Make a small garden feel bigger with simple ideas

Use this guide if your garden feels cramped, boxed in or like a corridor, and you want ideas you can carry out over autumn and winter. Have a rough sketch of the garden, a tape measure and your phone for photos ready.

Step by step

1. See the garden as it really is

   Take photos from the back door and from an upstairs window, and sketch the outline with measurements, the house, doors and the sunny and shady spots through the day. Mark what you need the space to do, such as seating, drying washing, bins or a play area. Note what draws your eye first, which is often a fence, a shed or the neighbour's wall. Those eye-catchers are what the ideas below aim to soften or redirect.