My Dear Lady is pulling thru to health after months. Her garden oblivious to her inattention. Instead, her garden enriching the healing process.
From inside the Kitchen (& Garden Room), below, EDUCATOR watched a pair of bluebirds build their nest & raise their young this spring.
This simple joy, a huge victory.
Holding up thru the seasons is imperative in small space gardening. No down time allowed.
Cat tucked into a boxwood, above, is a hint of what you'll find inside. The urn/plinth were clues or was it the iron gate painted robin's egg blue? Subsidiary pots are all terra cotta. Repetition creates impact in any size landscape.
No big surprise, the classic ginger jar inside, below, when everything outside is classic. Vanishing Threshold, bring your inside out and your outside in.
How do you want to use your small space? A lovely view, a place to lunch, read or invite girlfriends for wine/canapes?
Use height in small spaces to reach for the sky. Vines, espaliered shrubs, understory trees. Pull the eye up. The sky creates limitless space in small gardens. 
After the Chinese snowball blooms, above, an espalier oakleaf hydrangea blooms, below. Both are draperies when viewed from inside. Outside they add lushness to the wall of the house, draw the eyes up, harbor birds/butterflies, provide 4 seasons of interest.
Small space gardens, abutting your house, include the views into your house. No backsides of pictures, tv & etc.
Garden Magic by Roy Biles.
Jack, below, was attracted immediately to my Serendipitous Beauty for different reasons.
The pruning of his canopy & understory trees, above, tell me more about the man than his interiors.
His VERTICAL LAWN (vine on wall) & lidded urn on the shelf melt my heart. 
Not always gates or doors. Use pair of: trees, bushes, urns, stones, wattles, columns & etc.
The urge, energy & creativity to bring flowers inside, below, was absent for years.
Blooms outside these windows every day, all year, no effort. Of course I must tolerate birds, butterflies or honeybees everyday too. Camellias, blooming outside, below. The brown? Dormant hydrangeas. The green? Azaleas. (Tara's Trinity of the Southern Garden: Azaleas, Camellias & Hydrangeas.)
Old wicker from an estate sale around the corner 3 years ago. 
The cloche had been in the garden over 5 years, until hellebores were cut last week.
After 20 years, my house was painted. A decorator, Susanne Hudson, hired to help with colors & interior design.
the gate stays, posts are replaced with split locust & the hideous new wire replaced with rescued old wire.
A question, to help you get there,
"Is this worthy of the cover of a garden catalogue?"
Did you notice this landscape requires no skilled maintenance?
I know, before getting out of my car, is the MAIN VIEW TO THE HOUSE.
Some homes are approached from both directions along the street. Many are approached from mainly ONE direction. Design to the main direction.
Looking to the right of the door, above. Reality garden photography, I styled nothing.
Looking to the left of the front door, above, more reality garden photography. Nothing styled for the pics. BOOK GIRL does her own decorating. 
She pruned the climbing rose, below, in my room. It had grown inside the room to the canopy bed. Why? I would have loved the rose as bunting.
Sunlight on the original plaster ceiling yesterday morning, thru my iron canopy & chandelier.
How did she have time to put roses by my bed? Again the original plaster walls. Delight.
Susanne's chandelier, below, was a bit larger than mine. Hmm.
A girl has to bathe during a work trip doesn't she?
Can you believe the garden view from her landing? 
Shooting hydrangeas and seeing the table legs from a new angle, below. The legs have a slight curve from top to bottom, reeking of the 1950's. Aside from being a diminutive rectangular shape, perfection, I had to have those legs.
And the glass top with more hydrangea blossoms underneath. A hydrangea carpet!!!
And the blue/white ginger jar? It's a traditional Chinese wedding gift. The writing says, 'Double Happiness'. Of course I didn't know that when I bought it at the thrift store for $3.
