Having a small garden can have many perks, including spending less time maintaining it! However, it can seem to pose restrictions on what you can or can’t do with it and perhaps your looking to make the most of your space.
Well, thankfully for you there are quite a few things you can do to bring your small garden to life and create a welcoming and more importantly functional alfresco space to your home.
Furthermore, investing in your outside space can often significantly increase the value of your home, which can only be a good thing!
Serving a Purpose
Like with any area of your home, each room serve a particular purpose – e.g. bedroom – sleeping, kitchen – cooking etc. Why should your outside space be any different?!
So, what purpose would you like your garden space to fulfil?
Perhaps you would like somewhere to socialise with friends and family or a space to relax and chill out in, if your into your fitness you, a practical outdoor gym might be your choice or maybe you’d like to enjoy nature and create a little wildlife haven.
Whatever purpose you decide on, make that your focus and create your space around it.
Focal Feature
Now you’ve chosen your garden’s purpose, to further help create the illusion of space and to make the most of what you have, it can be a great idea to choose a feature which focuses attention making its purpose clear from the outset.
Choose a feature that will offer you and whoever most uses the space, something to enjoy. Here are some ideas to get you thinking:
Socialising Area
For any area to be truly social you will need to invest in a seating area that is both comfortable and suitable for the available space. The seating hub will be your focal feature here.
You will need as flat a space as possible so choose a corner of your garden and select paving or decking if you’d like it to be elevated.
Decide on furniture pieces that will create your desired look and feel for example – outdoor sofas, a fire pit, chiminea or log burner and a suitable coffee style table.
Make the space as warm and inviting with your choice of accessories – subtle lighting., cushions, sound system, small colourful planters etc.
Relaxation Zone
For a nice space to relax, you will need something comfortable to chill out on or indeed in – a lounger, swing chairs or maybe even a hammock! However, for the absolute ultimate relaxation experience you may wish to consider a hot tub – there are a wide range of hot tubs to choose from that suit your individual requirements.
Whichever relaxation feature you choose, you will want to surround it in calming and peaceful colour schemes and accessories. Choose calming and fragrant planters or where appropriate, perhaps consider painting the backdrop (e.g. fence).
Use lighting to create ambiance and make this a truly serene space to revive and recharge.
Fitness Hub
A small garden can be the perfect much needed exercise space you need. Choose a feature – from assault course apparatus or a trampoline to a swim spa or exercise pool, whatever will be of most use to you.
Exercise pools can be a great choice for small gardens as you can benefit from swimming without the need for the space of a normal size pool. With swim spas you get the added bonus of a chill out space as well – win:win!
Now, simply add suitable décor to compliment your outdoor gym – think about adding a sound system, shelter such as an awning and use vibrant and energising colour schemes for any accessories such as exercise mats etc. You may also like to add bright outdoor lighting to ensure the space is functional at any time of day.
If you’ve chosen exercise apparatus, you could even add astroturf, bark chippings or sand.
Nature Haven
Your ideal focal point will obviously be something that attracts wildlife to it, so this may be a pond or perhaps even a tree.
Use plants, trees and shrubs which you know will attract wildlife – for example to bring bees into your garden choose plants with purple or blue flowers.
If you have a fence, to entice as much wildlife as possible you would ideally need to replace this with a hedge. This will enable birds to shelter and nest and enable foxes, hedgehogs etc to freely entre and exit.
Decorate your garden with wildlife houses such as nest boxes and log piles and ensure you have plenty of bird feeders.
You will of course need a small space to sit back and watch your new visitors. Pop a bench or small table and chair at the further point away from the feature so you can enjoy it without disturbing or deterring any wildlife that wishes to come!