Garden Oaks

A compact Garden Oaks lot: the back lawn laid fence to fence in turf with a gravel border down one side, and a strip of side yard turned into a practice green with a cut-in cup, screened by a timber slat wall.

Using a side yard as a green is a good trade on a small lot, because that strip is otherwise dead space — too narrow to sit in, too shaded to plant. Built as a green it becomes the most-used part of the garden. The gravel border on the back lawn is functional as well as visual: it takes run-off from the fence line away from the turf edge.