How to Make a Sunken Patio Garden on a Budget

Sharing all the details about how to make a sunken patio garden on a budget for less than $150 with pictures.

I have always loved the look of an all white flower garden & decided that this new sunken patio garden was the perfect spot to create one. 

We were able to create this perennial white garden for less than $150 by doing the gardening ourselves by mostly transplanting & dividing plants we already had.

How to Make a Sunken Patio Garden

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Before Picture of our Patio Garden Before

Here is the before picture of what the garden looked like after taking our deck down & after our retaining wall is done.

Pretty bare!

Because our new brick patio doesn’t go back quite as far as the former deck did we had a blank slate in some spots & a few overgrown shrubs in others.

The first thing we had to figure out was what to transplant & what to keep.

Evergreen Boxwoods as the Backdrop for this Sunken Patio Garden

The boxwoods were definitely staying but there were a few azaleas that we wanted to move & weeds we needed to pull. 

Thankfully, all but 1 survived transplanting and will hopefully fill in beautifully under our giant pine trees in another spot in our backyard.

Plant Trees for Future Shade on the Garden Patio

Because we need more shade for our new reclaimed brick patio we planted 2 more trees so we had a tree on all 3 sides of the patio. 

We kept our Yoshino Cherry that we had planted soon after we moved in to shade our previous deck & also our patio fire pit.

We transplanted a Kousa dogwood to a spot next to our hot tub. 

The tree was about 7 foot tall & has already started to shade our fire pit & hot tub at different times during the day. 

I also moved the stepping stones that were hidden under the pachysandra around our octagon garden shed.

The last tree we planted in the center of the patio is a Franklinia tree, FRANKLINIA ALATAMAHA – PLANT — APPROX 14-20 INCH – DORMANT .

Because we live just outside of Philadelphia I thought it would be fun to have a tree in our yard named after Ben Franklin who was so important to the city of Philadelphia as well as our country. 

These beautiful trees are pretty rare and tough to grow so I am crossing my fingers that it will be happy here. 🙂

It will take a long time for this tree to grow before it starts giving us any real shade but I am willing to wait & give it a try.

Rhododendrons for Color & Greenery

We also bought 4 white rhododendrons like this one from Amazon, Cat Album White Rhododendron – Live Plant – Quart Pot  to give this patio garden more privacy & spring blooms.

Transplanting & Dividing Plants to Keep this Patio Garden on Budget

I also transplanted & divided a lot of hostas, hydrangeas & ferns to fill in the blank spaces in this patio garden.

Beginner Gardening Tip – I ALWAYS have Hostas that need dividing so if you are just starting out with a new garden. Check with some gardening friends & chances are they have extra plants they can divide!

This gardening project took way longer than I ever imagined thanks to many underground roots from a former pear tree we took down last year.

Above is a pic of what this space looked liked before & what it looked liked a few weeks ago.

Even after cutting down this pear tree down it continued to send up water sprouts all over the garden next to our flagstone walkway and our diy post and rail fence.

I filled more than one trashcan full of roots before we were able to finish this walkway & patio garden. 

After the roots were out we could add more hostas to this space.

It will take a few years for this patio garden to fill in and give us the privacy and shade we want but I can’t wait to watch it grow.

The garden has come a long way since we started this patio project.

Our Backyard Patio is DONE. Stop by to check out the full reveal (HERE)

Sunken Patio Garden 3 Years Later

Here are some pictures of what our sunken garden patio looked like this past spring. I share more pictures of our patio garden in this post HERE.

Can you BELIEVE how beautiful this sunken patio garden as filled in after only 3 years. It has truly become a gardening oasis.

I hope our sunken patio garden inspires you to create a garden oasis of your own!

by Tara Lehman

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