Any ideas on landscaping ten x eighteen courtyard?

my townhouse has a small courtyard between house and gararge that I would like to make more appealing, it’s completly enclosed, gets good light and is in full view of the dining room. I want to make it into a low maintenance garden area with a lot of green and a lot of color. Right now I’m kicking around ideas, anyone know of some nice, colorful, type plants( shade giving plants would be nice) that would do well in a small area? Any other interesting ideas would be good as well.Also, I live in southeast Texas and I’m a very lazy gardener, so these have to be low maintenance plants,

6 Comments on “Any ideas on landscaping ten x eighteen courtyard?

  1. Examples of low maintenance plants would be rose moss, petunias, forsythia, lilacs, wegelia, spirea and bulbs like daffodils. It loves the sun and are low maintenance plants. For some ideas on landscaping here is a website with picture galleries you may be interested in.

    http://nmlandscaping.com

    Good luck.

  2. One thing you need, since this is in view of your dining room; is a focal point. This could be a special specimen plant such as Harry Lauders Walking Stick (Corylus avellana ‘Contorta’) Contorted Hazelnut.

    http://au.images.search.yahoo.com/images/view;_ylt=A0PDodipA69OkigAz.oW5gt.;_ylu=X3oDMTBsNXNqYzdwBHNlYwNmcC10aHVtYnMEc2xrA2ltZw–?back=http%3A%2F%2Fau.images.search.yahoo.com%2Fsearch%2Fimages%3Fp%3DHarry%2BLauders%2BWalking%2BStick%26ei%3DUTF-8%26fr2%3Dtab-web%26b%3D29%26tab%3Dorganic&w=219&h=216&imgurl=www.jungseed.com%2Fproducts%2F22198.jpg&rurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.jungseed.com%2Fdp.asp%3FpID%3D22198%26amp%3Bc%3D412%26amp%3Bp%3DHarry%2BLauders%2BWalking%2BStick&size=27.8+KB&name=Shrubs+%26amp%3B+Trees+%7C+Trees+%7C+Corylus+%7C+Harry+Lauders+Walking+Stick+%7C+Jung+…&p=Harry+Lauders+Walking+Stick&oid=bb02e81ed0ca9e7d0cd9a7992ac77ede&fr2=tab-web&fr=&rw=Harry+Lauder%27s+Walking+Stick&tt=Shrubs+%26amp%3B+Trees+%7C+Trees+%7C+Corylus+%7C+Harry+Lauders+Walking+Stick+%7C+Jung+…&b=29&nav=prev&ni=28&no=30&tab=organic&ts=&sigr=12ko9t8um&sigb=13j68f0nt&sigi=113105ma9&.crumb=fJvaXpfPz5V

    Or a special piece of sculpture or maybe a fountain.