Thompson & Morgan Gardening Blog

Clever design and expert planting will make your small garden feel beautifully spacious
Image: Toa55

Small gardens have to work harder than big ones. When your outdoor space is limited, you’ll need clever design and innovative planting to make it feel roomier.

We asked some of our favourite British garden-designers for their top tips on making a small garden feel more spacious. Here’s their expert advice:

Get creative with design

Planting swathes of the same colour gives a cohesive effect
Image: Moolkum

The tinier your plot, the more creative you’ll need to get, bearing in mind that the end goal is a beautiful space that everyone enjoys spending time in.

“Small gardens are much harder to design than large gardens,” explains Belinda Macdonand of Shades of Green Garden Design:

““Think carefully about what the amenities you need to include in the garden are and consider whether you are able to double up on functionality – e.g. can storage areas be designed into fixed seating?”

Eugene Hill of Dewlands Garden Design agrees that creativity is key to excellent small-garden design. He draws inspiration from the way architectects work within small spaces…“[It’s] all about getting creative with the space to make the most of the tiny footprint. That’s the same philosophy that should be employed when thinking about creating a small garden; getting imaginative to make the most of the space.”

Keep it simple

Pare everything back to give a feeling of roominess
Image: Jacqueline Abromeit

It’s easy to overwhelm a small garden by trying to fit too much into a tiny area, say our experts. Simplify and strip everything back to achieve a spacious, balanced feel.

“Less is more!” advises Sarah Wilson of Roots and All:

““It’s often more difficult to design a small space than a large one, as restraint is key. If you can hone down the style of your space in terms of colours and style, keep the number of different materials used to a minimum and pare down your planting palette, you’ll find the overall look is more coherent and pleasing to the eye.”

Belinda Macdonald agrees: “the smaller the garden, the smaller the range of materials and plants should be used – use the motto ‘more of less’ to help you to remember this tip.”

“Clear out the clutter,” advises Bo Cook of Bo Cook Landscape and Design: “It is easy to end up collecting pots and other garden objets… Paring back to a few key pieces can help make the space feel calmer and larger.”

Blur the boundaries

Use natural materials and clever planting to make garden boundaries ‘disappear’
Image: Delpixel

All of our experts advised drawing attention away from the boundaries and edges of your small garden, to make it look bigger.

Belinda Macdonald recommends softening your garden’s perimeters:

““Blurring the boundaries of a small garden can help draw the eye to ‘borrowed views’ outside the garden. This can be done in a variety of ways: Planting small trees or large shrubs in informal groups along the boundary and in the corners of the garden; staining fences and or/sheds black makes them ‘disappear’ and encourages planting to stand out.”

And Bo Cook also advises clever planting to do this job: “Green up the boundaries to blur the edges of the garden, and borrow from the wider landscape or cityscape. If you can make your boundaries green, the edges are less obvious, tricking the brain into thinking the garden is larger than it actually is.”

Many gardeners get this so wrong, says Eugene Hill: “If you’ve got a small garden, it can be very tempting to push everything out to the edge, which is a big mistake. When you do this, as you walk into the garden, you instantly see the boundaries at first glance, and by doing that, you tell everyone who visits ‘I’ve got a small garden’.”

Finally, Geoff Stonebanks used a clever visual trick to make his award-winning Driftwood Garden look bigger. He fitted a folly door in the perimeter fence and concealed the edges by an arch with various foliage growing up over it. “There is a real sense that there is more garden beyond the door!” says Geoff.

Use curved edges

Curved edges will make smaller gardens feel more spacious
Image: Derek Harris Photography

If you’ve got a regular-shaped garden, softening the hard edges will also make it look bigger, says Jason of Hornby Garden Designs: “The use of curves in a rectilinear garden can make it look wider, and add a degree of femininity.”

Clever planting will also soften hard paving edges and bring a feeling of space, advises Bo Cook:

““Remember plants soften paving edges, so even if you aren’t in theory a straight line person, you can still have a simple square paving area that is made more organic in shape with the right choice of billowing and spilling edging plants.”

And, speaking of edges, Alexandra of The Middle Sized Garden recommends having just one border in a small garden: “Decide where you’d like your one main border to be and make it as big as you can – don’t try to have equal borders all around the garden.”

Be clever with planting

‘See-through’ plants like verbena bonariensis will make a garden look bigger
Image: Shutterstock

The plants you choose can also affect how spacious your garden feels, says Alexandra:

““Choose plants that people can see through or round, for example, tall thin spires (such as a very narrow fastigiate yew), verbascum, alliums or foxgloves. Plants you can ‘see through’ include verbena bonariensis, many of the grasses, and thalictrum.”

Well-balanced planting is key, says Sarah Wilson: “Having a harmonious space where everything works together and has been placed with purpose can make the space seem calmer and more expansive.”

For Bo Cook, pared-back planting is essential: “Keep the planting simple. A single multi-stem or standard tree for height and balance, accompanied by groups of repetitive planting, will create a cohesive refined space.” 

Plant on the vertical

Geoff Stonebanks makes full use of vertical planting in his Driftwood Garden
Image: Geoff Stonebanks

When we talk about small gardens, we’re focusing mainly on the horizontal plane. But it’s important not to neglect all of the vertical space you have available, says Alexandra: “Your garden has space in the air – make the most of it. These vertical plants lead the eye upwards and distract from the boundaries.”

Belinda Macdonald also recommends planting on the vertical:

““If you love plants, make sure you use all the vertical surfaces in the garden for growing – walls, fences, sheds, consider adding an obelisk, arch or pergola – there are many wonderful climbing plants and some shrubs can be trained against vertical surfaces too.”

When it comes to the size of the plants you choose, Belinda feels you don’t need to restrict yourself to the smallest specimens: “Don’t be afraid of using large structures or plants in a small garden – it can help it to appear bigger.”

Alexandra agrees: “Add one or two eye-catching larger plants to create impact. And always have at least one tree, however small your garden is. It adds proportion to your garden and uses the vertical space as well as offering a home to wildlife and improving air quality.”

Create different zones

Make your small garden feel bigger by dividing it into different ‘rooms’
Image: Geoff Stonebanks

Carving out different rooms or spaces is another powerful technique to make your small garden look bigger, says Eugene Hill:

“
“The trick to designing a small space effectively is to divide it into different functional areas. There might not be a huge scope, but it’s about creating different spaces within the garden so the brain is looking more at compartments within the garden than the actual boundaries.”

Geoff Stonebanks used this technique in Driftwood Garden, creating no less than nine different ‘rooms’: “This solved 2 immediate problems. The garden had to be navigated by moving through each room, instantly giving the sensation of passing through a much bigger plot. Secondly, the various room boundaries helped create different micro-climates throughout the garden.”

Geoff used reclaimed objects to mark out each new room in his garden: “…grey, vintage French shutters pinned to the side of small raised beds almost create a doorway moving from one room to the next. This is achieved elsewhere in the garden with rusty old gates and railings too. The use of tall objects, to create height, works well.”

Choose the best

Invest in the best you can afford
Image: Ivonne Wierink

Finally, every inch counts in a small garden, so always pick the best of everything that your budget can accommodate: “Use the best quality hardscape materials you can afford as everything is on show in a small garden,” advises Belinda Macdonald.

For huge impact in a small space, Jack of Jack Wallington Garden Design recommends investing in quality furniture:

““It sounds silly but new, stylish furniture instantly makes people go wow if you choose something carefully, so it’s always worth splashing out on good furniture. Also, grow one annual en masse, such as Calendula or Cosmos, and spread it around in stylish pots. Having the same plant in lots of places adds colour, impact and structure that’s guaranteed to knock people’s socks off.”

Eugene Hill suggests that you should approach the design of your garden as if it were a room in your house: “Think about your outdoor space like a kitchen, something you’ll enjoy using every day – it’s an investment so why not invest the same sort of money in your small back garden as you would your small kitchen? Design it carefully to be something you want to be in and it’s money well spent!”

We’d like to thank all of the garden designers who shared their insider wisdom for this article. And we hope you’ve found some tips and techniques that will help you make the most of your own small garden.

Thompson & Morgan

The Thompson & Morgan horticultural team produces a wealth of content around gardening and food production. Since the first seed catalogue was published in 1855, Thompson & Morgan has grown to become one of the UK’s largest Mail Order Seed and Plant companies. Through the publication of our catalogues and the operation of our award-winning website, Thompson & Morgan is able to provide home gardeners with the very best quality products money can buy.

www.thompson-morgan.com

Get your kids digging in the dirt
Image: Oksana Kuzmina

Kids have a natural love of nature, but they’re easily lured back indoors by screen time. If you’d like to get your children out in the garden for fresh air, learning and fun, we’ve compiled some great tips courtesy of our favourite family and gardening bloggers. Here’s all the inspiration you need to encourage young people to embrace the outdoors, gardens, and gardening…

How to tempt kids outdoors

Entice children out with mud and dens
Image: Thomas Holt

1. Make garden activities age-appropriate 

Lauren of Inspire, Create, Educate says: “Start by asking yourself what child-friendly means for your child. When my three were younger it would have meant keeping tools out of the way and being relaxed enough to let them dig and muck about wherever they liked. Now they’re all in junior and high school, we plant things together and they’re shown how to use the garden tools safely and appropriately.”

2. Let kids get dirty 

Kate of The Ladybird’s Adventures says: “My kids love mud so it’s never been hard to get them involved in the garden.”  With that in mind, she’s created a mud kitchen for her children to play in: “They have a little play house that grown ups can’t fit inside and a mud kitchen that they adore. We use all sorts in the mud kitchen such as shells, petals, mud, conkers and of course water.”

Vicky of Earth Based Fun is another big fan of the power of mud to get kids outdoors and says a good way to get children interested in spending time outside is to get them building dens: “Children love to make dens – use willow, sticks, mud, just anything you can find to make a den that they will spend days playing in. Use clay to play in and keep it simple making mud pies. The smallest most simple of activities can create the most magic, and those are the things that they will always remember.”

3. Create space to play 

Space to play unhindered by rules turns your garden into whatever your kids imagine it to be. Kev at An English Homestead says: “Giving them an area to play and just do their own thing is just as essential. Mine have a few different areas and love creating different games between their Wendy house and swings. It’s great for me as well, while they’re outside having fun, I can keep an eye on them while I work on the garden.”

4. Create a wildlife pond

Lucy who writes Kids of the Wild says: “Whether in a bowl or several metres wide, it’s a brilliant ongoing project for all the family. We started with a bog garden in an old dog bed and now have a fantastic metre-deep pond teeming with wildlife and native fish! The children find it mesmerising.”

How to get kids interested in gardening

Encourage kids to grow from seed
Image: Mahony

1. Give kids their own patch 

One of the best ways to get kids to switch off their devices, pull on a pair of wellies and get out into the garden, is to give them a patch of their own. It’s important, says Lucy of Kids of the Wild, to let your children make decisions without your input: “In our last garden my daughter edged her patch with stones, planted daffodils, allowed celandines to grow and hung a sheep’s skull on her patch of fence! Whenever I was outside she’d potter over and weed or rearrange.”

This freedom has clearly encouraged Lucy’s daughter to make more sophisticated choices about her gardening: “In our current garden she’s made fairy paths in her special area – a bigger space than previously – using pottery we’ve dug up, she’s planted geraniums and fallen in love with dahlias! I’m not a dahlia fan but allowing her to have autonomy has allowed her to develop her own gardening loves.”

Are you short of outside space? Catherine creator of Growing Family says even a container can be enough to get a child interested in the garden: “Having a piece of earth to call their own really motivates them to look after it and stay interested.”

2. Ditch the toy tools 

Kev at An English Homestead writes: “Once they’ve over toddler size they know whether something is useful or not. My three children have proper “trenching” spades and shovels that are used by construction workers in deep and confined trenches. They can dig properly with these and actually feel useful. I think kids have a sixth sense when something is just “busy work” or real work, so give them proper jobs to make them feel helpful.”

3. Set an example 

The best way to get children interested in gardening, says Lauren at Inspire, Create, Educate, is to let them see you in the garden! She says: “Children take their cues from their parents – even babies will reach for your phone instead of the cute child-friendly toy phone. If you do all your gardening while they’re in school and they never see you doing it, they’ll never take an interest.”

Speaking of maintaining children’s interest, Catherine at Growing Family says: “Don’t expect kids to have a long attention span in the garden either; you can keep things interesting by giving them a series of little jobs, and letting them potter about at their own pace.”

4. Get kids growing

Kev at An English Homestead says the best way to get kids to engage with gardening is to let them grow from seed and harvest and eat the resulting crop – as he says “my three always think of their bellies and look forward to a tasty harvest.”

Catherine of Growing Family agrees. She says: “Growing plants from seed is my kids’ number one favourite gardening job. I can see why: it’s just such a magical process, and hugely rewarding when those little seedlings thrive.”

Don’t have your own garden? That’s not a problem says Sabina who writes Deep in Mummy Matters. She says: “My mother-in-law has an allotment where she grows fruit and vegetables. The children really enjoy going over to the allotment with her to help out, and of course to eat the fruits of their labour. If you don’t have space in your garden for a vegetable patch then speak to your council about an allotment as they are really cheap to rent and it’s a good family activity to do on evenings and weekends.”

And do let kids take charge, reminds Kev who allows his kids to harvest veg for tea: “They love coming back up with all the goodies and knowing that they had to decide what was ready and what wasn’t. It gives them a sense of responsibility and pride that they’re helping to feed the family.”

Karen at Pumpkins and Bunting has a great idea for combining growing and building dens. She says: “Children of all ages love dens and sweet treats, so try growing your own pea teepee! It’s a simple way to encourage children to get involved with gardening on the allotment and pick and eat fresh veg too. Make a simple tepee leaving a gap between two of the canes big enough for a child to crawl into, tie together at the top securely with twine.”

What’s best to sow and grow with kids?

Strawberries are the perfect crop for hanging baskets
Image: Strawberry ‘Just Add Cream’ from Thompson & Morgan

• • Easy-to-grow favourites:

“Radishes, lettuce, carrots and beans are all easy and quick to grow,” says Vicky at Earth Based Fun. “Edible flowers seem to always fascinate them. My daughter loves wild flowers. All you need is a bit of dirt and a small pot to watch them grow.”

• • Things they can pick and eat on the spot:

Kev at An English Homestead writes: “My children love running down the garden after school to find enough to snack on. They love all the berries but also go mad for cucamelons, cucumbers, tomatoes, New Zealand yam leaves and a weird favourite is electric daisies [they taste of citrus crossed with an electric shock] which they love tricking their friends with!”

• • Sunflowers:

“Sunflowers are one of the best things to grow with children because they’re fast-growing and fun to race,” says Lauren at Inspire, Create, Educate. She and her children also grow tomatoes during the summer and adds: “My youngest loves to grow colourful rainbow chard (as well as his very own apple tree), and we love to see nasturtiums too. The answer really is, grow whatever your children want to grow!”

• • Peas:

Over at An English Homestead, Kev’s kids adore peas. He writes: “I love growing tall heritage peas just so I know there will be some they can’t reach! I remember looking out the window a couple of years ago and between them they had harvested a bowl full of peas and raspberries and they sat sharing them out between each other, eating both at the same time!”

• • Strawberries:

Try growing strawberries in hanging baskets, says Claire at The Ladybird’s Adventures – it’s very simple and takes little space.

• • Create a container garden:

Create a bit of magic with acontainer fairy garden, suggests Karen at Pumpkins and Bunting. “Use a container with a wide surface area and fill with compost. Add small plants such as heather, succulents, cyclamen or house plants. Make or buy a fairy door and use gravel and small stones to create a winding path. Include small furniture from a doll’s house or make your own. Add solar or battery operated fairy lights for extra magic sparkle!”

With our bloggers’ tips, you now have plenty of strategies you can use to get your little ones hooked on gardening and the fascinating natural world that lies just outside the kitchen door.

Thompson & Morgan

The Thompson & Morgan horticultural team produces a wealth of content around gardening and food production. Since the first seed catalogue was published in 1855, Thompson & Morgan has grown to become one of the UK’s largest Mail Order Seed and Plant companies. Through the publication of our catalogues and the operation of our award-winning website, Thompson & Morgan is able to provide home gardeners with the very best quality products money can buy.

www.thompson-morgan.com