1.       Omitting trees from your design - trees add several benefits to small gardens, they help to draw the eye up adding a sense of height to the space, they provide privacy for garden activities, shade for seating and play, they offer refuge and food for wildlife and can add beautiful and dramatic structure and seasonal colour changes. For small gardens trees need to be well considered to ensure the right tree is in the right place for your location and garden character. 

2.       Not review your planting palette - a simple garden design trick is to repeat planting, giving your garden a sense of unity, reviewing your planting palette allows you to choose your preferred colour selection and this helps with species selection and seasonal colour choices. The aim is for your space to feel welcoming, full and explorative without feeling cluttered and uncomfortable.

3.       Ignoring your boundaries and fences - clearly visible and bare fences and boundaries can make your garden feel much smaller, because it highlights your boundaries and the space that you are closed in by. Several creative design elements can help improve this, by adding a sculpture and climbers to break up the horizontal length of your boundary, painting it a darker colour and stagger planting in front of the boundary, use feature trees to break up the monotonous height or adding in mirrors and follies to trick the eye.  

4.       Not experimenting with shapes - playing with the angles or curves can help to make the space feel larger, introducing a meandering footpath, a hidden seating area immersed in planting or a lawn which not fully visually open to the eye, these can create the illusion that there is more to explore than meets the eye. This is quite dependent on the space available and the lines of the house and architecture, but don’t be scared to experiment.

Thanks for reading, any questions, we would love to hear from you!