Small Gardens
Gardening might be your passion but the reality is that depending on your life stage and work or family commitments, the level of your activity is bound to change over time.
When, for instance, you buy your first home, because of affordability it more often than not comes with a small garden and even if you wish it was bigger, you’ll probably only have the time and cash to make it the place where you can kick off your shoes and relax at the end of a tiring day at work, or throw a party.
Low maintenance is usually the mantra when it comes to designing a small garden and more often than not, the desire is for instant results. Remember to take this into consideration when planning your garden, as your dream lawn and neatly trimmed hedges might be a low-cost investment, but are high maintenance.
Whatever your personal circumstances, to turn a pocket-handkerchief size plot into your ideal garden takes not only imagination but relies on using clean lines and strong geometric shapes like a perfect circle, squares or rectangles. Linking a shapely lawn, patio and flowerbeds together with sharp, seamless edges and paths, is a good starting point.
To keep everything in scale, fill the borders with groundhugging, weed-suppressing plants and shapely but tidy evergreen shrubs. And choose only diminutive varieties of your favourite herbaceous perennials to soften and disguise the hard lines. Planting fewer varieties in blocks and repeating the plants again and again in the garden will also prevent it looking cluttered, and instantly give it a modern feel. Consider building raised beds too, as these can double up as seats and as the soil is imported, can be used to grow a wider range of plants from drought-busting, tiny alpines to a tapestry of colour created with lime-hating heathers.
If the garden is long and thin, you will make things easier on the eye if you divide it into three smaller, more manageable sections. An entertainment zone that’s decorated with pots of incredible edibles and herbs is a must-have if you like to barbecue, and an area that is covered by a pergola, which is shrouded with a living curtain of colour and scent, could become your secret retreat.
Playing with fragrance is a great way to make your garden memorable. For unforgettable scents, fill pots on a patio that’s built close to the house, with witch hazel, Daphne odorata and tulips and narcissus, which emit penetrating perfumes from late winter to early spring. And use roses, lilies, garden pinks and lots of bright summer bedding to create an unbeatable and mobile summer garden.
Give your small garden a focal point too. This could be a slim-fit, easy-going plant, such as the ornamental grass, Miscanthus, or the yellow or black-stemmed bamboo, which are both big on impact. Alternatively, plant a ‘high-rise’ climber on an obelisk and you’ll create the visual treat to take the eye vertically.
Walls and fences are also useful for displaying climbing plants and a lick of paint will also work wonders. The ultimate goal should be for your garden to appeal to all your senses, so introduce more tactile elements such as a willow screen and for sound, movement and a bit of sparkle, add a wall fountain. And finally, don’t forget lighting. With the flick of a switch, it will instantly transform the garden, giving it a magical new look when the sun goes down.