Architecture of contemporary homes is so disproportionate to a healthy lifestyle. The only healthy advantage is that otherwise sedentary residents are compelled to engage in considerable hiking to simply get from room to room. The smaller contemporary lots or parcels would be more proportionate to mature tract homes from the 1950’s but are mostly filled by larger modern homes. Many have more space within the foyer to grow a large weeping fig than space in the front garden to grow a very small crepe myrtle tree. Why do architects try to impress with an opulent foyer and porch when a miniscule front garden implies that a mobile home should have been installed on the site?

Of course gardening within such confinement presents certain difficulties to those who venture beyond the foyer. The most obvious difficulty is that only trees which are small or mid-sized when mature are proportionate to large homes on small lots. Limbs and roots of larger trees would become overwhelming, likely damaging roofs or surface pavement, because there is no ‘safe distance’ available at which to plant such trees. Unfortunately, ‘micro-trees’ have consequently become too popular. Although they are proportionate to any home, they may not be substantial enough or proportionate to modern homes and their foyers.

Some of the most popular ‘micro-trees’ include crepe myrtle, purple leaf plum, Japanese maple, flowering pear and Tristania laurina (which lacks a common name). They all are very appropriate for many applications, but have become common and mundane. Some mid-sized trees, such as red maple, golden rain tree, Chinese tallow tree and gingko can fit into rather small spaces, but may eventually exhibit buttressed roots near the surface of the soil. Such damage would not be noticed in a larger garden, but is more obvious when space is so limited.

Many new landscapes that ‘comes with’ a new home often include trees that will become too large, such as Chinese pistache or London plane. This is because the landscape was designed to mature quickly to make a new home more appealing and the designer may not know or care what happens to the trees after the home sells. (I think that everyone knows how I feel about that topic!)

Sun exposure is the second most common problem among large homes on small lots. Sun exposure at soil level between homes may be limited by proximity of adjacent shading homes and the height of the homes. Some are so close together and tall (because of a second story) that only species that prefer shade may be grown between the homes. Of course the space between homes is typically very narrow and provides access between front and rear gardens, and is consequently paved completely or simply not landscaped.

Although front gardens are typically smaller than rear gardens, they are typically more exposed because the street in front provides no shade like the house or fence behind does. Southern exposures are of course the sunniest, especially during summer when the sun is highest and can be ‘seen’ from even the narrowest of spaces. Eastern exposures are sunny during the morning, but protected from hot exposure during the afternoon. Western exposures are shaded during morning, but may become uncomfortably warm during the afternoon for species that prefer shade. Shade from tall homes may be too dark on northern exposures even for rhododendrons to bloom.