Small Garden Ideas

[LetterBug]

Tiny garden, but its a garden! I want some ideas of what we could do with it. Has anyone got any inspiration please?

bumpppp

How big is it? Is there currently grass or paving? Do you have kids? Pets? Do you want to be able to entertain or just sit and relax? Is it south facing? Overlooked?
Or could you post a pic?

For small gardens plant up not along the ground

Make use of walls and fences with climbing plants, trailing plants in planters attached to walls and fences, window boxes, plant ladders, flower pockets. Alpine plants for any spaces with the tiniest bit of soil (think cracks in stone walls and bricks)

Just Google you'll get loads of ideas.

One approach is to make it look like a corner of a big garden rather than trying to cram everything in on a miniature basis. More info would help as DinnerMints has asked. How big,what kind of house, do you need storage,how keen are you on gardening,what's there at the moment,have you a diagram? Hedging on all the boundaries helps with privacy,sound baffling and making it feel like a pleasant green space.

Get on Instagram and follow hashtags liked #tinygarden #smallgarden #gardenmirror

Garden mirrors combined with solar water features like this lion wall fountain with lots of planting. Think big with the planting, tall and big leaves.

Ooh Instagram

yes we have children but no pets.
small terraced house so garden is overlooked by both neighbours and behind neighbours.
grass with paving slab path one side. fences.
The mirrors are a good idea, I will definitely look that that.
Love gardening, we just moved from a flat with no garden but we did have an allotment so very green fingers.

I wonder if hanging baskets and window boxes could give me lots of colour but leave the grass free for the children and their horrid habbit of picking flowers

I would paint a trellis in a pretty colour (eg frenchic alfresco range of colours)
Small table and chairs
Window box with trailing plants

Ditch the grass. Raised bed pottager style.

I would have climbers growing up the fence, a mix of winter and summer flowerers. Winter jasmine, clematis and wisteria are all fast growing so you won't have to wait too long before getting some nice colour in the garden without really using up any space.

Watch a few episodes of gardeners world on iplayer, or even better Big Dreams Small spaces (if you have Amazon prime).

Also have a look at the gardening section on here for inspiration

Get some evergreen shrubs that grow large and prune them into trees eg photina red robin. Plant them strategically so you don't feel so overlooked but they won't get too massive. Have climbers in between. Small gardens can often look better with fewer bigger plants rather than lots of tiny ones as strangely makes the garden seem bigger. Have some lovely pots near the house you can change with the seasons.

Small magical gardens is a great insta account. If your kids like picking flowers prioritise cut and come again like cosmos.

I’ve divided my small garden into areas. A seating area was a must so one corner has seating, a table and plants growing up the wall. Another area, to one side , has bee friendly plants, with a veg bed next to it. Bottom of the garden has a small shed and bin store.
Look on Pinterest at small garden ideas. I’ve found you can adapt most of the ideas to fit in a budget. ( although I still covet those beautiful metal screens I saw)

Make it into a GROTTO !
Pave it with cobbles (but leave gaps for the odd thing), build a logia over the whole space (with tall trellis here and there to create alleys and blind corners) and get a log burner going on. Around the edges plant flowering climbers who will populate your logia - an outdoor room with (just a few) fairy lights and lots of great aromas. It will never be Kew Gardens so maximise the potential it actually has as a space to enjoy.

On TV gardening programmes the current thing for small gardens is to have large, tall plants with a zig zag path running through it and seating. Personally mine has always been a lawn with plants along the side, but the TV ones are very nice.