Vertical Planting Beside Seating

In a tight urban family courtyard designed alongside a house refurbishment and kitchen extension, McWilliam Studio designed seating alongside vertical planting. The project features a cedar trellis and a green wall positioned at the rear of the limestone-paved space.

When reviewing this layout, readers can identify how a seated position relates to a vertical planted boundary in a constrained yard. The photographs by Alister Thorpe document the visual relationship between the built seating zone and the upward-growing elements. For a closer look at what photographs show, see seating and planting in project photography.

Perimeter Planters Dividing Space Near Benches

A different approach appears in a small residential backyard documented by Ten Over Studio. This project uses concrete paving and custom built wood elements, including wood benches that serve as both seating and storage. The design employs planters and perimeter plantings to divide the space into distinct rooms. The planters act as spatial edges within the yard.

Readers interested in a planter as a spatial edge can compare two published built-planter projects.

Identifying Arrangements Before Copying

These two documented projects offer contrasting strategies for placing seating relative to planting in a small yard. One brings planting vertically alongside seating in a constrained courtyard; the other uses planters and perimeter plantings to divide the space into distinct rooms.

A reader can observe their own yard to locate a potential seated position, an open approach for movement, and a planting edge before copying an arrangement.

Two wooden chairs with light cushions on stone pavers in a narrow courtyard beside dense green climbing plants on a wooden trellis.
Two cushioned wooden chairs sit on stone pavers next to a trellis covered in climbing greenery.
A long low rectangular timber planter filled with green shrubs stands on pale paving against a gray wall.
A rectangular timber planter holding green shrubs rests on pale paving along a gray wall.
Slightly elevated view of a small yard with a central green lawn, gravel strips, perimeter planting beds, a house, and a timber fence.
An elevated view shows a central lawn bordered by gravel strips, planting beds, a house, and a timber fence.
Close view of pale rectangular stone pavers meeting a timber border and low green groundcover.
Pale rectangular stone pavers meet a timber border edged with low green groundcover.
View through an open house door toward a planted backyard with a stone stepping path leading to two pale chairs at the far end.
Through an open doorway, a stone stepping path crosses a planted yard toward two pale chairs.