One of the great pleasures of garden design is rising to the challenge of drawing the best out of every space that is presented to you. Often, the perception is that the smaller the garden, the less you are able to do. The dismissive phrase “The garden’s only very small….” is one I hear a great deal over the phone, only to be confronted by a delightful south facing space with endless possibilities. The problem is that small gardens have to be right. The key points of any design are the places where textures & shapes meet, in small gardens these tend to be close to each other, & any clashes seem to grow in a confined area.

The first basic principal in a small space is to keep it simple, both in planting & with hard materials. Be sympathetic to the surroundings as a garden of this size cannot stand alone, it is an intrinsic part of the whole space. If you choose one basic paving material then you have the option of adding a second for contrast (textured slabs bordered with pebbles or gravel is often seen in small spaces), whereas two or three materials competing for the main texture only serve to confuse the eye.

Strong lines are difficult to use in confined spaces, & should be avoided, but geometric shapes can centre the focus & provide a ‘hub’ on which the design can anchor itself. There are a few paving companies that produce geometric features such as stars, octagons, etc, & these are worth a look. Town & Country Paving & Lonstone are two companies that spring to mind but there are others.

The confined space is the best place to use the art of spatial illusion. One motif that can work well in this context is the use of the garden mirror. Any good glass shop will provide you with a mirror designed for external use, & careful placement on a wall will appear to open a window into another garden creating space in the mind of the viewer & a dynamic within the design. Placement needs thought, but when viewed from the seating area then it should reflect a portion of the garden with plants & not people to preserve the illusion. Trompe l’oeil (literally ‘trick of the eye’) are paintings or shapes on a wall that create the illusion of a third dimension, deliberately using perspective to enlarge the space. They differ from murals in the sense that they are viewed as space rather than as a picture. Common trompe l’oeil are steps, windows, furniture, or geometric ‘boxes’ constructed from trellis.

Planting needs more careful consideration than almost anything else as the one thing that is certain to ruin a small garden is planting that is out of scale. It is very easy to just buy the plants you like but plants that spread quickly or seed down easily are best avoided. Take careful note of the mature size & habit of a plant & be prepared to consider a more appropriate species. Many people like bamboo in a small garden as it has fabulous architectural qualities. However, a dominant spreading species like Sasa palmata is highly inappropriate, whilst a low shrubby species like Shibataea kumasasa is far more controllable. It is advisable to select a few key species to define the structure & character of the planting, with the other plants complementing the texture & colours of the key plants. Summer annuals are a good source of flowering highlights in a confined area, but restrained colours in the blue/purple end of the spectrum will increase the sense of space with the hotter colours & white tending to shrink the perceived area.

Finally, the use of ornament & decoration in the space needs to be thought of in terms of close up qualities. Whatever your tastes, good quality pots, statues & features look best close up, so be prepared to spend a little more o these things. Water features are popular, but in a close situation the level of noise generated by the water is something to be aware of, as well as the ‘splash radius’ which can cause problems.

Enjoy your gardens, & soon I’ll be focussing on the problems that people face when trying to design in the much larger parkland environment.