Best ways to make a wide but short garden look longer...

[linspins]

We're thinking of moving and have seen a house we really like. But the garden isn't as long as the one we currently have, and I do so love gardening. The garden is wider though...are there tricks that I could use to make it appear longer? And would these fit in with keeping a largish patch of grass for children to play on? Any ideas happily received. Thanks!

there's a classic book by John Brookes called The
Small Garden, which has a whole set of suggested garden designs for different tricky shapes of garden. If you get a copy of that, you could follow his suggestion for the wide but short garden - I think it involves a couple of circular lawns and high borders behind, but I can't swear to it.

Your best bet is to focus the eye on the diagonals and to blur the garden boundaries with evergreen planting. You should be ok to fit in a good sized lawn, perhaps have a patio at one corner near the house and something attractive in the opposite corner as a focal point.
This has some good designs for all garden shapes, inc wide and short
www.amazon.co.uk/The-Ultimate-Garden-Designer-Newbury/dp/0600619877

Thank you very much both of you for your replies. Thinking that we might put in an offer on the house! I will let you know if we do, as the new garden is just level grass all over (not a new build though) so it is a blank canvas!!

I've heard that planting cool colours (blues/purples etc) at the far end and hot brights at the front (yellows/reds etc) will lengthen a garden. Never tried it personally though.

Yes its supposed to help with perspective, and then using bright colours near the house.
Same with foliage, ie use plants with delicate foliage on the boundaries to help them recede and bold foliage plants like Fatsia/Fig near the house.
Let us know how you get on linspins, good luck!

Huge mirror at the end?

Our garden is wider than it is long, though not small by Australian standards. The width is exacerbated by the entire back boundary being taken up by a large tea-tree bang in the middle, that lies down in two directions. This means the eye is always drawn to the back.

The land drops steeply from the house, too, so viewing sitting in the house floor to ceiling windows, you see deck then tree. The lawn that's died and the veggie beds are invisible.

All this is so I can vouch for what was said up thread about bold plants at the front, though we go for ones you can see through,e.g. kangaroo paws red, orange and yellow, tall grasses and verbena bonariensis. We also have some plants in pots on the edge of the deck to hold the eye a bit, moving them around depending on the season.

It's worth thinking about how the garden looks when you're sitting down, then standing up as this will affect what you plant.

Ooh interesting answers

Scary, they have accepted our offer, so it may be on...! The garden is the only drawback to the house, otherwise it's lovely. Interesting about planting according to size of leaf etc - I guess that's a way of trying to add perspective by making the plants a bit further way seem more so!
I am already getting sad about leaving our current garden, I have invested so much in it - emotionally even more than financially. And planted trees etc. Not sure whether to go mad taking cuttings as it's bound to be a good 3 or 4 months off, or whether to take a big sigh, and a lot of sniffs and leave it all behind.

Oh that's exciting.
There is lots of info re garden design out there, go to your local library and have a good browse for ideas.
Is the garden overlooked on the end boundary? If not then you can plant taller things there which will help blur the lines and make it look longer than it really is, esp if you use evergreen plants with small foliage like Pittosporum/Escallonia.

I would take cuttings now of your favourite plants, take plenty to improve your chances. Nothing to lose and you gain some new plants for the next garden for free.
Also take some photos of the things you planted and why you like them, now is a great time as everything looks so fresh and bright.
And remember you can make most gardens lovely, it just takes effort and tlc.
Is the new place an old house or a new build? You mention no planting but that its not a new build so am trying to picture the plot.

Just read my post back and it was a bit muddled at the end.
Is the new place modern? Realised its not a new build!

Hi, I've spent all the bank holiday weekend cleaning, tidying, throwing stuff out ready for the estate agent to take photos this week to put our house on the market, so not a moment to read messages. My garden now looks immaculate, I love this time of year, all fresh greens!
Pannacotta, The new garden is odd in that the house was built in the fifties, but someone has cleared the plot at some point so it's just lawn now, with a few new shrubs plonked without thought at the edges. It slopes uphill very slightly, and is north west facing. The lawn is fairly rough, i imagine we'd re-do it at some point, when we have a plan for the whole thing. I'm going to be a bit torn between creating a lawn space big enough for a small boy to play on, and secret hiding places for a 7 yr old girl. There are no mature trees much to my dismay. There is a mature beech hedge at the end, probably about 7 ft high or more, but thinning, and fences each side. behind the beech hedge is the side of a garden that runs along the back.
Wholelottarosie, I love those canvases! Especially the first one. Bit crazy but fun.