Small yard garden - ideas, please!

[SleepBecomesHim321]

Hello, we have a small L-shaped paved yard in a city in NE England. Does anyone have any ideas/inspiration to share from their yards? Feeling a bit uninspired but is only outdoor space we have. Been all over Pinterest and Insta so after 'real' pics if possible. Thank you.

Is it sunny? Or shady? Is there anything you ‘need’ to have in it eg washing line/shed? Can we have a photo? How keen/reliable a gardener are you? Is there a tap out there?

Last nights episode of Your Garden Made Perfect had a makeover of a little L shaped yard. It wasn't the main feature and they did paint it a very crazy colour but it be worth a fast forward through on iPlayer to see if it gives you any ideas about layout, etc.

I don’t know where it’s still on, but Monty Dons Big Dreams Small Spaces is excellent for this. It’s real people doing the work themselves with no garden designer or massive budget and some of the spaces are tiny. Lots of ideas about using pots and trellises that could be useful.

There are lots of "small garden" ppl on instagram-find it very inspirational!!

Do you want to leave it paved?

What do you want it for-sitting in, gardening, entertaining, kids play space?

There was a courtyard garden on GW a while back called Leeds Tropical Shade Garden - they are on Instagram

Thanks, everyone. Yes, needs to stay paved but could get some big trough-style/decking planters. Mostly shade but some small patches of sun. I want a lush look, don't mind a mix of styles (tropical and cottage garden or whatever). Most important is it feeling green and ideally smelling nice. I would say my gardening ability is between beginner and intermediate.... used to be keen but ability to spend time on it dropped off since kids. Have an outside tap. Would love some specific insta accounts to follow if anyone has recommendations. Thank you.

If you want it to look lush I would start with perimeters, use climbers etc for a back drop. Bamboo and shrubs in large planters. An outdoor aquarium would look great and is best out of full sun with a water feature . I had a small hard landscaped yard in my last house that looked like a secret garden by the time I had finished with an aquarium. Think in layers starting with your taller specimens and work down. The beauty with pots is that you can move them around. I tended to put the evergreens in the larger pots towards the back and then reserve some space for seasonal plants that you can choose for colour of scent. We loved the aquarium as a focal point and would just sit looking at all the big bright goldfish whilst having a wine. Lighting too made it special. You can get ready made aquariums or get a builder to make you one

Not sure you are going to get ''tropical' in the north east.

If you want green and smelling nice, try lots of herbs in planters, and look at what is growing locally to you, or go visit a few gardens such as Alnwick or RHS Harlow Carr for inspiration.

shady + lush = a wall of ferns and other green shady plants, but likely to need/appreciate regular watering so an automatic watering system linked to the tap would help. In fact, in a potted garden investment in a watering system is likely to make a massive difference.

Go for a few big pots rather than lots of small ones.

Definitely go for a climber - a star-jasmine or type3 clematis

evergreen ferns are great for surviving all conditions & looking good year-round. then you can add some colourful bedding plants in summer.

On insta @leedstropicalshadegarden is really good.
Get some fatsia, hostas and ferns.
They would be a good starting point.

I’m NE too, tiny cottage courtyard with practically no beds so all container gardening. One side is very shady, the house end gets more sun. Cottage-style planting is easy as you can mix a wide range of plants and they’re often cheap and easy to grow/buy (geraniums, ferns, herbs, bedding etc). Many self-seed too — I love foxgloves! — so more plants for free. Treat yourself to a few “feature” plants/pots etc… my massive blow out was the statue of Aphrodite. I see her every day from my kitchen window and she was worth every penny!

The lush look just means you need lots of green; it’s hard to imagine in March, and I always forget how lovely it looks come May and go on a mad planting spree! Here’s mine last year; hopefully this shows what you can do in a small space with a low budget and a bit (not a lot!) of effort!

To get the right plants one of the best tools is
www.rhs.org.uk/about-the-rhs/publications/plant-finder.
Every garden has different aspects, try and have the right plant for a northfacing area and a different one for e.g south facing. Plus exposed vs sheltered e.g narrow part of L would be guess less windy. I also like tropical / scented /evergreen etc. Search for city / courtyard / container planting.
e.g Fatsia Japonica is great one. Once you narrowed down choice e.g north facing / container etc it helps a lot. I actually have 2 huge containers , vintage dolly tubs, in my small garden ( 3 x 4 m ) mixed with tall and trailing plants ( bit like a flower bed ) as smaller pots dry out faster and need more watering. Also nice to have plants that green up your garden in winter, e.g winter box is evergreen and scented but not a showy plant. On insta hellotherelinda has shade plants so maybe see who she follows and what hashtags , that's always a good path , excuse pun, to find great inspiration. Containergardens is another hashtag , small gardens or courtyards, sidereturn garden , urban garden , citygardens etc. Get some solar string lights ( Ikea is fab for outdoor stuff ) and put plants at different heights e.g on a table/floor/shelf. Treat the garden like your mini outside living room really.

Make sure you powerhose/ scrub paving first as that can be messy. Algon removes green algae on your paving but probably isn't good for plants. Patch and repair fencing first.

LMBoston your garden is beautiful. It’s so lovely I can imagine sitting in it relaxing. There’s no other advice needed!

@LMBoston oh wow! What a stunning garden!!

@Beebumble2 @Spottydotdotty Thank you I love it, it’s a little oasis of scent and wildlife and greenery right in the middle of town!

And @SleepBecomesHim321 I forgot to say — you can get plenty of stuff for free if you ask nicely. Bits of plants, pots etc. I made some curtains for a lady and got the chimney pots in return! That’s proper cottage gardening

Make sure you have somewhere to sit. We put in a raised bed all down one side made from sleepers and filled with topsoil. It was deep.

I put in a rowan tree for height, a pittisporum for evergreen colour. A fatsia japonica spiderweb - lush evergreen. I had a lot of small shrubs/trees in pots - dwarf lilac, a kojo no mai blossom tree, a wisteria, a fig (big lush leaves and like being in a pot) and a couple of acers. Also ferns for a shady corner in pots. I had bulbs in pots so could move out the way when done their thing. And dahlias in huge pots as well as begonias - something like begonia fireworks or glowing embers. I hung big trough baskets on the wall so wouldn't need lots of watering.

And I put in a bronze fennel for height and lots of alliums. It was a very lush space.

The L bit of ours I put a lean to greenhouse in and used it to store pots that weren't being used as well. That was the dark bit of the yard for us.

I also made use of the back lane and planted a beautiful huge honescuckle that came back into our yard and a buddliea that the butterflies loved.

Top picks are the bigger the pot - the easier it is to grow things. Have somewhere to put the stuff while it's not looking its best and other gardening stuff.

I googled shady courtyard gardens, looked at the blog middle sized garden and subscribed to gardener's world.

Also... most things will grow in pots - just be prepared to pass them on to a good home when they out grow the pots.

@LMBoston

I’m NE too, tiny cottage courtyard with practically no beds so all container gardening. One side is very shady, the house end gets more sun. Cottage-style planting is easy as you can mix a wide range of plants and they’re often cheap and easy to grow/buy (geraniums, ferns, herbs, bedding etc). Many self-seed too — I love foxgloves! — so more plants for free. Treat yourself to a few “feature” plants/pots etc… my massive blow out was the statue of Aphrodite. I see her every day from my kitchen window and she was worth every penny!

The lush look just means you need lots of green; it’s hard to imagine in March, and I always forget how lovely it looks come May and go on a mad planting spree! Here’s mine last year; hopefully this shows what you can do in a small space with a low budget and a bit (not a lot!) of effort!

Beautiful, what a fabulous space.

FWIW OP, I genuinely am of the opinion that it's the restrictions in our space that brings out the best gardeners and gardens. Having to garden the space you have (rather than the space you might dream of) gives rise to better creativity. As @LMBoston so beautifully demonstrates with their amazing courtyard garden photos

@LMBoston Your garden is beautiful. I have 2 of those old chimney pots from a house we renovated. They're amazing and huge.. please can I ask did you paint yours?.. if so what with. And what have you planted in yours?

@LMBoston your garden looks amazing like something out of a book. Can I ask if you did it in stages and was it expensive to get it established? Also would you describe it as low maintenance? I know very little about gardening but yours is a look I would love. Thank you

My old back yard, not as beautiful as the one above!

That is really lovely too Garden, I love your planting scheme and how your eye is naturally drawn down the length of the garden.

I think it is the architectural features that help to make Boston's garden absolutely incredible, the arch, the warmth of the brick, the skyscape and historic detail plus planting and everything in it. It all works together magically.

@GardenNinjaIng — that is lovely, another example for @SleepBecomesHim321 to show what you can do in a small space

@DidymusAmbrosius I totally agree with necessity being the mother of invention! I moved here after divorcing, leaving a naice suburban garden with veg patch etc as well as the husband, and at first I was a bit down about not having a “proper” garden. The gravel area was all slimy decking and there were a few shrubs, and a massive stone raised pond where the statue is now. The positives were the brick walls and the different levels, so I tried to be optimistic!

So (and in answer to @disneylover367) I imagined what I wanted — an English stately home idyll for a two-up-two-down terrace — and set to. It took a lot of hard manual work initially and I guess the initial outlay was about £500 for gravel, pots, plants etc. That was 10 years ago, and I’ve added and changed things many times. There’s been plenty of mistakes made along the way! It’s relatively easy now; I do all the topiary myself, so much cheaper to buy a cone and turn into a spiral, bit of pruning etc but it’s as much work as you want it to be really. If you have a few structural shrubs/features, the cottage look benefits from a bit of benign neglect!

@yorkshireteaparty Yes I painted them — Zinsser primer then a bit of Dulux masonry paint. Think it was Gardenia… I begged it off someone who had a bit left over from painting their house

Thanks for all the lovely comments; gardens gladden the eye and the heart! I hope you feel emboldened, OP. Crack on and get your hands dirty!