year. Installing proper screening can leave the yard feeling open but also block views.
Find Places to Pop
In a smaller yard, you want to use plants that don’t take much a lot of space but still provide a lot of POP. We like to recommend using window boxes or annual displays by the front door. In a larger home/yard, we’ll install 3 rows of plants that can each have different color and flowering time and interest. On a smaller home/yard, you need to optimize the space so smaller annuals in planter boxes and pots will give that same color and pop in a smaller space.
Use a Trusted and Experienced Landscape Company like KG Landscape
KG Landscape has been in the landscape design business for almost 15 years. All of that built up experience has given us the opportunity to see a lot of different landscape situations. We then use that expertise to provide the most value to our customers. If you have a smaller landscape and need some help, simply give us a call or submit a quote request to our website and we’ll get back to you right away!
Plymouth’s clay soil causes soggy lawns, sinking patios, and constant sump pump issues. Learn how smart drainage design fixes it for good.
Minnetonka snow removal done right means safety, efficiency, and property protection—not just plowing. Learn how true winter care works.
Plymouth drainage problems? Fix soggy clay soil and prevent foundation and patio damage with smart drain tile, grading, and discharge solutions.
Edina lawn fertilization: seasonal strategies for lasting color and health. Expert insights on timing, topdressing, and soil care.
Design a Minnetonka outdoor kitchen built for all seasons — cedar, stone, and smart drainage make year-round living effortless.
Medina lawn experts explain how healthy soil—not chemicals—creates lasting weed control through aeration, overseeding, and topdressing.
Medina drainage experts explain how French drains and drain tile systems fix clay soil water issues and prevent muddy lawns and shifting patios.
Edina patio and pool drainage: protect your investment with smart design and precision installation that keeps surfaces beautiful, safe, and stable year-round.
When Pergolas Don’t Last, There’s Always a Reason After nearly two decades of building outdoor spaces across Medina, I’ve seen what happens when pergolas aren’t designed for Minnesota’s conditions. You can spot them a mile away—posts that lean, beams that twist, and concrete pads that have heaved out of level after just a couple of winters. It’s not because homeowners cut corners intentionally. It’s usually because whoever built it didn’t account for what our climate really does to structures that aren’t anchored right. Medina’s heavy clay soil doesn’t drain well. It holds moisture, freezes solid, and then expands like a hydraulic press pushing on everything above it. When pergolas are set on surface-level post bases, that pressure has nowhere to go but up—and the whole thing moves. Even small shifts can cause joints to separate, wood to crack, and hardware to loosen. That’s how a $15,000 structure starts looking tired after a few years instead of standing straight for decades. The truth is, pergolas here aren’t just about shade or looks. They’re about structure, drainage, and how every piece ties into the patio beneath it. A pergola that stands tall through Minnesota winters is built on the same principles as a good foundation—it’s only as strong as what’s underneath it. If you live in Medina and want to enjoy your backyard without worrying about your investment warping or sagging, start with design that respects the environment it’s built in. That means thinking beyond lumber and stain colors. It means understanding soil movement, water management, and the importance of integrating your pergola with the patio below it.
Solutions for Properties in Minnetonka You can always tell a Minnetonka yard that’s fighting its slope. Water doesn’t lie, it finds the weak spots every time. I’ve walked plenty of properties where a backyard starts beautiful in June, but by September, the patio is heaving, the grass near the pool looks like a marsh, and the homeowner is wondering how it got so bad so fast. The truth is, when you’re dealing with rolling terrain and heavy clay soils like we have around Minnetonka, you can’t just move dirt and hope gravity behaves. You need a plan that manages water from the surface all the way down through the subsoil. This is what I’ll walk you through here. You’ll see what actually causes drainage issues on sloped properties, how poor planning leads to cracked patios and shifting pool decks, and the smart drainage systems that can stop those problems for good. Whether you live near Lake Minnetonka or up in the higher ridges closer to Deephaven or Woodland, understanding how your yard sheds water is the difference between a property that lasts and one that’s constantly under repair. The Real Challenge of Sloped Minnetonka Yards Minnetonka is known for its hills, lakefront properties, and mature trees, but all that beauty comes with a set of challenges below the surface. Most of the soil here is dense clay. It holds water like a sponge and drains slowly, which means after every heavy rain, that water looks for a way downhill. If it doesn’t have a proper outlet, it ends up collecting right where you don’t want it, like along your patio, at the base of a retaining wall, or near your pool deck. I see this every season: homeowners trying to solve slope problems with a quick regrade, a layer of rock, or a simple surface drain. Those things might help for a while, but they don’t address what’s really happening underground. Clay soil doesn’t just get wet—it becomes saturated, expanding and contracting with every freeze-thaw cycle. When that happens under a patio or wall, it doesn’t matter how well-built the surface looks. The ground will move, and that movement cracks stone, shifts pavers, and slowly tears apart everything on top. The other challenge with sloped lots is how water interacts with gravity. It accelerates downhill, gaining momentum as it goes. When it hits a flat area like a patio, the water loses speed but not volume, pooling instead of flowing. That’s why I tell clients that “flat spots” on a sloped property are both an opportunity and a responsibility. They’re the best spaces to create usable outdoor areas, but they have to be engineered to handle water movement. I’ve worked on plenty of Minnetonka yards where the backyard has a beautiful view but terrible grading. You can have a perfect slope on paper, but if it directs water toward your house or creates a bowl effect between structures, you’ll end up with soggy soil and standing puddles that never dry. The goal is to move water off and away while keeping the surface level enough for comfort and usability. It’s a fine balance, but when it’s done right, it completely transforms how a property functions.