In this video I show you how to transform a tiny garden space into a stunning corner garden. Using just three planters and a select few plants, even a 1.5 metre by 1.5 metre area can become a flower filled, fragrant seating area.
Its the smallest garden makeover I’ve ever attempted but no matter how tiny your garden is, it can be beautiful!
ALAN IS USING:
Rectangular planter set from Forest Garden – https://rb.gy/589kg6
Plants from Blue Diamond Garden Centres – https://rb.gy/0ehb4p
Tub and Basket Compost from Melcourt – https://rb.gy/f57db8
Hose from Gardena – https://rb.gy/ud9afv
Trowel and Fork from Spear and Jackson – https://rb.gy/6wl4lh
Here are the plants I’ve chosen for each planter:-
Planter 1 (90cm x 50cm)
– Euonymus ‘Extravaganza’
– Gaura ‘Whirling Butterflies’
– Salvia ‘Cool Violet’
– Achillea ‘Sassy Summer Lemon’
– French Lavender
– Euphorbia ‘Ascot Rainbow’
– Nepeta ‘Junior Walker’
Planter 2 (81cm c 41cm)
– Verbena bonariensis ‘Lollipop’
– Euonymus ‘Green Spire’
– Dianthus
– Geranium ‘Blushing Turtle’
– Ivy
Planter (72 cm x 32 cm)
– Allium ‘Millennium’
– Coreopsis ‘Curry Up’
– Ivy
– Purple Sage
ALAN’S GARDENING BOOKS:
https://www.penguin.co.uk/search-results?tab=books&q=Alan+Titchmarsh&x9=author&q9=Alan+Titchmarsh&categoryLabel=PW-200000
My name’s Alan Titchmarsh, and I’m absolutely delighted to welcome you to my YouTube channel! I’ve been a gardener for over 60 years and I can safely say that gardening is one of life’s greatest joys, and I can’t wait to share it with you.
Whether you have green fingers or just starting out with your very first window box, join me in my garden for practical tips, step-by-step guides, and plenty of friendly advice to help you make the most of your garden — large or small.
So pop the kettle on, pull up a chair (or a trowel!), and join me each week as we celebrate the wonderful world of gardening together.
Subscribe now and let’s get growing! 🌱
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I’m going to prove to you that it’s possible to create a garden from scratch in a space just one and a half meters by one and a half meters. Wish me luck. [Music] So, this is my space on a fairly plain bit of patio. One and a half meters is about there to there and there to there. So I can create in this corner. A much more exciting place to be. I’m using three wooden planters of different sizes and slightly different heights. I’ve painted them a sort of soft sage green to complement the planting scheme. I’ve lined each one to protect them and I’m arranging them in a corner pattern and I’m filling each one with multi-purpose Petefree tub and basket compost. [Music] This compost is great because it’s designed for tubs and containers, which means it’s got that little bit more food in to sustain them right the way through the year. When you’re filling them up with compost like this, don’t fill them too full to start with. Remember, the root balls that go in from the plants you’re going to put in will take up space. That’s why I’ve left sort of couple of inches gap at the top. So, what I need to do now is to work out what I’m going to plant where to give myself this kind of wrapound miniature garden. I have a little phrase I use for planting design. It’s called the agony and the ecstasy. Hopefully the emphasis on the latter. I like to place them before I plant and place the other containers too because I can get an idea of how it’s going to look and then it’s so much easier to adjust it. As well as creating a pleasing color scheme, I’m also looking at structure. I find for me if I arrange things in pleasing slopes, ups and downs, but quite gradual, that’s what I like. I’m starting with my biggest plants here at the back and coming down slightly lower as we go to the sides to make something that’ll cradle my chair. [Music] So, starting with the largest container and the largest plants. This is about 500 mm by 900 mm this plant. Just under a square meter. And if I take out the ones there, I can start with the largest. Always a good idea start with the biggest plant and work down in order of size and scale because then your main structure is in place. And this eonymous here in this corner is just a green very good substitute for box. So making sure it’s straight. They don’t always come straight in their pots, so feel free to straighten them up at planting time. Just bear in mind that all plantings in containers like this are temporary. By that I don’t mean a couple of weeks. I mean a year or so. Then they might start outgrowing each other and out competing one another. Then you can just adjust it. Never be frightened of moving plants. They quite enjoy a holiday every now and again. This next one is ga with these lovely butterfly flowers. In fact, this one’s called whirling butterflies. It’s starting to take the eye downwards. You can say, “Oh, it’s a little bit taller than this, but it’s thinner, so it doesn’t look as robust.” And the contrast of this sturdy cone of evergreen foliage from the euanimous with the feathery light butterfly flowers of Gara. I quite like the play there and the fact that these blow about in the breeze and this stays static. One group of plants that’s really useful in the summer garden are the shrubby salvas. They come in lots of different colors, blues and reds and pinks and whites. This is cool violet. And I love the contrast of the color with a white of the gower. So they’re wonderfully aromatic, too. If you crush the leaves, really powerful sage scent. And that’s what the salvas are. They’re sages. [Music] Next comes this a lovely contrasting flower shape. This is the flathead of Achilia. This is a variety called sassy summer lemon. You see why I don’t know all these names. They change them every year, but it it is lovely. Not too tall. With all these plants, I’ve watered them all thoroughly before I’m planting. get them really soggy before you plant and then you can water them again afterwards. If you plant them dry, there’s a chance that the root ball might stay dry and that would never do because my chair is going really close to this. I want plants that have fragrance as well. So, we’ve got the sage and then at the front bit of lavender. This is a lovely variegated euphoria called ascot rainbow. And the yellow variegation on the leaf will pick up the yellow of the achilia. And finally in the corner, a catmint. Another plant with an aroma. Now if you plant cat mint, you probably plant walk as low. And then you’ll think to yourself, it’s not actually that low, is it? It’s still quite tall. Um, this is Junior Walker, which is even lower. So, that’s a perfect plant for a trough. So, there’s my first one done. Seems to me to be very good start. For the second container, I’m picking up on the color of the salvia with this lower growing form of verbina bonariansis, which is called lollipop. [Music] The lovely thing about this plant, apart from its intrinsic beauty, is that bees and butterflies love it. And they’ll pop in while you’re sitting here with your morning coffee or your cup of tea or your evening glass, and they’ll really enjoy the nectar that this plant produces in abundance. And in the middle, a rounded form, a sphere of that eonymous there, which is called green spire. The great thing about these yonymouses is that they’re evergreen. So come the winter when a lot of the others die down, you can replace the other plants and leave these as the sort of skeleton structure in your garden and plant it up with spring flowering bulbs, winter flowering pansies. So there’s a versatility in this kind of container gardening. And sticking with the fragrance, a glorious dianths here, a little pink. I’m tucking two of these down the side of this eonymous along with a couple of ivy’s creeping down the side. And finally on the front here, a lovely hardage geranium. Sprawling purple flowers on this one. Pale purple, which will complement the others. And I’m just going to stick that right down the front here so it’ll spill over the edge and soften the hard lines of this container. I’m quite pleased with the way this is coming together now. This kind of complimentary colors coming all the way through but contrasting textures and flower shapes. It’s very interesting noticing things. And when something is as small as this and as intense as this, it makes you look closely and it makes you really appreciate and enjoy the structure, the fragrance and the color of plants. one planted a go. The tall part of my triangle in this final trough is an aliium, an ornamental onion. This one’s called millennium. In front of it, a coropsis with flowers of pale yellow and mahogany. Bit of ivy trailing down the front. And at the front, two sages, the purple led sage, salvula fishalis papuria, which really does pick up the color of those sage green containers. Our first garden when we got married was 15 ft by 40. I thought that was tiny, but this just goes to show in a meter and a half that you can make a garden in any space available if you choose the right plants and arrange them well. [Music] So now you can see how it all works together. The combinations of colors, the contrasts of textures and forms, and I think quite a sweet little garden in a meter and a half. [Music] [Music] You know, however long you’ve been gardening, and I’ve been gardening quite a long time. Every time you set out on a little project like this, however small, there’s always the can I make this work? Will this be the one that really doesn’t look quite right? And then when you get to the end of it, you think, do you know, I’m really rather chuffed with that? Because it works and it’s pleasing. And when I sit down among it with me cup of coffee, it makes me feel good. And that’s what garden should do. You’re doing good for wildlife and for nature, but you’re also doing good for yourself. And that counts for a lot for me. Cheers. [Music] So, these are the plants I’ve used in a small space. What would you use? Let me know. Just comment below. Gardening is my passion and I want to share it with you. So, subscribe now and let’s get gardening together.
27 Comments
Love every one of your choices ❤
Very good Mr Tich I like your information about plants flowers thanks
Thankyou Alan , lovely mini garden.
Absolutely a pleasure to watch. Beautiful plants chosen well by the master of gardening. Thank you Alan you always make it so easy to watch.😊
Looks great. Is it ok to stick the plants in straight out of the pots? I always try to tease the roots out, but it would save some time if I didn’t need to do it
Thank you Alan. I’m going to try this on my small patio.
Alan youre the best and happy gardener. Not arrogant or judgemental. Id love a cup of tea and garden advice from you. So i get your books instead lol 😂❤love to you and your wife and thank you for all thd years of fab gardening joy you have given me. Xx
At the moment, my small patio is crammed with dahlias, wonderful names such as 'Floorinoor'; 'Totally Tangerine'; 'Hootenanny Swan Island'; 'Maxime'; 'Creme de Cognac' and the wonderfully wacky 'Honka Black'. They'll be replaced in the spring with tulips, this year I'm going for quite impactful colours: 'Abu Hassan'; the orange 'Ballerina'; dark purple 'Ronaldo'; another purple/raspberry red 'Lasting Love'. Then as a contrast, the pink 'Mystic Van Eijk' surrounded by muscari, 'Armeniacum Blue Spike'. This summer I've also grown a large pot with a couple of courgettes which were a bit of a failure – only got 3 courgettes from them despite all the feeding and watering, and 3 pots of 'Sungold' toms – a success!
Thank you again, Alan for another inspirational video, and a peaceful pleasure to watch and take the mind off all the troubles in the world. Best wishes to you and all fellow gardeners/commentors.
Are Shrubby Salvias actually edible then? 🤔
They look lovely….very pretty.💚
Curious why you don't loosen the roots of the plants before planting. Was taught to always do that.
I'm surprised how many you put in. I thought I needed to give them more space. Going to rethink!
I love the planters and the arrangements, beautiful. When you line the planters, do you poke drainage holes in the liners?
What a thing of Beauty Alan… Great stuff!
My husband built me two raised planters. I've added 3 small varieties of hosta in 1, including Tea at Betty's as my tea-loving sister in law is Betty! And I've added Sunrise Fiona Jasmine at the rear as my daughter is Fiona. The other larger trough contains mostly hostas, with one small evergreen that looks like a miniature Christmas tree. I think, as per your advice, I'd love some early spring bulbs, snowdrops would be perfect.
Putting lots of plants together in a planter , do plants not get the nutrients from the soil an als do they not mind having much room for roots ?
Your videos are giving me so much inspiration for my garden, thank you so much Alan!
Would have thought those plants were too squashed…. but not anymore Thanks Alan
Excellent Alan.
Wonderful! Real gardening from an expert. So many idea to follow up on thank you!
Those look great. Love the variety of plants with bits of ivy in each.
I love how this looks. What bulbs could you suggest to extend the seasons in the planters?
Angelonina, Larkspur and miniature roses.
What great inspiration! ❤❤❤
Loving this channel!! I'm a very novice in the garden, how do I know which plants can be planted together? Thank you 🙂
good
I always place my plants in the hole and then water them before filling in. Love your video. I have an old patio running across the back of my bungalow. It has an old conservatory base on it and we have tried to improve the look of it, but it still looks awful. Thank you for your ideas. It has certainly kick started my brain into thinking of different ways of improving it.