Written by: Resident Garden Designer, Lucy Willcox
Award-winning designer Lucy Willcox is Crocus’s Resident Garden Designer. Known for her contemporary and naturalistic planting style, Lucy is renowned for creating contemporary outdoor spaces that merge the house and garden into one livable space. Her work has been featured widely across magazines, television and the national press, and earlier this year she was named Garden Designer of the Year by Pro Landscaper.
Connecting the exterior to the interior
For me, a garden should never feel separate from the home. The two should feel intrinsically connected to the way you live. That philosophy has shaped so much of my work over the years, including my own south London renovation, where layered planting, natural materials and carefully framed views were all designed to blur the boundaries between house and garden. I’ve always been drawn to creating spaces that feel calm, immersive and deeply personal, and I work to achieve this by balancing a contemporary feel to my approach to garden design, with softer, more naturalistic planting.
No matter the size of the space, I believe a garden should feel atmospheric, restorative and alive throughout the seasons. And often, it’s the smaller gardens that can feel the most intimate and rewarding of all.
For me, successful small garden design is never about trying to fit everything in. It’s about creating a space that feels intentional and connected to the way you live.
Here are some of the principles I always return to when designing smaller outdoor spaces.
Start with a thorough site analysis
Before thinking about planting palettes, paving or furniture, the very first thing I do is spend time understanding the space itself.
A thorough site analysis is the foundation of every successful garden design, particularly in smaller gardens where every decision has a greater impact. I look carefully at how the light moves across the garden throughout the day, where shade falls, which areas feel exposed or sheltered, and how the space is viewed from inside the house.
It’s also important to understand the practical conditions of the site — soil type, drainage, existing trees, privacy, neighbouring buildings and how the garden is actually used day to day.
Good design should respond to the garden rather than fight against it. When you properly understand the site first, every later decision — from planting choices to layout and materials — becomes far more cohesive and successful.
Think in layers, not square footage
One of the easiest ways to make a garden feel smaller is to reveal everything at once.
Instead, I like to create a sense of depth and discovery through layered planting, softened sightlines and carefully positioned focal points. Even in compact gardens, this gives the impression that the space unfolds gradually.
Tall grasses, airy perennials and multi-stem trees are particularly useful because they add height and movement without feeling overpowering.
The goal is to create immersion — not simply decoration.
Use repetition to create rhythm and cohesion
Repetition is one of the simplest ways to give a garden a more considered, designer-led feel.
I often use the same plants in groups — typically in threes, fives or other odd numbers — to create rhythm and structure throughout a space. Repeating key varieties allows the eye to move naturally through the garden and gives planting much greater impact.
Rather than filling borders with too many different plants, I prefer to plant in drifts and repeat a more restrained palette across the space. It instantly creates a calmer, more cohesive feel.
It’s a simple principle, but one of the most effective ways to make a smaller garden feel intentional and beautifully balanced.
Create contrast through form and texture
To create a truly interesting planting scheme, one of the most important things to consider is contrast in form and texture.
This applies not only to your evergreen structure, but also to grasses, perennials and even flower seedheads. A successful planting scheme should feel layered and dynamic throughout the year, with different shapes and textures working together to create visual interest.
I often combine clipped evergreen forms with looser, softer planting to create balance and contrast. For example, a domed evergreen shrub with small or medium-sized leaves placed alongside larger-leafed plants immediately creates tension and variation within the border. Repeating those forms throughout the garden then helps unify the overall design.
In the perennial layer, flower shape is equally important. The upright spires of salvias contrasted with the flat flower heads of achilleas is a combination I return to often because the forms complement one another beautifully while adding movement and rhythm through the planting.
Flowers are wonderful, but they can also be fleeting. That’s why it’s so important to get the evergreen layer right first. Strong evergreen structure gives the garden presence and cohesion year-round, while perennials and grasses bring softness, seasonal colour and movement over the top.
When the structural layer works well, the garden still feels beautiful even when flowers have faded.
Choose plants that suit your conditions
One of the most important — and often overlooked — principles in gardening is choosing plants that genuinely suit the conditions you have.
Whether your garden is in full sun, dappled shade or somewhere in between, selecting plants that naturally thrive in those conditions will make all the difference to how the space looks and performs over time.
A healthy, thriving garden always feels more relaxed and beautiful than one where plants are struggling. Understanding light, soil and moisture levels should always be the starting point for any planting scheme.
Blur the line between indoors and outdoors
In smaller gardens especially, continuity is incredibly important.
When the materials, tones and textures inside the house flow naturally into the garden, the entire space feels larger and calmer. I often use restrained palettes, warm natural materials and light-toned paving to create that sense of cohesion.
Large-format paving can also help visually expand a space because there are fewer interruptions across the surface.
A garden should feel like an extension of the home rather than a separate area beyond it.
Design the garden for year-round viewing
For much of the year — particularly in the UK — we experience our gardens from indoors as much as we do outside.
That’s why I always think carefully about how the garden looks from inside the house. Creating strong evergreen structure first gives the garden a backbone that holds everything together through every season. Then, layered perennials can bring softness, movement and seasonal change throughout the year.
It’s this balance between structure and looseness that keeps a garden feeling alive, even on grey winter days.
A garden should still feel beautiful in January, not only at the height of summer.
Plant generously
People are often nervous about using too much planting in a small space, but sparse planting can actually make a garden feel more exposed and confined.
I always favour abundant, layered planting that softens boundaries and creates atmosphere. The key is editing the palette carefully and repeating plants throughout the space so everything feels cohesive.
Texture and movement are often more important than excessive colour. Evergreen structure, soft grasses and seasonal highlights help create interest year-round without overwhelming the garden.
A small garden should feel lush, not apologetic.
Rethink the lawn
Tiny lawns rarely add much value in compact gardens.
In many cases, replacing a small patch of grass with planting or a usable seating area immediately makes the space feel more luxurious and functional. Every part of a smaller garden should work hard and contribute to the overall atmosphere.
If you still want softness underfoot, gravel, creeping thyme or low groundcover planting can work beautifully as alternatives.
Make every element multifunctional
When space is limited, every feature should earn its place.
Built-in seating with hidden storage, raised beds that double as benches or planters that create privacy can all help maximise the functionality of a compact garden without making it feel cluttered.
Smaller gardens benefit enormously from careful editing. Often, restraint creates a far more sophisticated result than trying to include too many features.
Use lighting to create atmosphere
Lighting is one of the most transformative elements in a small garden because it extends the feeling of space well into the evening.
Rather than flooding the garden with bright light, I prefer softer, layered lighting that highlights planting and creates depth. Uplighting trees, illuminating textured walls or gently lighting pathways can completely change the mood of a garden after dark.
Good lighting makes a garden feel inviting and immersive at any time of day.
Make every element multifunctional
Large-format paving can also help visually expand a space because there are fewer interruptions across the surface.
A garden should feel like an extension of the home rather than a separate area beyond it.
Focus on how the space makes you feel
Ultimately, the best small gardens are emotional spaces.
They aren’t about size or trends — they’re about creating somewhere that feels calm, restorative and personal. Whether it’s a quiet morning coffee spot, a space for entertaining friends or simply a green escape from everyday life, the most successful gardens are the ones that genuinely support how you want to live outdoors.
A small garden doesn’t need to feel limited. With thoughtful design, it can feel intimate, beautiful and far bigger than its footprint suggests.
