Rachel Mathews - How to Design a Small Garden - Step-by-Step Landscaping Ideas, Pictures and Plans for Planning the Perfect Small Garden

How to Design a Small Garden - Step-by-Step Landscaping Ideas, Pictures and Plans for Planning the Perfect Small Garden

Courtyard garden at Casa Aire Guest House , Lecrin Valley, Granada, Spain

Author Rachel Mathews Successful Garden Design

Editor: Anna Obarzanowska

Before we get going, we need to get the usual legal bits out of the way first.

Disclaimer: Please note, the information contained within this document is for educational purposes only. Every attempt has been made to provide accurate, up-to-date, reliable, and complete information. No warranties of any kind are expressed or implied. Readers acknowledge that the author is not engaging in rendering professional advice.

By reading this document, the reader agrees that under no circumstances is the author responsible for any losses, direct or indirect, that are incurred as a result of use of the information contained within this document, accompanying videos, or other supplementary materials. This includes but is not limited to errors, omissions, or inaccuracies. The material contained in this document is not meant to be a substitute for formal training nor a replacement for professional training.

License Notes: This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If youre reading this book and did not purchase it, then please purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Copyright: Rachel Mathews Successful Design Ltd. 2012 Amazon Kindle Edition 2.0

So now thats out the way, lets get going with increasing your knowledge about how to design a small garden.

Download the Free Small Garden Design Cheat Sheet

To go along with this Kindle book, I've put together a 'cheat sheet' that summarises the steps to successfully designing a small garden. You can download it and print it off so you don't have to keep referring to the chapter summaries in book. Download it now, here: http://www.successfulgardendesign.com/amazon-small-garden/

Table of Contents

Introduction

You have a small garden - that's great, rejoice! Small gardens are wonderful, you can do so much more with them than most other garden types. I know that may sound like an outlandish thing to say but I assure you it's not.

If you're feeling a little sceptical on just how wonderful small gardens are, let me explain. Large gardens tend to visually need large areas of open empty space so that they don't look too cluttered. Intricate design details tend to get lost in large open areas. In a small garden though, you can often put in a lot more design details because everything is so close at hand.

Now, as much as I dislike the over-used term 'outside room', for small gardens it is appropriate. So rather than being daunted by designing a small garden, just view it as decorating another room. That subtle shift in mindset will help you tackle it more easily because room decorating is already something you're familiar with and can do.

By the way, for our American readers, when I say 'garden' I mean your whole backyard, not just the plant borders.

Can Any Garden Be Made Stunning, No Matter How Small it is?

In a word, yes. Size actually isn't as important a factor as you may think it is.

The most important part of any garden design, regardless of the size or shape of it, is how you arrange and utilise the space. We'll cover this in detail later but basically you need to create design shapes that link the entire garden together in a way that makes it look and feel larger and more interesting. In a small garden, this is even more critical to do.

In the rest of this book, I'm going to show you how to utilise every last square inch of space, including vertical space. We'll also look at how to create extra space with different levels as well as ways of using the right building materials to accentuate the space still further.

What Constitutes Small Exactly?

No two human beings have the exact same concept of what small is because everything is relative. A small garden to someone living in a rural area may seem massive to a city dweller with only a few square metres of roof terrace.

So, included in this book is a variety of different size and shape small gardens. If some of the example gardens are larger than your plot, you should still be able to adapt the ideas so to work with the size garden you have.

Chapter 1 - The Magic Ingredient to a Great Looking Garden

The mistake that most people make with their garden is to focus solely on the plants. The plants though, are the very last thing you should think about in your garden.

Yes, I know it goes against everything you know about gardens. In one sense, youre right - gardens ARE about plants. Garden design, however, isnt solely about the plants.

Successful garden design is all about how you utilise the shape and space in the garden. Obviously plants do come into it, but only at the end. Think of it this way, Plants are the icing on the cake, NOT the cake itself.

Why is shape so important?

I've touched on this briefly in the introduction: the concept of correctly using the space in your garden. Now, at this stage, that might just sound like an awful lot of 'designer babble' and, yes, it is, so let me now explain what on earth it is I'm talking about.

The way you view a garden is basically the route your eyes take as you look at it. If you try to take in the whole garden with one glance, chances are its going to be quite boring. Ideally, you want to be able to go from one point of interest to another and experience an interesting visual journey. I know that may sound hard to achieve in a really small garden but, don't worry, I'll show you exactly how to do it.

With the right use of the space and the shape, you can control how the garden functions and looks. You can create lots of interest, make the garden feel bigger, and create a sense movement from one point to another. With really tiny gardens, creating a sense of movement may not be possible but you can certainly make the space look larger and more interesting.

So now that you know just how vital a good design shape is, even in really small gardens, let's now get going with what to do with your garden.

Where to Start With Your Garden

The first thing you need to do is work out exactly what it is you want. If you're muttering under your breath, "A bigger garden!" that's fine; add it to your wish list. The point of the wish list is to find out what you really, really want. Whilst achieving everything may not be possible, you'll be surprised how much you can achieve with a few cunning design tricks that I'll show you later on in this book.

You might really want a half-acre plot where you can grow fruit and vegetables and have a secluded seating area for sipping your favourite beverage in. Your actual garden might be only a tenth of that size but that doesn't mean to say you can't achieve all of the things on your wish list, just on a much smaller scale.