If you've got a long and narrow garden you're not alone, these are pretty much the most common types of garden around. The good news is they can easily be transformed from uninviting corridors to beautiful oases by following just a few golden rules.
1. Get the shape of the lawn and paving right and it will look good in both winter and summer. Divide the space up to get rid of the corridor effect and to stop your eye from going straight to the end of the garden. So use circles, squares or rectangles for the lawns or paving in each area.
2. Give each space a purpose, so one area might be for the children, one for morning coffee, one for dining. Look at the sun and shade and think about which space would be best.
3. To create the spaces, a solid barrier isn't necessary – you don't want to cut off the garden completely and make it look smaller. The idea is to imply each space but allow views through. So the space can be defined just by what's on the ground: the paving or lawn shape. To make it more defined you can use sections of trellis or planting to form screens coming in from each side of the garden.
4. Accept that the end of the garden is less likely to get daily use. It would be nice to put a sitting area right at the end of the garden and use it every day, but the reality is that it's probably going to get a bit neglected. Work this into the garden and make the end of the garden as maintenance-free as possible, using evergreen shrubs and paving rather than flowers and lawn.
5. Work out the balance you want between shade and privacy. The more you block out your neighbours and the outside world, the more you will block out the light and sunlight too. Getting the balance right is crucial. Tall shrubs all round an area will bring seclusion but will also create permanent shade.
6. Don't have a single path going right down the garden. You will probably want a way to get right down to the bottom of the garden but if you put in a walkway, however pretty, it will dominate the view from the house. Think instead about creating the rooms and then connecting those rooms – so the shapes you notice are the lovely living spaces you've created, not the path down the garden.
7. Make the most of the different areas you've made by including hidden sitting areas. When you divide up the space you'll get some hidden-away corners, some peaceful secret areas – test out and find your favourite spot for a comfy seat or a hammock.
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Creating screens using planting is a key ingredient in successful narrow gardens. These can be used either across the garden to partially block off areas and create the rooms or at the boundaries to hide the fences or walls.
1. Hedging plants like yew and hornbeam are ideal to use in front of fences or as boundary plants. They take up little room and will give a strong green background with good height. If you want it to be green all year round go for yew or laurel but if you don't mind the boundary plants losing their leaves in winter try deciduous plants like hornbeam or beech.
2. To create the different areas within the garden use taller plants. If you are going for a formal design you may want to use the same boundary hedging plants planted across the garden. These will give a very strong barrier.
3. For a less structured, softer look use tall, lacy plants like Verbena bonariensis or Thalictrum delavayi. These get up to nearly six feet and form a gauzy curtain around a summer room (they die down in winter).
4. Tall grasses like Molinia caerulea subsp. arundinacea 'Windspiel' will create a stronger but still informal barrier between different areas.
5. For a more permanent evergreen wall of plants try bamboo but make sure you avoid the ones which will spread aggressively. A good one to try is black bamboo, Phyllostachys nigra.
Seasonal changes and affordable updates
1. In the confined space of a long thin garden, scented plants work very well. Use them to mark the changes in seasons. Daphnes for spring (try Waitrose Garden), honeysuckle for summer (try Amazon), and Christmas box (try Crocus) for winter.
2. Neatness pays dividends in these narrow spaces and putting edging around the flower beds really lifts the garden. Most DIY shops sell edging (try Wickes) and it needn't be expensive, it's the sort of job you can do yourself, in a weekend.
3. Don't forget the fences. In this shape of garden the fences will be quite dominant to the view. A really simple way to uplift them is to get some sections of trellis and put them up along the fence at regular intervals. It will immediately look better even before any plants have grown up.
4. Use an off-the-shelf water feature to create sounds. In long, thin gardens, the sounds from the neighbours can often be intrusive, but an inexpensive water feature will help to mask and soften the noise.
5. If you plant your garden for summer, try lighting your garden for winter. The least expensive way is to use outdoor, warm white, fairy lights. Use them as a source of light rather than a Christmas decoration, so run them down the flower beds, tack them under benches and bunch them into a corner to get them to shine more intensely.
Keeping the upkeep down
1. Make the lawn and paving into strong shapes. These will be much more forgiving of a little laxity in the gardening than looser forms.
2. Introducing shade will help with the maintenance. Shady areas will be easier to look after in the summer – they won't dry out as much and, with less sun, the plants will grow less quickly.
3. Use screens for the divisions in the garden rather than plants. Trellis, either rectangular or curved will be much easier to maintain than beds of planting.
4. Put flowers and perennials near to the house and use shrubs and trellis further away. It's easy to forget, in long thin gardens, about the areas just out of reach, so put high maintenance things where you will see them every day.
5. To lower the maintenance even further use low maintenance shrubs all the way through, even next to the house. But then use containers for flowers in highly visible areas. Even just two of these will really make an impact in a narrow garden.
Big mistakes to avoid
1. Putting in a single path is the biggest mistake in long thin gardens. It will dominate the view and emphasise the narrowness.
2. Laying a lawn all the way down the garden and then planting around the edge will not look good. The shape of the lawn emphasises the length of the garden and the beds at the side cut into the width even more.
3. Putting seats down the sides of the garden will make it look like a corridor waiting room at the doctors. The idea with seats is to sit in a lovely area; a seat plonked along side a fence will just look uncomfortable.
4. Using dark colours for the fences is often a mistake. Long thin gardens often have problems with shade and painting the fence in a dark colour will suck up light.
5. Spiky plants – in narrow gardens there is a lot of manoeuvring around plants and those with thorns or sharp edges will be a continuing annoyance. Better to use the situation and try scented plants like rosemary (£14.99, Thompson & Morgan) which will give off a beautiful aroma when brushed past.
A garden room has got to be one of the best investments outdoors, and long thin gardens tend to be the perfect shape for them. Put the garden room at the bottom and you won't miss the space but you create a reason to visit the end of the garden. At the top end of the market these outdoor rooms are a million miles away from a shed – insulated, with power, and just as warm and snug in winter as in summer, they can be used for work, a playroom or just as an escape. The House Beautiful Signature Collection by Crown Pavilions comprises five high quality, contemporary garden rooms (all of which are available with an optional integrated storage room) and, great news, planning permission is not usually required.
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