Design Ideas for Long Narrow Gardens

Here are a few tips to consider when designing a long, narrow garden.

The main challenge is to counteract the claustrophobic feeling that such spaces have, as though you're standing in a long, low corridor. All you can see are the boundaries, so you need to trick the eye into focusing on other areas of the garden.

1. Divide the garden into separate spaces. I designed a very narrow garden in Caversham (Berkshire) and put in three distinct areas, ending in a lovely sunny vegetable area with raised beds, composters, a shed and a greenhouse.

The divisions do not have to be hard, ie walls, although they can work well, but you’ll need a fairly large budget. You can use hedging, a pergola, trellis panels, posts, there are many options and the idea is to stop the eye and break up the space creating more interest and symmetry.

2. Use circular shapes which focus the eye into the centre of the garden away from the boundaries.

3. Use diagonal lines to draw the eye across the garden and give the impression of greater width. This also works in a wide, narrow space. I designed a garden in Maidenhead (Berkshire) where I used this technique to make the garden look and feel much deeper and larger than it actually is – have a look at the photos on my Website.

4. Create some height. Put in some trees and taller plants to create height as this helps minimise the closed in feeling. A pergola can help with this too.

5. Use an ‘S’ shaped path to snake through the garden. This also helps draw attention away from the boundaries, and gives a much more interesting journey. You can put in some taller plants or trees in the deep curves of the ‘S’ to create informal divisions and stop the eye.