What To Do With A Small Garden

Try to create yearlong interest. Small gardens are often viewed from the main entertaining rooms such as kitchens, or they frame entrance ways. It is therefore important for gardens to contain plants that thrive and look good all year. Plants that provide texture such as Irish Green (Carex morrowii Irish Green) and Taxus baccata domes are fantastic for adding structure and colour to schemes even in winter. 

Avoid the mistake of putting plants in a line or not considering which plants complement each other. It is important to use height and texture. Garden designers use plants of varying heights and sizes to create interest in flower beds. Golden Dew provides tall soft texture and Christmas roses bring low ground covering with pretty white flowers in the winter. An iris or foxglove provide pops of colour at height.

Think about how you will use your outside space. Will you want to be doing lots of entertaining? At Soto we have several herb kitchens which can form the base of an impressive kitchen garden, even in a small space. Make the herbs a feature by displaying in pots together on a stand.

Think about where you place each plant. How you arrange plants within a border makes a significant difference when creating beautiful spaces. Before you start planting, place plants in their pots on the soil to make sure you have the right design. It is important to have instant impact but also to allow plants space to grow.

Accept that a small space doesn’t have to be boring. Show gardens are judged on numerous factors such as atmosphere, planting choices and ambition. To give your garden a little wow factor, consider how you can achieve some of these things with beautiful scent, texture and colour palette.

Work with the space you have, not the one you aspire to have. People often choose a plant because they’ve seen it on Instagram and not understood what works together, the aspect of the plant or the maintenance level. Some tried-and-tested plants which have worked well within my show gardens include dwarf mountain pines that are almost indestructible and require little pruning. They provide interest throughout the year and have a lovely texture in a sunny spot. Topiary domes such as Ilex crenata and Taxus baccata provide yearlong interest and structure. With their deep green leaves, they are great for small spaces as they have simple impact when planted in a pot. The Astrantia Shaggy is extremely popular in bringing showstopping interest to a scheme – this long flowering bloom really packs a punch. For those wanting something soft, hydrangeas bring yearlong interest, structure and frothy blooms.

Take the time to know what soil you have. It will save you both time and money because this knowledge enables you to select plants which will thrive in your garden.

Get the basics right at the start to maximise your investment. Ensuring your plant choices can tolerate the soil in your garden, creating enough drainage, and watering correctly all sound simple, but they form the foundation of a healthy and thriving outside space that will bring the wow factor to your home. A lot of people forget to add grit to improve drainage and feed the soil to improve the nutrients level.

Don't stop at watering the plants. To ensure longevity of your plants, improve drainage and soil structure with grit and mulch when planting. We would always encourage our customers to add mulch to pots a few times a year; not only does this help with moisture retention, nutrients and suppressing weeds, it looks smart too. Containers and pots can dry out much quicker than plants within the ground – so you will need to water a little more frequently during the hotter months. Watering correctly when planting can make all the difference to how robust your plants are.

Plan for ongoing care – even for plants that aren’t always in flower. A lot of plants get cut back in the winter, ready for new growth in the spring. Lower-maintenance plants are not only appealing, they are often the plants that are the most resilient.



Know the amount of maintenance you would like to do. Would you prefer a glass of rosé or a trowel in your hand on a sunny weekend afternoon? If you’d rather be relaxing, shrubs and especially evergreens offer low-maintenance impact. Pines are architectural, popular and relatively low maintenance. If you are looking for low-input garden borders with high impact, consider evergreen shrubs such as green carpet (Pachysandra terminalis), sweet box (Sarcococca hookeriana Winter Gem) or an Ilex dome (Ilex crenata).