Oh the beauty of the small garden! The garden that doesn’t send you to sleep worrying about what still needs to be done, a garden that is easily maintained and in which a luscious and inspiring show is all the more dramatic as its impact is seen at one glance.

This section is devoted to a series of garden designs aimed to give you ideas for the kind of garden you may require. There is a choice of garden for anyone ranging from the young mother, disabled person, nature lover, to high flyer – each with its own charm and characteristics. Whether you wish to economise or splash out there is a garden for you.

All these designs are for gardens of a limited size and that is the joy. I have both a large and a small and I would sing the praises of the small garden any time. A well-planned and planted garden such as these is not going to send you rushing in despair for a gin and tonic, as it should be easy to manage and be planted in such a way that it never gets out of hand.

If among these garden designs you see one for a south-facing garden and yours faces north, the design can easily be adapted. The shade-loving plants on the design can be put into your shady area and the seating area can be reversed so as to catch the sun in your garden. If you have a north wall and acid soil, you can enjoy the ‘no trouble’ azaleas and camellias which love that position, and so on.

You may not wish to remake a garden from scratch, but should some of the aspects of the garden designs be similar to your own (for instance, if your garden slopes up away from the house), you can incorporate the ideas for that garden into your own. If you have a cottage garden and you prefer the plan for the wildlife garden, you can adapt those ideas to fit your own space. A garden is part of you: text book gardens may be perfect on paper, but not nearly so interesting or personal if you do not feel strongly about them yourself.

Loving what you have is all important. So these designs are here to offer as little or as much as pleases you. The planting plan will offer some choices for making up planting schemes. Marry those ideas with your own and you should have the right combination.

Children’s Garden Designs

Town House Garden Designs

Front Garden Designs

Paved Garden Designs

Cottage Garden Designs

Wildlife Garden Ideas

Disabled Garden/Low Maintenance Garden Designs

Georgian Garden Designs

Garden Mistakes

Plant Association