Stick to your guns
Don’t become a fashion victim – be true to your convictions. Changing fashions in a garden is rather more costly than changing your wardrobe. So settle on a theme that you are happy with and stick to it. Decide what you want from the garden (for example, relaxation areas, vege patch, utility area) and plan the best position and size for each one given the space available.
Work towards the best indoor/outdoor flow practicable, sunny seating areas, a raised garden for a few veges, and a shady arbour or pergola for hot days. With the use of screening, a small garden can also accommodate a more intimate, hidden space where you can retreat for some quiet contemplation – excellent self-therapy.
Cut the clutter
Do this by reducing garden furniture and other embellishments to a few quality pieces. Rationalise planting schemes by selecting a few key plants appropriate to your chosen theme.
Plant these in groups of three or five (depending on the size of the garden and individual plants). Use the same hedging or edging plant throughout and select only two or three different types of feature tree (perhaps only one in a truly tiny garden).
Choose only one plant variety, to use as an accent plant. once these unifying links are positioned, spaces can be filled with more random planting to add all-important colour and textural contrasts. Seasonal variety can
be affected by changing out some potted plants to freshen the look (as you might change cushions on a couch), and adding a few of the latest plants now and then to keep up with the times.
Bye-bye lawn
Personally, I couldn’t be without my lawn – even though my garden is quite small. However, if you harldy use your lawn, it’s very small, or in a shaded area where grass struggles to grow, it makes sense to get rid of it. Check with your council regarding rules around site coverage.
Replace lawn with paving or decking to retain the open space and create a year-round useable surface; turn it into garden beds with mass-planted ground covers and pathways leading to seating areas; or create a feature such as a formal reflection pond, with stone chip paths and garden borders. If you wish to keep a small, open green space, consider planting a no-mow chamomile, dichondra or cotula lawn.
Getting rid of the lawn also means no more mowing on your Saturday mornings and no mower taking up space in the garden shed.
Looking up
Make the most of your vertical space. Introduce upstanding features, such as an obelisk, archway, tripod or sculpture to add instant height and aesthetics to a young garden. Plant tall narrow varieties, such as Berberis ‘Helmond Pillar’ and lancewoods, to provide height without width.
Train climbers up pergola and veranda posts to unite garden and hard landscaping. Frame the windows and doors with fragrant climbing plants and maximise wall space by espaliering plants against them. Trellis screening, covered in climbing or espaliered plants, is also useful to add instant height as well as
to block off unsightly views or create that intimate spot for quiet contemplation.
**It’s time to:**
Sow a green crop of lupins or mustard in fallow vege patches.
Reduce watering of houseplants and move them to a warmer spot.
Plant garlic and shallots in warmer areas.
Trim back clump-forming perennials to tidy and divide up old plants for replanting.
Lift dahlia tubers in the coldest areas and store in the shed for next season.
Space saving edibles
Small-garden owners don’t have to miss out on growing their own. Plant some veges and herbs in containers, raised beds or vertical wooden troughs, as sold in some garden centres. oany fruiting plants, including figs, olives, persimmons, pears and apples can be espaliered against a wall; or try growing grapes, passionfruit and cocktail kiwis over a pergola.
Dwarf fruit varieties, including Flying Dragon lemons, limes and mandarins, genetically dwarf nectarines, peaches and apricots, and Ballerina apples can all be grown in large containers. Blueberries, Chilean guavas and prickly gooseberries make fantastic hedges.
other fruit, including olives and feijoas, can be grown as topiaries. Lastly, look out for the latest apple varieties grafted onto dwarfing rootstock – ‘Ariane’, ‘Divine’ and ‘Lady in Red’ – perfect small, yet highly productive feature trees.
Related stories
Native ad body.
Native ad body.
Native ad body.
