By Sharon Cohoon, Sunset senior garden writer

Maybe the name's the problem.  If you called them side-gardens instead of side-yards, would you treat them differently?  Leucadia, California, landscape designer Ingrid Rose thinks you might.  "I personally hate the word `yard'," she says.  It sounds like an area where you'd store your composter, your border collie's agility toys, or anything else you don't regularly use, she says.  It does not sound like a space to be in just for pleasure. "But there's no reason these spaces have to be ugly," says Rose.  "There's a lot you can do with them." 

Rose was going to show me some of her favorite side-garden designs on my recent scouting trip to San Diego, but she came down with the flu and had to cancel.  But her comments stuck with me.  When I walked by the San Diego Chinese Historical Museum in the Gaslight Quarter, I couldn't help but notice how similar in size its side-garden was compared to the average residential side-yard.

The enchanting path along one side of the Museum, shown above, takes you over a bridge, past a waterfall, boulders, pockets of plants, and a fishpond before it terminates at a small courtyard behind the building.  The meandering curves of the path foreshorten the linear distance, and the use of boulders and plants create a series of separate pictures to enjoy along the route.  There's no reason you couldn't duplicate this idea in a home garden.  In size the spaces are virtually the same.

Rose and I will reschedule, and we'll have more ideas and images to share with you then.  In the meantime, though, take a look at Julie Chai's  side-yard make-over story for further inspiration.