Making the most of a small garden

When I lived at home I never really thought about the layout/style of our garden or anything like that but since moving into our own place my husband and I have have done a lot of work on our house and our garden. Whether you rent or own your own place with a garden you can do a few bits to to change it. If you don’t own it then check with your landlord before you do anything too drastic though!

When we first moved in to our house the priority was the house itself as we weren’t really too sure what to do with the garden. We have quite a small back garden so all we did was get rid of a few plants and trees we didn’t like.

4 years on we are now trying to plan exactly how we want it and have been looking online for inspiration.

Something easy that can make your garden look bigger is if you have a larger patio to grass ratio then flip this round to suit your needs. We wanted more grass than patio and by removing some slabs and getting a few rolls of turf we managed to get nearly twice as much grass area as we had before.

Some other suggestions:

• If you have a seating area, put this in a corner so the garden doesn’t feel crowded
• If you don’t want flowerbeds you can create a graveled area for pot plants. This is ideal if you don’t want to spend too much time on the upkeep.
• If you have a garage, do you really need a shed too? A shed can take up valuable room and most of us don’t need one.
• Climbing plants are a great way to introduce greenery/colour to your garden.
• If you have any walls/fences or a garage then paint it white and it can create the illusion of extra space and light. It also provides a contrast with the plants and flowers.

If you have children then the following may be a good idea:

• Give them there own plant to look after.
• Make a bug box by collecting any creatures you can find.
• Create a fairy garden at the base of a large tree.

Grasslands have created an online campaign giving people ideas to make their small gardens family friendly and if you have any ideas you can contact them on social media using the hashtag: #familyfriendlygarden

Sarah x