A request came in via The Distinctive Gardener Facebook page, from a young professional couple who needed their decked ‘small but beautifully formed’ back garden revamped and revived – in 48 hours!

These young professionals had moved in a few months earlier, but with busy careers has not had time even look at the garden, let alone do any work on it. They had a day and evening of friends and family coming to see their new home and, with my help, their new garden too! I whizzed over, took a load of pictures and came up with a plan!

As you can see, the decking was in need of some serious attention and that dead Camellia tree just had to go! I soon had the tree out and set about working on the decking.

I treated the tired-out decking with two wash and rub downs with Wickes Decking Cleaner, followed by two coats of Wickes Decking Stain,

The existing planter box required only a new lick of paint and compost, with some clever drought-tolerant planting for easy maintenance. I finished it off with a fantastic Phoenix Palm to the corner and hey presto – a sophisticated city escape ready to welcome one and all!

To bring the whole concept together, I decided to reference the dark grey of the bi-fold doors by painting the raised beds in the same colour as the doors. I also painted the old pair of ladders in the same colour and added some small terracotta pots with drought tolerant flowering succulents to make the ladders a real feature and talking point.

The planting had to be very low maintenance, but also had to have colour as well as providing year round interest. To this end, I planted a standard olive tree, herbs and lavender into the raised bed nearest to the kitchen and used a gravel mulch. Not only does this look attractive, but it also helps keeps the moisture in and thus, reduces the need to water too often - choosing drought tolerant plants also helps of course.

The other raised bed did have some established evergreen shrubs in it, but there was a whole area underneath the shrubs that needed some attention. I decided to plant Salvia Amistad, with their vibrant purple flowers that flower well into November, together with the dramatic red Crocosmia Lucifer. I then under planted with some ornamental evergreen grasses.

For a modest outlay, my clients had achieved their objective of having a wonderful garden to relax and entertain in – in 48 hours!

If you have a small garden that needs a quick transformation, why not get in touch to see how I can help you?