Planning, Building & Design Ideas For Your Small Garden.

The important elements in a garden.

This page will guide you step by step what needs to be considered from the first sketch up to planting process.

Consider measures that involve large -scale earth movement carefully and plan very carefully to avoid mistakes and unnecessary work.

  • Gardens on a slope don't need to be completely flat with high supporting walls. Only the sitting area, play area or pond require level surfaces. All other garden features are possible on a slope.

  • Artificial mounds on a flat surface can give you extra space.

  • Make good spatial dividers with tall plants, hedges, plants growing on free-standing climbing aids or fruit espaliers.

  • Erect a visual screen near the side of the garden that borders on a road to give privacy to a nook to sit in. Cover the sides with greenery so that there is still a view.

  • Don't obscured windows and doors along a house wall with plants in order to let light in and also to provide pleasant views.

  • Connect the garden elements visually with each other with generous views through plants.

  • Improve the mini -climate near a sitting area with bodies of water in the garden.

  • A general -purpose lawn is easier to look after whilst a grassy play area or ornamental lawns require intensive soil preparation and care. Don't put a flowering meadow beside a splendid shrubbery or summer flowerbed for it will spoil the attraction of each other.

  •  Blend items such as a bicycle or car parking area, dustbins, a composting station or a tool shed with the other garden elements.

Building elements

Consider paving slabs or natural stone for a sitting area near the house. Although cement paving slabs are cheaper it is worth choosing simple shapes and colours and combining two types of material.

Paths :

Choose one type of stone or slabs for all most frequented paths. Use gravel paths for the back of the garden. Allow the edges of the paths to get slightly overgrown with plants to make your garden look bigger.

Steps:

Use material that is not easily noticed and that blends well with the paths. Space your steps for the average adult footstep.

Walls:

Walls should not be too tall or larger than necessary and will look less bare if they have plants growing beside or over them and are used around a sitting area.

Fences:

Simple wooden battens without a visually limiting fence base are the best materials for low, semi -transparent boundaries. Equip the fence with a foundation strip along the ground if needed.

Pergola:

Needs a width of 50cm and wood is the best material to use.

Hedge:

A hedge planted along a small wall gives good protection against noise, dust and lack of privacy.

Ponds:

A remolded , ready to fit pond can be bought and just sunk into the ground. Alternatively create a miniature pond in a waterproof vessel on a patio or in the garden. With a slope it is possible to built a little stream and waterfall. Ponds that uses flexible liner must be built on even ground and will look good with a wide strip of plants around the edge. They will therefore need a lot of space.

Play area:

Depending on the area you can put up apparatus such as a swing. A sand tray made of wood does not need much room.

Terraces:

The entrance to the property, house and garden should be visually integrated if your garden is on a slope. Higher supporting walls and verges  will create clear divisions if you have a broad terrace on a slope. Create the most attractive distinct areas of garden with terraced steps. Setting aside less room for a sitting area next to the house  will mean more room will be available somewhere else for a lawn seat or sunbathing. Build severe

ral low drystone walls yourself instead of tall expensive walls. Create a more spacious and less conspicuous effect with a flowering meadow, a rockery, a shrubbery or a stand of woody perennials on terraced steps between the low walls. If not in a north-facing slope all fruit trees or vegetables planted in rows across the slope will thrive.