If you’ve got a spatially challenged outdoor space you might think you’re limited for what you can achieve. However, there are a tonne of wonderful and creative small garden ideas to transform even the tiniest plot.
Petite spaces may require a little more thought than larger gardens, but they come with plenty of welcome advantages. For a start, it forces you to be a little more inventive, which can often result in serious style and beauty. The other big plus is that due to their size, more often than not they’re delightfully low-maintenance.
So it’s time to get creative and start exploring what you could create with whatever space you have available.
Small garden ideas
Whether you’re looking to create an impressive balcony garden, squeeze garden furniture into a courtyard or fill a plot with greenery, you’ll find lots of small garden ideas to inspire you.
1. Think vertically
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Save precious outdoor square footage – be it lawn or patio – by taking what you can off the ground. If you have a wall or strong fence available, this is the ideal spot to affix a slim shelving unit. Alternatively, DIT it by exploring garden ideas with pallets.
You can use these levels to display potted plants, keep smaller garden accessories, and to double up as somewhere to set your drink or hold your hat.
2. Make the most of a patio
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Patios and decks are just begging to be brightened up. Revive a dreary outdoor space by whitewashing brickwork and refreshing weathered wood. Create a cheery festival vibe by adding a stack of cushions and rigs in folksy florals and sunny brights.
Not only will these patio ideas bring joy, but the pops of colour against a white backdrop will give the space an illusion of being bigger than it is in reality. Choose slightly small benches and rugs than normal to heighten this effect.
3. Create a layered look
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Layers don’t just add the illusion of depth when in your hair – they can go a long way in gardens, too. Combine both raised beds and ground levels beds to add height and create a layered look to your planting, implying the presence of much more foliage than there actually is.
Additionally, slightly raising a path or walkway will make the ground level planting seem taller, too. It’s really beneficial to work out how to plan a small garden in advance of starting.
4. Take the indoors out
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Make a small garden feel bigger by making it feel like a continuation of your indoor space with outdoor living room ideas. Making the most of the space makes it more valuable, no matter how small. Dress your small garden space with a furniture set and add decorative outdoor fairy light ideas to ensure it’s a space you want to spend more time.
‘Do not let attention to detail go amiss, the same principles apply externally as they do an interior project,’ says Emmie Brookman, Creative Director of Silver Mushroom. ‘Your outdoor space should be an extension of your home, so make it comfortable and accessorise the same way you would indoors. Introduce cushions, throws, candles and bowls, after all you can always take them back inside if the weather turns.’
Similarly, a plethora of potted plants adds foliage, but as pots are moveable you get a sense of freedom to change things around from time to time.
5. Create a mini herb garden
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Herb gardens don’t have to only exist on your windowsills or in a large dedicated vegetable patch. Upcycle a side or coffee table to create a homemade and bijou planting area, perfect for herbs.
As well as saving you space beneath for extra planting or storage, by having the plants higher, you’ll sae your back a lot of strain that you might get from bending over veg beds.
6. Hang your plants
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Hooks go a long way in space saving in interiors, and they work just as well for small garden ideas. On a fence or exterior of your home, attach a few hooks and use this to hang smaller plants until they’re big enough to plant out or move into larger containers on the ground.
Plus, if you’re ever off to a party and realise you’re missing a hostess gift, grab one of these and voila, problem solved!
7. Choose slimline options
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Slot in a slimline plant stand in smaller outdoor spaces. Cover bare areas of fence or brickwork with plants and trailing greenery and then look vertically for extra planting. Add a ladder stand to add height to displays – it’s one of the easiest budget garden ideas and easy to move if you fancy a change.
8. Add a gallery wall
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In the same way you would hang pictures indoors, create a display of frames and wall hung planters on an outside wall, fence or shed. Utilise junk shop finds by hanging old wooden frames and up-cycle old loaf tins as planters. Just drill holes in the base for drainage and in the side for hooking onto the wall.
Hang above a pretty garden bench, as you would a sofa indoors and finish off with some cushions and a throw.
9. Create a mini outdoor kitchen
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Extend your kitchen capacity into the garden. Potting tables can provide a slim, compact surface along one side of a patio for outside food prep, choosing units with galvanised or zinc topped surfaces will make wipe-down easier and protects wooden surfaces from weather damage, too.
Hang a bamboo pole above your units from cup hooks screwed into the wall or fence and use S-hooks to hang kitchen utensils along its length.
10. Double your space
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When working out how to make a small garden look bigger, one foolproof idea is to use garden mirrors. Create your own using an old gate or some painted trellis mounted onto a piece of mirrored board.
This is not only an inexpensive alternative to an outdoor mirror it also prevents any danger through mirror breakage. Set a table close by so that you can enjoy a view of the garden wherever you are seated.
Top tip: using a grid style mirror means that birds are less likely to fly into it.
11. Create a kids corner
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Sacrifice a raised bed to create a section of deck with a giant blackboard and covered sandpit for some sunny-day play. Try using old railway sleepers to create a barrier for sand and soil.
Finish by fixing a peg rail to the underside of the sandpit lid for hanging toys and tools.
12. Set up a private bar
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Look to outdoor bar ideas to create your own little entertaining zone with a clever pull-down bar made from a couple of pallets and a length of chain. Cut the top section from the pallet to use as the flip down section and attach using two strong hinges and lengths of chain.
Adding an outdoor herb planter to the top section will keep them within easy reach for drinks and barbecues.
13. Hang furniture to free up floorspace
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When working with small indoor spaces, designers will explain the importance of elevating furniture off the floor to create the illusion of more floor space. Wall-mounted bathroom units are a prime example of where this applies.
Use the same design idea in a small garden by choosing a hanging chair. A nook of a garden is all you need for a reading corner, the perfect place to get away from it all. This hanging bamboo chair keeps the floor and sightline clear giving a feeling of space in even the smallest of spaces.
Highlight the area with clusters of pots that contain foliage at varying heights and scales and mix up shop bought planters with vintage buckets or troughs. Mix materials like zinc, rattan and terracotta, to give your garden an effortless layered up look.
14. Make a small space work harder
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Divide your garden into zones to gain the illusion of extra space. With individual purposes, the space will feel larger because of the multifunctional uses and outdoor ‘rooms’.
Depending on available space, and what you like to do, there’s a multitude of zones you could create. Think an entertaining space, reading nook, outdoor kitchen ideas, play area, vegetable plot… the garden’s your oyster!
15. Enliven the space with colour
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As with interior decorating, think of how using colour can help invigorate an outdoor space. Use small garden ideas to add depth to the space with using garden paint ideas to paint the walls in a vibrant shade.
A flash of bold colour allows the plants to really pop against the colourful backdrop – creating an illusion of a sense of space. Not to mention the mood-boosting power a splash of colour can have on the senses.
16. Create a sense of height through planting
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A clever and simple idea for planting a small garden is to play with the heights to add a feeling of space and depth. Use clusters of different pots that contain foliage at varying heights and scales to make the most of the space.
An ideal solution for small patios, courtyards and balcony gardens.
17. Add new levels
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Add interest with small garden ideas by adding perspective with different levels. A classic way to do this is to have a raised or sunken terrace, and the lawn at another height.
The ledges and steps will help open up how you can use the space, adding in extra spots for plant pots to be arranged or areas to add furniture to accommodate guests.
You can also cheat this look with the clever use of raised beds.
18. Give fences double duty
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Take inspiration from the elements of a living wall, by using vertical wall space for thoughtful planting. This allows even the smallest of garden spaces to flourish, making the most of the space, and is particularly useful if you are looking for decorative grassless garden ideas.
The simple yet savvy addition of horizontal fence panels can turn the side of the shed into a decorative living wall. This could also work on a stretch of bare fence or wall when planning your front garden ideas, or on the side of a balcony. Any of these small outdoor spaces can be transformed into a vertical garden, accommodating smaller plant pots and baskets.
19. Zone with different flooring
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Look down for some new small garden ideas. Choosing different mediums for the flooring across zones suggests changes in space without having to physically divide the space with borders or planting.
20. Camouflage your walls
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In a small garden it’s beneficial to camouflage the walls as much as possible. Painting any exposed walls in a green exterior paint helps to blend in and further the sense of the surrounding greenery.
Add a decorative garden mirror on top to bounce around images of surrounding foliage to add to the illusion.
21. Get creative with shelves and hooks
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Shelves and hooks aren’t just for indoors. Create extra precious surface area for pots and pretty accessories by putting up some shelves. Ideally they should be mounted into brick, as your garden fence might not be able to take the weight.
Reclaimed scaffolding boards are an inexpensive solution, supported by wrought iron brackets that you can pick up for a few pounds from your nearest DIY store. The wall-mounted shelves will clear up your floor space from lanterns and plant pots. A recycled peg rail can also become the perfect place to hang outdoor lighting.
22. Go halves
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Don’t let limited space stop you from enjoying alfresco dining. Invest in a compact dining solution like half-sized tables or bistro sets. The small dining set can then sit neatly against a wall, serving the purpose without encroaching on the limited space
23. Zone your layout with an outdoor rug
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Put down a decorative outdoor rug to direct the eye. It’s one of the easiest small garden ideas to achieve, and works by drawing the gaze to one defined area. The space around it won’t be as obvious upon first look, giving the illusion of more space.
24. Use paint to trick the eye
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Draw the eye up with a cleverly painted backdrop, creating the illusion of extra height and space. A simple two-tone block colour treatment can jazz up any expanse of garden fencing.
Using a dark colour helps to make more of a statement with the effect, it also compliments green foliage beautifully.
25. Have extra seating to hand
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Grab extra seats for when needed. Invest in a few oversized floor cushions for when you have guests over. Floor cushions are less imposing than alternative garden seating solutions. Plus they are easy to pile one on top of the other when not in use, ideal for easy storage.
Pattered or brightly coloured cushions will also help to inject personality into the space.
26. Make the most of space with a multifunctional shed
Image credit: Future PLC/Joanna Henderson
Make a shed work harder in your small space by making it multifunctional. Use the shed to house garden furniture in the winter, then open out into a bar for garden parties and alfresco sundowners in the summer months. Cheers to that idea!
27. Elevate plants to new levels
Image credit: Future PLC/Colin Poole
Make the most of your small space by taking things to different levels with vertical shelving. This planting solution creates extra space to showcase potted plants and garden accessories. No matter how small your space, you can guarantee you’ll be using it as efficiently as possible.
28. Use every corner of a courtyard
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If your small garden space is a courtyard think about how you can use every inch of space to full potential. Often a courtyard area has the potential to feel very enclosed, simply by the nature of looming brick walls surrounding it.
Using clever corner seating will not only use the space most effectively, the high-back sofa design can help to hide a large portion of said imposing walls. This in turn will distract from the walls and create the illusion of space.
29. Squeeze in a mini greenhouse
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Even the most modest outdoor space can include greenhouse ideas for growing plants. You can find half sized greenhouses, mini versions, as well as low-level options which can run along the wall of your home or garden fence.
30. Fix planters under the kitchen window
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Window boxes are a classic way to add planting to small spaces, but go one stage further by doubling up. Simply buy or build two simple troughs on top of one another.
It’s a great place to grow herbs, especially if placed underneath a kitchen window. Just open the glass and reach out to grab what you need.
31. Introduce low walls that double as seating
Image credit: Amy Cutmore
You might only have room for a chair or two, so what happens when friends come over? By adding raised beds surrounded by walls, not only will your plants be easier to look after, you’ll also create extra places for people to perch.
Add some cushions for comfort in complementary colours to your plants.
32. Paint walls white
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White paint is often used to make the most of a small space because of its brightening and lightening properties, and small garden ideas can benefit from this trick, too. With white painted brickwork and white garden furniture, you can create a beautifully summery scheme that has serious style.
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33. Plant a garden in pots to surround the seating
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You don’t need a lawn to create a lush garden – and flower beds aren’t necessary either. A low-maintenance ‘flooring’ option such as gravel is great for small gardens. Add lots of pots, filled with everything from the tiniest flowering plants to tall and bushy trees.
Finish off with some garden furniture and you’ll have the perfect spot to enjoy a summer’s day.
34. Trail plants up a fence
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Make use of a fence to add colour and greenery. Climbing plants and trellises are a great solution for small gardens, as they lift flowers and foliage up off the ground.
A pretty fence will do a lot to detract attention from a teeny plot – after all, if you or your visitors are focusing on beautiful roses or a hot-pink trellis, who’s going to notice a garden’s dimensions?
35. Brighten with colourful furniture
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Even the tiniest terrace can be transformed into something exceptional. If your garden is short on square footage, a planted terrace can be a good solution, combining elegance with low maintenance. Simple paving such as travertine or traditional stone creates a sleek or rustic look, while clever planting will soften and provide privacy.
Just add comfortable seating to create an ideal outside room. Plus, if your WiFi should reaches to your terrace, you’ve got a ready made summer WFH spot.
36. Plan a multitasking garden
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If space is tight, make sure that what you have is working hard for you. A well-planned garden could have a raised flower bed, garden wall and garden seat all rolled into one.
Think about including greenery to provide shade, privacy and interest up high, while the wall would offer a handy ledge for lanterns, plus practical built-in seating. Cushions bring the comfort of indoor living outside and add a lovely hit of colour.
37. Mix your media
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Make a small space attractive and ensure a crisp contemporary look with strong landscaped lines. Create interesting interlocking zones with distinctive materials, such as woodstained decking ideas, pale patio slabs and decorative stones or chippings.
Finally, plant up to let lush foliage burst through, filling the space with structural greenery for a controlled finish that’s easy to maintain.
38. Focus on furniture
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Place objects of interest at the end of your garden and create the illusion that your space is bigger than it is. Choose white garden furniture and position it towards the back of a paved area.
Play hide and seek by strategically planting large shrubs to partially obstruct the view; your mind will think there is more beyond to see. Add interest with plants at all heights and in all areas – with climbers and ramblers, evergreen shrubs, sculptural grasses and ground cover, all enlivened by colour-heavy cottage-garden favourites such as foxglove and delphinium.
39. Aim high
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Turn a small courtyard into a lush habitat with a tactile and towering living wall. Plant up a natural focal point for a super contemporary way to add interest while keeping much-needed floor space clear for patio slabs and super-sociable seating. Balance the domineering wall with a trio of large pots with small fruit trees and bedding plants.
Living, or green, walls, once the domain of designer installations and pioneering commercial sites, are increasingly making their way into residential gardens. When it comes to how to make a living plant wall, foliage is rooted into a structure that is attached to a wall.
A range of herbaceous perennials, grasses, small shrubs, herbs and even fruit and vegetables can be used to create these vertical small garden ideas. Try including scented plants, seasonal flowers and bulbs, but talk to your local garden nursery about plants that will suit the aspect and microclimate of the wall on which they will be grown.
40. Make room for little ones
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Come up with an ingenious small space that will appeal to both the design conscious and the fun conscious. Build a playhouse that blends seamlessly with the garden perimeter – here, contemporary linear fencing.
Finish off the camouflage effect with a sedum roof so the little house blends perfectly into its environment. Store brightly coloured furniture inside this elevated version of garden shed ideas so it’s easy to take out for play time and return again when not in use.
41. Build a cool cabana
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Include garden shade ideas in your small garden with a homemade sun lounger – a few square feet, budget materials and your imagination are all you need. It’s a fine summer garden idea you’ll thank us for when the heatwave finally hits.
Take two branches, two pallets, and a fabric offcut and assemble them to create a bohemian lounger for two. Make it comfortable and inviting with a bolster in funky geometric fabric. If your garden is dominated by the overhang of a tree, angle the fabric so that it can also act as a canopy, protecting the area below.
42. Choose easily stored seating
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Choosing outdoor furniture that folds or stacks when not in use is a great way to save on precious space in a small garden. Mix and match your colours for a bright looking garden scheme.
43. Opt for a neutral scheme
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Just like indoors, opting for neutral walls and flooring can make a small garden feel lighter and brighter. Even if you have a small plot with not much natural greenery, you can create the look of a colourful garden with flower-filled pots and planters.
Plus, you can swap these in and out to create different looks for different events.
44. Carve out extra space
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When considering small garden ideas, one of the most important things is to work out how to make the most of every inch of available space. If you’re working with two levels, see if you can carve out an overhang and create a shaded area.
A lovely place to curl up with a book, or stay cosy in the evenings with a firepit without taking up any lawn square footage.
45. Pretty up with soft furnishings
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Small garden ideas require careful planning if you’re going to make to most of a cosy corner. A garden bench is a practical and stylish way to make an impact – if you don’t mind relinquishing some precious floor space – and will be perfect for lounging should the sun make an appearance this summer!
Choose a streamlined modern design and give it a colourful makeover with exotic cushions.
How do you make a small garden look pretty?
Living green walls are ultra-fashionable and can be used to hide unsightly boundaries and add lush foliage even in a garden where space is limited.
A funky fireplace makes for a quirky focal point in the garden and allows you to enjoy summer evenings even longer (or even gives you a place to store your wood). Ask your garden designer to incorporate a built-in fireplace into their plan, or head to Amazon for a good selection of freestanding fire pits, from £30.
Bright colours will also make a small garden really sing. Naturally, you can do this with planting, but there are other ways – such choosing a brightly coloured bistro set, or even by painting your fences or shed in a vivid pink or blue.
How do you lay out a small garden?
If your want to change your small garden layout, start by looking at the existing space. ‘Look at what plants are thriving and think about where the sun falls,’ advises Katrina Wells of Earth Designs.
‘If you like having the gang round for dinner, for example, you’ll probably want to position your dining table and chairs where it’s sunny. If it’s a lunchtime gathering, you’ll need some shade too. Also is there any dead space? Or a shed keeping your garden in the shade for half the day?’
Next, consider its upkeep. ‘Think really carefully about how much time you are willing to dedicate to maintaining the space,’ says London-based garden designer Charlotte Rowe. ‘If you’re time poor, more hard landscaping and sturdier plants will require much less attention than a lawn and beds with complex planting.’
Paving and gravel courtyards are still popular, while concrete is right on trend.
What are the best plants for small gardens?
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‘Start by working out the type of soil, the soil pH and the conditions in the garden, then buy the best plants for those surroundings,’ says Sally Tierney of Yorkshire Garden Designer.
‘Include evergreens for year-round interest, use shrubs and trees for structure and height, and soft grasses and herbaceous perennials to add pops of colour and soften the architectural elements.
‘Plant a mix of bulbs that will flower in winter, spring and autumn in easy-to-arrange pots to add drama – they’re also low-maintenance and look great in the high-traffic areas such as around the patio or a favourite bench.’
Climbing plants are great for small gardens – clematis are easy to grow, while honeysuckle and jasmine will fill your garden with fragrance.
You could also plant fruit trees and fill raised beds with veg. Is there anything more rewarding than harvesting your own fresh crop of lettuce or strawberries?
Potatoes, beans and onions are also fairly simple to grow successfully – and you don’t need acres of space to cultivate them. It’s possible to grow enough to eat five a day from just 10 sq m of raised beds.
How much does it cost to landscape a small garden?
You can plan your own garden, but a trained designer will help you not only with your plant selection, but also know how best to maximise your space. Some will also do the landscaping (or work in tandem with a landscaper) to complete the job.
Garden landscaping costs depend on the size of your garden, the complexity of the design and how much experience the designer has. An initial consultation might cost £450. A typical urban garden can cost anything from £6,000, including the design and build.