The Borrowed Landscape

The challenges of small or city gardens, take quite some thought to maximise the space.

One of the best ways to make the most of your space, is to use whats not in it... Confused?

A principle called the 'borrowed landscape' is one of the small gardens best friends. What are the views, plants, trees around your property, that you can use to improve your garden?

One of the simplest ways is to take something, a tree for instance, and repeat some aspect of it (whether foliage, colour, texture or shape) in your garden. This creates the illusion that your garden is bigger than it actually is.
A common example of this would be the infinity or negative edge pool which is gaining popularity at the moment. This takes the views of the ocean, and blends it into your garden (in this case your pool) and instantaneously makes the garden seem bigger.

It is also sometimes helpful to use your next door neighbours tree for views or shade, rather than planting your own tree that might take up too much space in a small garden. The negative side to this is that if your neighbour decides to remove your shady canopy, theres not much you can do about it.