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Stay with one central design concept in a very small space. There is not room to have a rose garden and a potager and a Mediterranean garden in space that is a mere six by four metres!
A simple theme is best and this is why clean, modern designs work so well courtyards. A rosy bower looks somewhat 'twee' but a sharp clean design, with lovely foliage planting and flowers for added interest will catch the eye and be so much more satisfying over the long haul- and through the seasons as well. |
Bold colours make a dramatic courtyard | |
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A rosy bower looks somewhat 'twee' |
Modern designs work well with big, chunky raised planters. The sides of the planters can be left natural or be painted or plastered in a bright or subtle colour to enhance your theme. Planting boxes lift the plants to eye level where you can really appreciate them and, from a cultural aspect, lift them up to the light, provides great drainage and good soil.
If your courtyard is totally paved or the 'soil' is more like rubble, scoria or rock then raised planting boxes will enable you to grow a far wider range of plants. Big box seats blending with the planters provide additional seating and storage - you have to be inventive, creative if you are going to house the paraphernalia of gardening in a courtyard.
Similarly pots, big dramatic pots and not fiddly little ones, make gardening possible in the smallest courtyard. Rearranging them will give variety and allow you to display the star performer of the moment. | | |
Climatic conditions in a courtyard are more extreme than in the garden. Hot climates are even hotter in a courtyard as walls reflect light and trap heat; cool and shady spaces seem even shadier and cooler. So choose carefully as a straggling, half-dead plant is going to be glaringly obvious in a small space. If a plant doesn't thrive be ruthless as it can spoil your entire scheme, much more than in a larger garden. In a courtyard, every plant must earn its keep.
Choose plants that have more than one season of interest. A small maple will enchant with new foliage in spring, provide leafy foliage in summer, dramatic autumn colour and a wonderful outline of bare branches in winter. A rugosa rose will give flowers, foliage interest, hips and autumn colour; clivias have wonderful glossy foliage and flowers to boot -so do vireyas; citrus have year round colour and a lemon for the G&T. There are masses of options available to you. You can 'layer' plants, for example using a plant that has flowered as a host for another, say a late summer clematis that will clamber through and provide a second flowering, or plant a dramatic hosta to cover dying spring bulb foliage.
 Don't forget that without a large plant your design will lack scale. Small gardens don't need lots of small plants. On the contrary, a more satisfying planting scheme will have one or two larger plants and these will pull the scheme, and the smaller plants, together.
Trees are important in a small garden as they give much needed scale. Do consider planting a deciduous tree, for they admit more light in winter when you dearly need it.
Japanese maples (Acer palmatum) and the silk tree (Albizia julbrissin), above, are both good candidates. Palms or bamboo (the latter well contained, of course!) are great as they use up little space, and lend a tropical air to your scheme. Select carefully as some palms can become quite large and some 'running' bamboos are invasive. Our native cabbage tree (Cordyline australis) is a good courtyard plant and the fallen leaves are brilliant for starting a reluctant barbecue!
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