If your home is located on a narrow lot that’s within spitting distance of your neighbors, you may have a problem, and I don’t mean the disgusting act of expectorating. Your problem may very well be the not-so-sunny and very constricted space between the side of your house and the property line you share with your neighbor.

If you are like many homeowners who have this conundrum, you may have come to the conclusion there isn’t much you can do with this skinny alleyway other than using it as a shortcut from your backyard to the front yard. So your skinny side yard may look like your very own moonscape where nothing seems to grow except a few skimpy patches of grass and weeds. There are, however, ways to turn your barren lunar landscape into a beautiful little garden.

This fall, after you have finished putting your flower and vegetable gardens to bed for the winter, set aside some time to measure the length and width of your side yard. Then sit down and think about how much sunlight the area receives during spring, summer and early fall. If your side yard in question is on the east, south or west side of your house and it isn’t shaded by too many trees or buildings, your landscaping project won’t be as hard as you might think. However, if your house and the house next door blocks out much of the sunlight or your side yard is on the north side of your house, it may be more problematic, but it is doable.

Have a plan

Your next task is to sit down with a sheet of graph paper and create a schematic plan for your new side yard garden. Use regular 8- by 11-inch graph paper containing at least 25 rows of squares on one side. Use the space between each square to represent one foot. With a pencil, not a pen, you are ready to begin creating your new landscaping plan on paper. Keep an eraser handy since you will undoubtedly make numerous changes before you finish designing your new side lawn landscape.

The first thing is to draw in a path connecting your front yard to your backyard. But don’t draw the path as a straight shot down the middle of the width of the space you have to work with. This creates “tunnel vision” and the viewer’s eyes will be drawn to the end of the walkway instead of the plantings in your garden. Also, a straight shot leaves you with no alternative but to line up plants in soldier-straight rows with short plants in front, midsize plants in the middle and the tallest plants in back. This may work when taking a class photo, but it doesn’t work well with plants.

Instead, draw your pathway with gently undulating curves, probably a little off center of the width of your garden. This eliminates the soldiers-in-a-row effect and creates wider spaces alternating with narrower areas, giving you room for larger plants in the outer curves and smaller plants on the inner sides of the curves. Ideally, the path should be at least 3 feet wide, but if your side yard is really narrow, you can get by with 2-foot wide walkways.

Pick a walkway

A bare path is not a good idea, because after a rain your path could turn into a quagmire, and you won’t appreciate getting your shoes muddy as you stroll through your beautiful side yard garden. Neither are wood chips or coarse bark good choices because they must be regularly replenished. Besides, it’s not easy to maneuver a wheelbarrow or walk over either of these walkway coverings.

Flagstone, brick, and interlocking pavers are great choices, but they can be expensive. Either fine gravel and pea gravel is a good choice, being long lasting and less costly. If you do choose one of the latter two, be sure to underlay it with landscaping cloth so the gravel won’t be able to migrate down and mix into the soil.

With the pathway drawn in, it’s time to think what kinds of plants you want to use. This will take some research on your part to find just the right plants for your side garden. Determine the heights of plants you select, but more importantly how much horizontal space they will take up when they mature. To avoid ending up with an overly crowded garden, make your drawings using circles that will show how much horizontal space each perennial plant will take up at maturity.

Pencil in your plantings

Perennials will dominate your garden, but don’t dismiss the possibility of using a few small shrubs, and possibly a small tree that won’t take up much space either horizontally or vertically when mature. Even so, you will need to keep your pruners handy should some of your plants unexpectedly become overly rambunctious in their growth. Also, pencil in space for spring blooming bulbs and ground covers that grow very well beneath the canopy of your small deciduous tree and shrubs.

You may want to consider a garden arch connecting your side yard to your front yard and for planting a climbing rose. Other hardscapes you might consider would be a gate at the back entrance, especially if you have small children and pets you want to keep in the backyard. A small bench and fountain are other hardscapes you might want to add to your side yard.

For very narrow side yards that receive plentiful sunlight, you can gain space by espaliering a dwarf fruit tree near an existing wooden fence or possibly on a trellis near the side of your house. Trellises are also great space savers for corraling clematis or other flowering vines in your garden.

Even if your side yard is on the north side of your home and without an abundance of sunlight, you can still create an attractive shade garden. There are always the ubiquitous and reliable hostas and ferns readily available. But there are a host of other shade-loving plants that your local nursery has available that will have lots of pleasing possibilities. Shop first at local nurseries for all of your plant needs. They also may be able to help you find better alternatives than some of the plants you have come up with.

Who said that skinny side yards are good only for shortcuts from your backyard to front yard?

• Freelance gardening columnist Jim McLain can be reached at 509-697-6112 or ongardening@fairpoint.net.