I am always asked for ideas for breaking up the space of the ua shallow wide gardenas well as how to make it look longer.
Many houses today are built on small, individual lots. Gardens are getting smaller and are often shallow or have a strange wedge shape.
Garden designer Posy Gentles transformed this shallow, wide garden in Whitstable for her clients, Karen and Andrea. She moved the garden shed into this space, painting it and the fence almost black (anthracite) to ‘retreat’.
So I asked acclaimed garden designer Posy Gentles. She has just done a brilliant garden makeover in a shallow wide garden in Whitstable.
How to design a shallow wide garden
- Create a summary. List everything you want to do in the garden
- Decide on your own style
- Use trees, planting, sculpture, etc. in the center to ‘break’ the view of the back fence
- Divide the garden into thirds, crossing over
- Divide the garden into zones – for plants, eating, storage, etc
- Use paths, borders or planting to mark zones
- Keep materials simple in a smaller space – use harmonious pavers and bricks.
- Decide on a color scheme – use color to tie everything together
- Make a planting near the house
The lower left corner of Karen and Andrea’s garden is now a seating area. They can enjoy a drink in the setting sun, and planting in front of it makes it seem more distant.
Make a ‘short’ garden design
Whether you are designing a garden for someone else or creating one for yourself, the starting point is the same.
And it is the same for large or small gardens, for wide shallow gardens or long thin ones.
The first step is to make a list of everything you want to do in your garden and everything you want from your garden.
Do you want to eat out with friends and/or relax alone with a book? Do you want to sunbathe or prefer the shade? What about a playground, storage or privacy?
What would you like to see when you look at the garden from your house? And also when you are in the garden looking back?
Read how to design a garden if you are not a garden designer. Then create a summary for yourself.
Then think about what style of garden you want. Check out 12 garden styles for inspiration.
Karen and Andrea’s garden
Once you have your ‘brief’, you can start thinking about specific designs for wide and shallow spaces.
Posy’s clients, Karen and Andrea, had a wide, shallow garden behind their newly built house.
They had large glass doors half the width of the kitchen, so they can see the garden all year round.
When Posy first saw the garden, it had a large patio outside the back, which took up about half of the garden. Karen and Andrea wanted enough space to eat out with friends or enjoy a relaxing drink together. But having such a large wide terrace cut the space in half.
It also had a garden shed at one end of the terrace.
‘Before’ pictures of Karen and Andrea’s garden. The terrace is cut in half by the length of the garden and you can see right to the back fence.
This is now the view from Karen and Andrea’s kitchen towards the garden.
Planting in the center of a shallow wide garden breaks up the space and tricks the eye into thinking the garden is longer than it is.
The key to designing a wide, shallow garden
The design key to designing a shallow wide garden is to keep your eyes from immediately seeing the back fence. You need planting, trees or something else in the middle of the garden.
Your eye will see the trees first, then look through or past them to the back fence.
Because that process takes longer than looking at the back fence for a split second, your brain is tricked into thinking that a short, wide garden looks longer.
Fortunately, Karen and Andrea’s garden had two beautiful mature fruit trees in the center of the garden. ‘If they weren’t there, I’d have to plant them,’ says Posy.
Some people put a border with a planter or sculpture in the center.
Having two mature trees at the center of Karen and Andrea’s garden was a ‘gift’, Posy said. By painting the fence black and bringing the planting closer to the house, she nicely brought together the elements in the garden.
How to break up a shallow wide garden?
When Posy first saw Karen and Andrea’s garden, the garden was actually split in half. One half was a terrace where they could eat or relax. The other half was planting.
Posy decided to zone the garden into thirds – across the width. She reduced the size of the terrace by one paver,
Instead of having all the areas for eating and relaxing on one terrace, she created three separate groups of seats and tables in three of the four corners of the garden. She moved the shed to the fourth corner.
This creates a ‘journey’, which once again obscures the true size and shape of the garden. “You go down a path and around the bushes and then you find a sunny corner of the garden for an evening drink,” says Posy. ‘If you go the other way, you come to a shed and a warehouse.’
You can divide or zone the garden using paths, borders or hedges. Posy chose to use a brick path in a similar shade to the patio pavers.
She very cleverly followed this path from both sides of the garden and straight to the terrace. This visually connects the path and the terrace.
Posy divided the garden into thirds widthwise with 2 paths. The paths continue to the terrace, connecting it visually. Keep colors and materials harmonious – this prevents a small space from feeling cluttered. The dining room is on the left side of the terrace as you look at the house.
The relaxation area is on the right side of the terrace while looking at the house. Creating different areas and shading them with planting creates a ‘journey’.
Keep materials simple, especially in smaller gardens
For the paths, Posy chose brick that almost matched the slate pavers on the patio. She also cut a path to the terrace, to visually connect it.
Paint the fence dark to ‘retreat’
Posy had both the fence and the shed painted a dark color to ‘retreat’ them. The shed now visually almost disappears into the fence, instead of sticking out like before.
She chose the same color as the window frames on the house – anthracite, which is almost black. Again, if it’s a small space, think carefully about how the colors work together and how they complement the house. Keeping it simple makes it feel more spacious.
Planting near the house
When Posy first saw this garden, a border had been erected at the other end of the garden. However, Posy started the planting at the edge of the terrace. It is close to the house and also to various sitting areas. “You want to feel like you’re in a garden,” she says.
See more about this wide shallow garden in the video
You can get more previews of Andrea and Karen’s garden in this video.
More ideas for shallow garden design
If you have a very small wide garden, then Posy suggests dividing it into seating and planting areas. “Once again, this effectively divides the garden into thirds, with a border either side of the seating area, plus planting at the back. And include some larger plants.’
And check out another wide shallow garden created by gardener Jo Rutherford at Transform your Garden. Jo placed diagonal borders to break up the space.
Posy designed a smaller shallow wide garden (pictured above). The photo below shows Jo Rutherford’s diagonal borders in her garden.
Pin to remember extensive shallow garden design tips
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