Guest blog by Joel of Gardens Galore Scotland

Smaller gardens can be challenging to design; however plenty of people in tight-knit cities like London and Edinburgh need garden design to suit their limited terraced townhouse outdoor spaces, so it’s a real in-demand skill.

The reduced space does provide an opportunity to generate an intimate atmosphere, with the sense of enclosure not feeling oppressive but instead comforting and homely.

It’s important to be selective in planting for a small space – it’s not possible to have great beds of the same variety, instead it can be best to pick and choose your favourites and embrace the variety of the garden.

Foxglove - A classic country garden perennial

Classic country garden perennials are the go-to in a small British garden. Focus on selecting a range of plants that bloom or head at different times during the seasons and ensure you space them across the garden to provide an ever-evolving bloom that doesn’t ‘peak’ in one section or during a particular time of year.

Non-aggressive plants that ‘clump’ rather than spread should be preferred in a small space, as they won’t get out of control or swamp your other surrounding planting. Plant varieties with tall stems but large flower heads (like Agapanthus or Dahlia’s) can appear to stretch the space upwards and the leafless, naked stems provide space and light for grasses or a colourful range of additional planting beneath.

Hosta's are clump forming

Incorporate evergreen planting and even aromatic plants and herbs (like Sage or Rosemary) to make the garden come alive (heck, you can even use the herbs in your barbeques!).

Focal points are essential in a small garden, and these usually revolve around a sitting area. Outdoor fireplaces or wood-burning chimeneas draw the eye and also means a garden can be used late in to the evening when the temperatures fall. L-shaped seating will fit into confined spaces nicely, and sunken seating areas – with inexpensive gravel, decking or paving – work fantastically when surrounded with box hedging or raised planters.

Ideas like these were used brilliantly by Kate Gold, garden  designer and gold-medal winner at this year’s Chelsea Flower Show. She says “As long as the proportions are correct, I hope people will see that it is possible to achieve a lot in a small space”.

Written by Joel from Gardens Galore Landscape Gardeners: www.gardensgalorescotland.co.uk

A big congratulations from plantify.co.uk to Anoushka Feiler who has not only won Gold with her ‘Bridge Over Troubled Water’ garden but also been awarded ‘Best in Show’ at RHS Hampton Court Palace this week.

We are delighted for Anoushka and proud to have been able to help her along the way to her success.

For more pictures and info on her garden see here.

Plants supplied by plantify.co.uk to Anoushka:

Achillea ‘Pink Lady’
Astilbe ‘Bressingham Beauty’ 
Astrantia major
Sanguisorba tenufolia ‘Pink Elephant’
Gaura lindheimeri ‘Karalee White’

Anoushka Feiler is designing this years garden at RHS Hampton Court Palace for Astellas Pharma Ltd.

The ‘Bridge Over Troubled Water’ garden symbolises the contrast in life between suffering versus the relief at finding a solution.

The planting is designed to be a kind of feathery exuberance, expressing the joy of life.

The scheme has a lot of grasses, such as Deschampsia cespitosa ‘Pixie Fountain’, Pennisetum setaceum ‘Rubrum’ and Pennisetum orientale ‘Tall Tails’.  Bursts of colour and texture have been introduced with plants such as Astilbe ‘Bressingham Beauty’,  Astilbe ‘Bonn’, Sanguisorba officinalis ‘Arnhem’, Verbascum ‘Pink Domino’ and Achillea ‘Pink Lady’.

Some of these plants have been supplied to Anoushka by plantify.co.uk.

Read more about Anoushka’s garden…

Of the one hundred Lupinus mutablis being grown for the WorldVision garden at RHS Chelsea Flower show 2012, four are now with flower spikes, three in just the last 24 hours.

These Andean lupins are turning out to be big robust plants with half-inch thick stems. All those flowering are about 3ft tall. We have been struggling to get them to flower in the poly tunnel – just not enough heat and light this year. We moved a batch to a glass house, and have placed a second batch into a grow tent with 14 hours of light.

The flower spikes are all from plants in this warmer environment that were planted in small 1l pots in the warmer location. Perhaps the smaller pot stresses the plant forcing earlier flowering. We shall see.

Lets hope we can get them to full bloom in time for Chelsea. It will be great if we can see the beautiful purple/blue and yellow flowers, proof that a food crop can be beautiful in the garden too. Very exciting!

Grow your own Andean Lupin and help South American children grow. 50p of each seed package will be donated to World Vision UK to support the Bolivian Food Project.  Purchase your Lupinus mutablis seeds here.