Top tips for gardeners short on space
BY ALEX MCFADYENUPDATED:
As well as being one of the faces of BBC institution Gardeners’ World, Joe Swift has written numerous horticultural books, including Joe’s Urban Garden Handbook, and continues to work as a garden designer.
Next spring, he will accompany a Good Housekeeping trip to the beautiful Keukenhof Gardens in Holland, where seven million tulips, daffodils and hyacinths bloom into a kaleidoscopic display each year.
To inspire you with your own outdoor space, TV star and expert Joe has given us his 10 top tips for making the best of a small garden…
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1. Be bold
You’ve got to be very simple in your approach with a small garden – simple and bold. A few large plants in a small space is much more effective than lots of small ones.
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Whether you can get some exotics in there, some small trees in there, or large architectural plants with great foliage – they will have much more impact than just dotting a few little bits around.
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2. Make it versatile
Think of versatility of space – try not to divide it up into too many areas if it’s small. You want one or two versatile sections that can double up as seating areas, or can be somewhere where you can do your yoga or invite people round.
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Rather than limiting how you can use the space, think about how you’re going to use it first and design around that.
3. Don’t block out the sun
Privacy should dictate where you put things. A lot of people turn their garden into a mini-fortress because they want to block out everything. Strategically, if you go into your garden and say, ‘OK I want to sit here – I feel comfortable here, it’s a good space, I like catching the sun’, or ‘I like it in the shade’ – whatever the reason, think about how you’re going to create privacy from that spot.
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You might find it’ll just be one or two plants, or a bit of trellis, a bit of screening or a gazebo – whatever you want to just take out some overlooking views. Rather than putting trellis all round, which will create lots of shade in the garden and make it harder to grow a variety of plants.
4. Be confident
Try and think confidently as if you’re a garden designer, rather than ‘I’m an amateur I’m just having a little stab at this’, and actually you get more confident.
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I think people are a little bit too timid in their approach to their garden sometimes, which is understandable.
5. Plan it out
Plan ahead so that if you’re going to spend a few weekends out there you’re not just dealing with one corner one weekend and another corner another weekend, totally disconnected.
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If you’re going to put in a path or create a large planting area, whatever it might be, make sure there is some sort of overall direction to what you’re doing.
6. Use whatever space you have
If you’ve got a space use it. What frustrates me a little is that a lot of people in cities don’t have access to any private outdoor space, so if you have a garden, a balcony – or even a roof terrace or a bit of front garden – just try and get out there and use it.
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There’s a lot of people who don’t have any at all and it’s a privilege really.
7. Enjoy yourself
There’s a creativity to gardening – going out and doing your own thing. It’s one of those things where you totally get out of it what you put into it, and it’s great for de-stressing! People call it mindfulness – I call it mindlessness – but they pretty much amount to the same thing: it’s emptying your mind.
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A lot of people have really stressful jobs and lives, and what it can do to your wellbeing is great. If you’re prepared to get stuck in, buy a few plants and change your space you’ll be rewarded, you really will.
8. Look for inspiration
Look at magazines, look at books, and choose one theme, with really simple colour combinations. You can always make them more complicated in the future!
9. Avoid trends
Trends is something to be very wary of in gardens. There are general trends but a garden can take 10 or 20 years to mature, so if you go too trendy by the time it’s looking good it can be a bit passé.
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Think of it in a classic way as something you’ll be able to live with.
10. Stay positive
Everyone has failures – every gardener, even the best gardeners, will have stuff that doesn’t grow for some reason, or you’ll have to move it or take it out. That just goes with it. Expect a few little failures along the way but don’t let them set you back.
Book your place on Good Housekeeping’s eight-day tour of Amsterdam’s tulips, where you can hear more from Joe Swift about his gardening career and horticultural highlights.
