Small garden design ideas and plants

Small garden design

Find here lots of small garden design ideas. This enclosed courtyard garden bursting with annuals, perennials and climbers shows you don’t have to sacrifice flower power to have a successful small space.

Small garden design

At Weavers House, Barrie and Maggie Thorpe have created a small but densely planted garden, which satisfies their dual needs of little work but maximum plant pleasure. When the couple moved to Weavers
more than 18 years ago, the 12sq m garden was completely grassed over, and the uninspiring view from the house was of a down-at-heel, corrugated iron garage, with a lean-to aviary attached to it.

For someone with Maggie’s gardening credentials - she worked at Bressinghams in Dorney near Windsor, owned and ran a garden tour company, and has lectured on gardening - this was destined to be a shortlived
outlook. The size and scale of the space, though, was perfect for this pair, as they were then newly retired. Barrie was adamant that he no longer wished to mow lawns, shape edges and cut hedges, but Maggie knew that she wanted to continue to grow bulbs, roses, clematis, shrubs, trees and herbaceous plants.

small garden design, small garden

Small garden design

The canvas was essentially bare, so it was simple to start from ground level. They also wanted to reduce the daily maintenance of their small garden. So they measured out four 2sq m beds, two raised beds and a number of smaller planting areas that fit snugly against walls. Then they put in place an underground
watering system, with snakes of black leaky hoses laid into the main beds. Next came the paving - millstone flags - linking beds and forming paths wide enough in places to be used as terracing. All of it was designed
to do away with edges and lawns.

The eyesore of the original garage with its corrugated iron walls and roof, and leanto aviary appendage, is transformed. Now its refaced creamy-white clapboard walls and terracotta-tiled roof are the backdrop
for a more attractive view from the house, particularly from the Gothic-style windows of the conservatory.

Small garden plants

Now climbers including Rosa Iceberg and Graham Thomas, and clematis such as ‘Duchess of Albany’ and
‘Markham’s Pink’ clothe a new trellis here all summer. Auriculas thrive in pots under the shelter of a smart verandah, and a birdcage on the table pays homage to the former inhabitants of this area, when it was an aviary. Also making a nod to the avian past is the statue of Papageno, the bird seller in Mozart’s The Magic Flute, which sits in a swathe of Rosa ‘Ballerina’ in one of the beds.

Maggie uses for her small garden design lavender rather than box to edge the beds, as it attracts bees. In a small garden, she feels, it’s essential to bring in wildlife such as bees and birds, as they offer extra dimensions of movement and sound, as well as visual delights.

Small garden plants: Rosa Pomponella; Rosa Graham Thomas

Small garden plants:long-flowering Alstroemeria ‘Red Beauty’ makes a great cut flower; large-bloomed Clematis ‘Jackmanii Superba’

Lavandula angustifolia ‘Hidcote’ is her lavender of choice because of its dense, deep colour and compact height. Its size and scale make it a perfect wrap-around to complement the plantings that rise and fall inside these beds throughout the seasons. Maggie trims the lavenders back twice a year and often has to replace individual plants due to wear and tear from herbaceous plants that lean on them.

Shrub roses such as Bonica are the mainstay of the beds, with herbaceous plants of all sorts adding to the display in their turn. Density of planting allows her to use layers of plants to provide shape, texture, colour and fragrance in the beds.

In her small but very well-appointed greenhouse, Maggie sows annuals such as colourful cosmos and corncockle (Agrostemma githago ‘Ocean Pearl’), which she uses to fill any spaces and provide a
floaty, willowy feel. Many seed companies offer small or low-growing versions of popular annuals, but Maggie feels that these just emphasise the smallness of a space. She prefers growing tall plants that offer colour and in many cases fragrance. Larkspurs and sweet peas are among her favourites. ‘I like to dot annuals about in the garden each year… it stops the space from looking solid and full. Delphiniums and verbascums look permanent, but with the addition of annuals the garden has an airy, light look.’

Small garden plants: wonderfully scented honeysuckle, Lonicera periclymenum ‘Belgica’; Eryngium giganteum pops out above pink roses; small star-shaped flowers in neon pink make Clematis ‘Princess of
Wales’ stand out.


As the small garden is so densely planted, it is important to feed the plants. Beyond the small garden gate, Maggie has space for three compost bins into which she delightedly adds grass clippings from her neighbours. She uses the compost as a mulch in winter, and whenever there are new plants to go into the ground.

In a small garden, everything is available to view at once, unless you are able to use plants to conceal. For Maggie, the pivotal plant in the garden is a holly, an Ilex aquifolium ‘Argentea Marginata Pendula’,
which is home to the garden’s resident robin. As it is evergreen and beautifully variegated, it provides colour and shape all year round. Hollies are slow-growing, and Maggie keeps this specimen under control by clipping it back in winter. Then she uses the cut foliage for indoor decorations at Christmas time.

She uses pots for additional growing space. In one, there’s a Cornus controversa, which Maggie admits isn’t ideal, but where space is restricted and some plants have to be had, this is the only solution. So Barrie’s wishes for a low-maintenance garden are fulfilled; and Maggie has skilfully planted so densely that her plot offers as much pleasure as a garden double its size.

Small English garden:

Weavers House, 37 Swan St, Boxford, Suffolk
CO10 5NZ. Open for Boxford Open Gardens
on Sun 2 June. Turn to pg 80 for Maggie and
Barrie’s advice on small cottage gardens.

PHOTOGRAPHS MARCUS HARPUR | WORDS BARBARA SEGALL

-->