Small garden tips and ideas

Home  Contact  Growing in containers  Shady garden  Fencing  Patio   Cottage garden   Lawn

• Formal or informal gardens? What's best for you.
• Patios, It's important to plan the size and shape to suit your family and entertaining needs. To small and you fall of the edge. Too late to change the shape or size once the slabs are cemented down.
• Privacy is going to be an important consideration especially, if your garden is overlooked. 
• Light can produce a feelgood factor in a small garden and most plants won't thrive in too much shade anyway. 
• The shape of a small garden, long, short, narrow or wide all need a different planting plan and hard-landscaping design.
• A focal point draws the eye to something  and can also be used to draw the eye away from an unsightly feature. What features can be used to create a Focal Point?
• Choice of paving slabs is important, small light coloured slabs have the effect of making a small garden look and feel bigger and brighter. LARGE dark slabs have the opposite effect.
• How many plants can be planted in a small garden? Are you planning to use containers or plant in borders.
• Growing vegetables. Even with very little space you can still grow and enjoy fresh garden vegetables. Nothing beats a freshly picked tomato or freshly dug new potato.

A formal or informal garden? You decide which style is for you.

Formal gardens tend to be laid out to be tidy and geometric appealing to people who are concerned with controlling the garden and what Facebook "friends" will think of the photos. With many straight lines made up of shapes such as squares, triangles, or rectangles with clipped hedges and rigid planting plans. Formal garden design plans use features such as stone or topiary spheres or cubes as 3-dimensional interest. Features will be made of shiny metal, concrete or plastics. In larger gardens as you get further out from the house, the garden can become more informal. However, this mix of formal and informal design does not work quite so well in small gardens. 

With informal gardens the design is looser and generally uses only natural materials. The lines are softer and more fluid made up of organic curves and the planting is much more relaxed. Informal gardens appeal to people who are less concerned with control and what Facebook "friends" see and more in tune with letting nature help out. Informal garden styles like the cottage garden that allows plants to mingle and grow together often appeal.  Informal gardens are more relaxed and less pretentious. This, however, does not make them easier to plan or maintain! 

Tall trees and fences will provide privacy, but will also reduce or cut out light in a small garden. Planting large trees, tall hedges or erecting high fencing will provide privacy. However, they may overwhelm a small garden casting too much shade making it difficult to grow plants (or sunbathe). Plants get energy from light and how much they get affects the growth of the plant. Without any light, plants would not be able to grow.

• Replace high fences with trellis as these will provide privacy, and at the same time allow light in. Colourful climbers growing over the trellis will also soften boundaries and provide year round interest.  Maybe plant some vegetables to climb and grow over the trellis. The effect will look good, save space, provide that all important  privacy in your own garden. The bonus, trellis also allows light to filter through.
• However, if a small garden is surrounded by high buildings casting shade and there's nothing much you can do about it, or it's simply that privacy is paramount and you still want to grow stuff. Luckily for us gardeners with small shady gardens. Not all plants need the same amount of light too thrive. I have listed a selection of flowers, shrubs, perennials, hedgerow plants, and bulbs that will tolerate some shade here  Plants for shady gardens
• Plants that will grow in shady areas are not very colourful. However, these plants often have interesting and attractive foliage. The leaves are usually larger than normal sun loving plants to gather as much light as possible from the shady conditions they grow in.

Small square or oblong gardens 

If you are starting from scratch plan to divide your square garden up into different areas of texture, shape and colour I/e a circular lawn, light colour paving and earth for planting. Divide the areas up with simple curved boundaries avoiding straight lines.  A really visually attractive and interesting garden path that also creates a boundary is to design one that sweeps around one side of the circular lawn.

If space allows build in a bit of mystery by using trellis or hedging at the furthest edge of the garden to blur the garden boundary. It will make the garden look bigger "what's behind that"? Maybe a hidden sitting areas or your compost heap.

Long narrow garden.

If your garden is long and narrow and many of us have one, especially, if we live in town. You can probably have almost everything you want in your garden. A patio, paths, flower borders, a lawn, a pond, a vegetable patch, a greenhouse, a shed and a wildlife area.

There are, however, a few basic guidelines to bear in mind.  

• Build a border on just one side of the garden. Having borders down both sides of the garden would make it look even narrower. I would run a path down the same side as the border acting as a boundary. Maybe with a few curves to make the border more interesting and visible from the top of the garden. The path will also make working on the border easier especially in wet weather.   
• The lawn should be set to the opposite side of the border, covering right up to the garden boundary rather than straight down the middle. This also makes the garden look wider. 
• Toward the far end of a long narrow garden try to find space for a peaceful secret sitting area. You may find useful to get away from the hustle and bustle to just sit and contemplate. 

Following these guidelines when planning a long narrow garden. You should have room to fit in the other stuff you want, a pond, a vegetable patch, a greenhouse, a shed and a wildlife area.

A focal point is simply something that attracts the eye. Creating a focal point can add interest and structure. A focal point can also draw your eye and visitors eyes away from something you don't like in your small garden, Particularly useful if you are not starting with a Blank Canvas. You might be left with a raised manhole in the middle of the lawn or patio.

You don't have to have a focal point, but if you think it might work for you, it's best to plan it in from the beginning. A focal point doesn't have to be large, but must be something you like and be eye-catching. Thinking about the raised manhole. Try a wooden container big enough to cover the manhole planted with herbs. It would make a lovely scented focal point and cover the manhole.

• Use small sized blocks and slabs for paving, they trick the eye into thinking it’s a larger space. If you use really large paving slabs it has the opposite effect and makes a small garden look even smaller. 
• You can have too much packed into a small garden. Too much clutter will make it look even smaller and take up too much moving about, space. 
• Be careful with designers and landscape gardeners who want to pack your small garden with expensive features.
  Do you really need to pay a designer?    A good landscape gardener will run through your design and ideas and discuss the practicalities with you, without hijacking and changing them. You have to live with it long after the designer has been paid and gone.
• Be careful with designers and landscape gardeners who want to pack your small garden with expensive features. Do you really need to pay a designer? A good landscape gardener will run through your design and ideas and discuss the practicalities with you, without hijacking and changing them. You have to live with it long after the designer has been paid and gone.
• Make a list of your favourite plants and colours. Planting space will be limited so list your favourite plants, those that bring back good childhood memories and then add other plants if space allows. 
• Don't underestimate space for entertaining or just relaxing, Think about the shape and materials that work best for you and as we discussed earlier, will make the garden look bigger.
• Don't overfill a small garden, whether square or long and thin with too many garden features.

Make the most of the tips on these pages and begin to utilise the limited space you have in a small garden. You might end up with kitchen herbs growing next to Hollyhocks, but there's one thing for sure you will be getting the most from your small garden. Growing your own vegetables tips here  growing your own

Growing Vegetables in containers is a great way to get the most out of limited space in a small garden.