SMALL PLOTS
A GOOD LAYOUT IS THE KEY TO ACHIEVING A BIJOU GARDEN THAT FEELS BIG
WHEN designing a small garden the space needs to be used as efficiently as possible, incorporating a degree of flexibility since it’s a multi-purpose area used for a range of activities. ‘Think very carefully about how you will use the space and plan it accordingly,’ says designer John Wyer. ‘The biggest mistake is to try and fit too much in,’ he adds.
Many garden designers base their plans on a series of squares and rectangles that work well in small, regular-shaped plots as zoned areas. Others design layouts on the diagonal, which can make the space seem larger. There are lots of other tricks that can help, too. If you want to hide the boundaries to give the illusion of space, for example, paint fences black and they will seem to recede.
USE VERTICAL PLANTING
A trick some garden designers use in small gardens is dense planting, which can increase the feeling of seclusion and privacy. Planting is often restricted to a handful of high-performing plants used to create interest all year round, with vertical planting – in the form of climbers and wall shrubs – softening the edges of the hard landscaping. In the garden pictured here, designed by Farlam & Chandler, the vertical planting is the canopy of fig trees.
CREATE A SEAMLESS LINK BETWEEN INSIDE AND OUT
A small garden design lets you extend the interior aesthetic outside with complementary hard landscaping and boundaries. Choosing just two or three landscaping materials that match the scheme inside the house is a stylish interpretation that pulls everything together.
INCLUDE A SERIES OF EYECATCHING FOCAL POINTS
A small outdoor space needs creative solutions to turn it into an urban retreat that’s both sociable and practical. Adding a key feature like a water bowl, as well as decorative screens, also present focal points that help to detract from the small dimensions of the garden.
In a modern urban garden, screens and boundaries reinforce a feeling of privacy and help to shield the social space of the garden from neighbouring properties. They also help to switch up the space for night-time entertaining.
AIM FOR A BALANCED DESIGN
It’s important to get the balance right between the hard landscaping elements and the planting, and to create space for plants to grow without constraint. ‘We like to use the junction where different hard landscaping materials butt up to one another as a feature,’ says designer James Lee. ‘In smaller gardens this attention to detail can be very important where it’s much more likely to be in constant view.’