We are entering the flower show season when elaborate and eye-wateringly expensive show garden designs will grab all the headlines. But very few of us have a tenth of the money to spend on our gardens as the most modest show garden.
Choosing the best lighting for a small garden
However in reality all show garden designs are small - some very small indeed, and every one of them has design tricks and skills that any of us can apply to our own plots without spending a small fortune.
What tips do you have on planning and designing a small garden? Comment below!
Small garden design
The
first essential tip for small garden design is knowing what to leave
out. Some of this can be conceptual. A very small garden cannot have a
dry garden and a bog garden and a lawn and a play area and veg patch.
Hard choices must be made. Keep it simple. One clear idea done well
works far better than a clutter of unrealised mish-mash. One design
style, one overiding theme and a sense of unity. Think of a a small
garden design not as a house with different rooms, but one living space.Learn how to add a garden path
This applies to borders as well. Work out the effect you are trying to achieve, be it a riot of herbaceous perennials, the cool sensuality of grasses or a working veg patch and focus on that as the guiding theme. I would argue that small garden designs should never have a lawn as a paved area will work in all weathers, is ideal for containers of all kinds and does not need mowing.
Choosing the right plants for a small garden
One of the most common mistakes people make when designing a small garden space is to think that everything in it must be small. The opposite is usually true. A few large plants make a space seem bigger whereas lots of small ones make it feel crowded. Any outsized object or plant can look perfectly at home in a tiny space as long as you are ruthlessly selective about it. If it does not look absolutely right then get rid of it. There is literally no room for compromise. You must ask yourself about every individual plant, every paving stone, each pot, whether it is the best use of that particular space, whether it is the right thing in the wrong place.
What would you ask Monty Don?Finally, whilst keeping it simple at any one moment in the year, plant for all four dimensions, height, breadth, depth - and time. A small garden design has no room or time to rest. It must work for you every day of the year. Use bulbs, annuals, climbers with good foliage as well as flowers - anything to extend the range of display within the garden design and thus maximise the potential of the limited space.
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