Moving from decent garden to very small one...help please!

[FuzzyPuffling]

Help and ideas needed please.

I am (hopefully) moving in the next couple of months from a rural detached house (with a sea view!) to an urban terrace with a small garden. On the whole, this is a good thing for many reasons, but the little garden (or largish courtyard, if you prefer) will be a challenge.

It currently has a (south facing) small bit of decking, a paved side return, one overgrown border and a patch of astroturf (which I want to replace with proper grass - I cannot bear the thought I will never feel grass under my bare feet again). It's probably about 30' long in total.

I've got several plants which I will be transporting in pots, ready to plant out (roses, clematis, hellebores, hydrangeas etc) as well as an apple tree, a cherry tree and three small olive trees in big pots.

I need some thoughts on design and ideas to work on. I'd like a green oasis, which is also cat friendly.

Oh and a "low maintenance" garden in anathema to me....I LOVE gardening!

That pond looks gorgeous, Cathpot!

Re the fig Beggars, yes it's restricted in a trug. First it grew well, but got top heavy and I had to cut it off halfway up. Now it's recovering well but shadowed by the plum.

The basic problem is insufficient sun for fruit. We are very overshadowed by our own house, the neighbours, and our garage. The sun moves around the garden a patch at a time. Nowhere gets decent sun except in the height of summer.

In our new house we’ve built a pond into a wall- that could also work in a small garden.
That's lovely Cathpot. A small pond can easily get lost at ground level but raising it up means that you can see it (and its contents!) better. It also means less worry about small children falling into it.

There were some good discussions about this in this thread: Trees in small gardens www.mumsnet.com/Talk/gardening/4246171-trees-in-small-gardens

I wonder if the thread someone has already mentioned relates to @FLOrenze - not sure if I've got the name quite right but you'll see some photos in the link above and I think she started a thread of her own too about her garden transformation.

Perhaps not enough grass for you but a fantastic structure and planting in my view, so some inspiration?

Excellent thread link. I ma getting quite excited about a new canvas to design and will definitely be having some trees. I'm leaving behind a crab apple, so think I will replace that.

My current garden has a huge willow and hawthorn combination and I won't miss those! (Apart from the hawthorn blossom). In this dry weather the willow has dropped yellow crispy leaves all over the lawn. I had to go and sweep them up before house viewings!

No ideas as I’m still a beginner. But wanted to say I’m dead jealous ur living with a sea view. Living by the sea is number one on my bucket list

Please don't be jealous, Paranoid. One of the reasons we are moving is that, although the sea view is lovely, the rest of our life is really rather shit! :)

I know you said you want to feel grass, but I really wouldn't bother. A mower will take up loads of storage and in a small garden it's such a blank thing to do. Grass works in big gardens because it's a foreground to a vista. In a small garden it will be the only thing. A moss/alpine/herb area would be much more interesting, for insects, texture, colour and scent. They'll probably do more to combat heat than a patch or parched grass too!

We have an amazing yard garden, with all sorts of small trees and climbers. The grape vine round window has been a lifesaver these few weeks. There's a photo somewhere on a small garden thread, but I've recently name changed and don't want to blow it again!

My very small front garden, the trees in the background are from the park across the road.

I took up the grass and put down paving and made the borders large. There's another tree in there since I took this.

My very small front garden, the trees in the background are from the park across the road.
That's a great "borrowed view" GardenGarden! It looks a lovely place to sit and contemplate life.

GardenGarden, that's lovely.