▷ 5 tips to make a small plot look bigger

There are tricks to make a small plot seem bigger, at least visually. I interviewed a landscape architect Lina Puodžiūtė Ragauskienėwho shared 5 specific tips for creating an optical illusion:

Lina Puodžiūtė Ragauskienė is a landscape architect specializing in the design of small urban lots. He also holds courses “My garden project”for beginners. The purpose of the course is to create a new design for your plot. If you are thinking about changes in the plot, we invite you to register. Courses during the course you will learn about the design laws, the design process, we will help you avoid mistakes and finally you will create directly on your floor plan.

And today: some expert advice for creating optical illusions.

1. Plant tall trees

It may seem strange, but a small space will seem larger if there is at least one large tree inside it. When choosing a tree for a small plot, a landscape architect recommends paying attention to:

Sorbus aucuparia ‘Fastigiata’;
Small-leaved lime (Tilia cordata) ‘Greenspire’.

When they grow, the canopy of these trees will remain above your head: it will create shade, provide privacy, but will not burden the yard space.

What not to do: Do not overcrowd a small plot with bushes with low, wide canopies. Dogwoods, brambles, jasmine, hydrangeas: if they do not form, the foliage can be very large. Such bushes take up a lot of space and do not give the feeling of space.

Therefore, for a very small plot, it is better to choose plants with a higher canopy and space underneath.

2. Divide the plot into zones

The landscape architect says: if you stand on the terrace and see the entire plot, you should rethink the design of the courtyard.

A 1 hectare plot offers 100 m2 of possibilities.

It’s like an outdoor apartment where you can create different rooms. Think about what you do most often in the garden and create different spaces accordingly:

Rest area (terrace);
Cooking space (outdoor kitchen);
Children’s play corner;
A small raised bed or vegetable garden;
Etc.

The children's play area is clearly distinct from the rest of the grounds. Prog. Photo

The areas must be clearly separated: you can do this by using different plants, for example low hedges, potted flowers.

The courtyard, divided into zones, will look more mysterious and interesting in terms of design: it will invite you to take a walk and explore. When you can’t cover the entire plot at a glance, it will seem bigger because it will be difficult to understand how big it is overall.

3. How to enlarge a small plot: tricks for shaping the lawn

The shape of the lawn can radically change the appearance of the garden. The landscape architect talks about it in more depth in our courses “My garden project”. During these, you can try different shapes on your plot plan and see which one would work best.

However, if you have to choose here and now, Lina recommends the shape of a circle or part of it for a small plot. This geometric shape is suitable for many small courtyards, because it is difficult for the eye to understand where the plot begins and ends. It looks visually clean, but the perimeter is not easily predictable.

4. Dark colored background

Another optical trick is to use a dark background. The dark color creates the effect of depth, it is not clear where it ends.

Imagine pink flowering plants with light leaves growing against a black wall: visually the dark part seems much further away than it actually is.

There are also several ways to create a dark background, it can be:

The dark wall of the house;
Dark painted fence or part of it;
Plants in dark shades, if you don’t want to paint anything. For example, evergreen yews could create such a dramatically rich background effect.

When the terrain is small, all distances are short, the space thus created becomes optically longer. It seems like it ends somewhere further down the line.

5. Consider hardcover options

If you are still planning to install the texture, you can also use this trick.

Often there is not enough space for a wide path in a small plot, so it is necessary to install a narrower path than desired. In this case you can play by choosing tiles.

For example, if your track width is 80cm and your chosen tile width is 40cm, a two-tile track may appear narrower than it actually is.

It would be a completely different picture if we could fit 10 songs into a track like that. Pavers 8 cm wide – visually such a track will seem wider.

<em>Smaller paving stones can visually widen the path. photo Pixabay.com</em>

These are just a few of the many tricks for enlarging a small lot without tearing down fences. Thanks Lina for the advice.

RELATED COURSES:

“My garden project” — these are courses intended for those who own land of several to a dozen acres. In them we will help you understand the most important principles of modern design and apply them to your specific plot. We are not talking about specific plants, but about the design of the entire plot. During the course participants make sketches directly on their drawings: very practical!