Designing a tiny garden

A Beautiful Courtyard Garden

Designing a tiny garden

This project was also home to a wonderful secret, which was a small inner courtyard that was accessed from the kitchen and the family room of the house. It measured just 2 metres by 2.9 metres and it originally had two sets of doors that opened into the garden.

As I have mentioned, we faced an access issue with this property, so while the client wanted another water feature in the inner courtyard, we had to think about the best way to do this.

In the end, we had a lead cistern brought into the courtyard in pieces and assembled and welded together on-site, which removed the issue of having to crane it in. The lead cistern was 900 mm in length by 450 mm in depth with a height of 800 mm. Behind the lead cistern we put in mirrored panels and trellis to create vertical interest and create a shimmering reflective effect with the water.

Despite the space being so small, we also managed to fit in a two-seater ironwork bench with a small round coffee table. And with our metalworker, we also created some ironwork sconces which held pots and continued the vertical interest up the walls.

We then added lanterns on either side of the window, which completed the ironwork theme inside the space.

For the floor, we used reclaimed yorkstone once again, but this time we put it in bands of paving and used white cement and white sand to reflect the limestone pointing on the house.

This is a great example of what can be created in a tiny space and how planting and design can come together to create something unique and beautiful.