Small Garden Design Ideas That Feel Generous

A small garden is not a compromise. Some of the most satisfying spaces we build are courtyards and town gardens, because every square metre has to earn its place - and that discipline produces better design.

Use fewer materials

Nothing shrinks a small garden faster than three paving types, two wall finishes and a change of fence. One paving material carried right to the boundaries, one timber colour and one wall treatment reads as a single generous room. Save the variety for the planting.

Break the rectangle

Laying paving or setting the main axis at forty-five degrees lengthens the longest sightline and stops the eye reading the boundary immediately. A path that curves out of view, even by a metre, implies more garden beyond.

Plant in layers, upwards

• Multi-stem trees give canopy without occupying floor area
• Climbers and espaliers turn fences into green walls
• Deep planting on one side beats thin borders on all four
• Repeat three or four plants rather than collecting twenty

Build the furniture in

A bench built into a wall or planter seats more people in less space than a table and chairs, and it stays tidy. Built-in storage under seating removes the shed problem, which is usually the largest object in a small garden.

Light it properly

In a small garden the view from indoors matters more than anywhere else, because you see all of it at once. Uplighting a tree and washing a boundary wall pushes the darkness back and makes the garden part of the room on winter evenings. Keep fittings warm in colour and few in number.