Garden Design App
How it worksStylesGalleryPricingFAQ
Before and after · narrow garden · full sun

Narrow garden ideas: a bare lawn redesigned as a cottage garden

A narrow lawn gone to straw, with nearly all its colour crowded onto the deck. From one photo, it was redesigned as a cottage garden: a bending brick and stone path between deep borders of roses, delphiniums and lupins, with a seat beside the shed where the path ends.

Transform My Garden like this First 3 designs free · no card · UK plantsOr start a design from scratch
After: the same plot with a brick and stone path curving to the shed between deep borders of roses, delphiniums, lupins, foxgloves and peonies, with terracotta urns at the top of the path
Before: the owner’s photo. After: the design drawn from it.
How it works

One photo of your garden, redrawn with a finished design

Shown with another design from the gallery. This English cottage garden works the same way.

  1. A deep prairie border in a walled garden: purple salvia, orange geum, foxgloves, echinacea and lime green alchemilla spilling over a brick edge onto a lawn.The ideal design

    The garden you want

    A finished design from the gallery, with its planting and its materials.

  2. A different garden before any work: a plain rectangle of lawn between slatted timber fences, with a bench against a shed at the far end and two bare trees.Your garden

    Add your garden photo

    One picture of your garden that shows the whole plot.

  3. The same garden with that planting in it: a stone path winding to the same bench, echinacea, rudbeckia, liatris and grasses either side, the same fences, shed and trees kept.The result

    Your dream garden

    The same style of planting and the same materials, drawn around what was already there.

Transform My Garden like this First 3 designs free · no card · UK plantsOr start a design from scratch

This makeover at a glance

Style
English cottage garden
Shape
A narrow rectangle between two fences
Light
Full sun
Started as
A lawn gone to straw and a crowded deck

Kept

  • Both fence lines
  • The shed
  • The cordyline on the right
  • The trees beyond

Changed

  • Brick and stone path
  • Deep, tall borders
  • Rose, table and chairs
  • Four pots, one terrace
In the design

Four narrow garden ideas from this makeover

  1. Brick and stone path, close up in the design
    Straw coloured lawn, the same spot beforeBefore

    Straw coloured lawn Brick and stone path

    A brick and stone path that bends, where the lawn was

    Brick and reclaimed stone replace the grass, laid so the path bends once on the way down. In a narrow garden the bend slows the view, so you take in the borders on the way to the end.

  2. Deep, tall borders, close up in the design
    Two bare fences, the same spot beforeBefore

    Two bare fences Deep, tall borders

    Deep cottage borders along both fences

    Both borders run deep, the length of the path. Tall spires at the back soften the fence lines, which makes a narrow garden feel wider, and the depth lets the planting sit in layers, front to back.

  3. Rose, table and chairs, close up in the design
    A plain shed, the same spot beforeBefore

    A plain shed Rose, table and chairs

    A rose over the shed, and a seat where the path ends

    The shed where the path ends turns sage green, with a climbing rose over the front and a small table and two chairs beside it. It gives a narrow garden somewhere to walk to, and a place to sit and look back up it.

  4. Four pots, one terrace, close up in the design
    A crowded deck, the same spot beforeBefore

    A crowded deck Four pots, one terrace

    Four terracotta pots on a stone terrace

    The crowded deck becomes a clear stone terrace, with two pots either side of the top of the path: lavender in the two urns, red pelargoniums in the pots behind them. They frame the start of the path, so the colour begins at your feet.

Before: a view from a raised deck crowded with potted plants, lanterns and ornaments, over a fenced garden to a bare, straw coloured lawn with a shed at the far end
Before: the owner’s photo.
Before

A narrow lawn and a crowded deck

Nearly all the colour in this garden is in the first few inches of the photograph. Pots, pelargoniums and lanterns, all of it crowded onto the deck, and then grass, fence and shed for the whole of the rest of it.

Past the deck it is a rectangle of grass with a shed at the end of it. Nothing to walk to, nowhere to stop on the way, and two fence lines running dead straight to the boundary. Your eye reaches the shed in about a second and then has nowhere else to go.

The design is drawn around what was already in the photo, so fences, walls and trees stay where they are.

In the borders

The planting along both fences

Eight plants do most of the work in these full sun borders.

  1. RosesEarly summer colour, and the climber over the shed
  2. PeoniesBig pink blooms in early summer, mid border
  3. DelphiniumsBlue spires at the back, against the fence
  4. LupinsHeight and colour along the back
  5. FoxglovesTall spires among the lupins
  6. CatmintThe front edge, spilling over the brick
  7. LavenderThe front edge, and the two urns
  8. Lady’s mantleFills the gaps between bigger plants

With Pro, every design you make names every plant in it, how big each one grows, where it goes and when it flowers, so you know what to look for at the garden centre.

What you get

What comes back from one photo of your garden

  • Redesigned around your fences and trees. About two minutes after you add your photo, in the same style and materials as this garden.
  • Planting matched to your light and soil. Add your light and soil if you know them, and the planting follows them.
  • Every plant named, with Pro or Max. Pro is one payment: £29 for 20 designs over 14 days, two at once; Max, £49 for 50 over 30 days, four at once. Every one names its plants, how big each grows, where it goes and when it flowers.
  • Built by a professional gardener. Real plants that grow in UK gardens.
Transform My Garden like this First 3 designs free · no card · UK plantsOr start a design from scratch
Questions

Questions about this narrow garden design

Can a narrow garden work without a lawn?

Yes, and this one has none. A brick and stone path takes the lawn’s place, with deep borders on both sides of it.

Will this design fit a smaller or a wider garden?

The design is redrawn around the shape in your photo, so a smaller or wider plot keeps the same style, materials and colours, laid out to fit its own space.

How much does a garden makeover design like this cost?

Your first 3 garden designs are free, no card required. After that, Pro is one payment: £29 for 20 designs over 14 days, two at once; Max, £49 for 50 over 30 days, four at once, every plant named in every one, and clean pictures to keep.

Is the after picture a real garden?

The before is the owner’s own photo. The after is the design Garden Design App drew from it, using real plants you can buy in the UK.

Keep reading

More before and after garden makeovers

After: the same strip as a planted courtyard, with a paved path through deep borders of lavender, purple salvias, coneflowers and grasses to a small table and chairs
Part sun · narrow plot

Wildlife garden makeover

A narrow strip of lawn, redesigned as a paved path between deep borders of lavender and salvias.

After: the same garden as a Mediterranean gravel garden, with pale gravel, flagstone stepping stones, clipped olive trees in terracotta pots, drifts of lavender and a timber arch
Full sun · acid soil

Mediterranean garden makeover

A rectangle of lawn, redesigned as pale gravel, olive trees and drifts of lavender.

After: the same garden with an irregular stone path winding through grasses, white anemones, foxgloves and peonies to the chairs at the far end
Shade · town garden

Small town garden makeover

Long grass and a hosepipe in a shaded town garden, redesigned as a winding path through grasses and shade planting.

After: the same passage with a stone flag path running through deep shade planting of ferns, hostas, foxgloves, periwinkle and a Japanese maple against the fence
Deep shade · narrow run

Shady side passage makeover

The bit down the side where the bins live, redesigned as a shaded path of ferns, hostas and foxgloves.

After: the same yard with pale limestone paving, a curved lawn edged in brick and deep borders of catmint, salvias, coneflowers and climbing roses
Full sun · clay soil

Modern garden makeover

Slabs, bare soil and a blank brick gable, redesigned as curved lawn and deep planted borders.

After: the same plot as a meadow garden, with a stepping stone path through deep borders of purple salvias, crimson scabious, pink coneflowers and grasses, wisteria and clematis on the fence beneath the gable, and the deck edged with lavender
Part sun · clay

New build garden makeover

A rectangle of new turf beside a blank gable, redesigned as a meadow of salvias and scabious, with climbers on the fence and the shed.

After: the same plot as a white gravel garden, with one straight path of large grey slabs to a small patio under a white pergola, deep borders of white rock roses, lamb’s ears and white foxgloves along sage green fences, and agaves in terracotta pots
Full sun · clay

Long garden makeover

A long plot of grey gravel and slabs, redesigned as a white gravel garden with one slab path to a pergola at the far end.

After: the same plot as a cottage garden, the lawn replaced by beds of delphiniums, foxgloves and roses either side of a stepping stone path to a metal bench, climbing roses on the side fences, catmint at the foot of the wall, a terracotta pot on the step and thyme in the joints of the patio
Part sun

Tiered garden makeover

A slab patio, a step and a raised lawn, redesigned as a cottage garden with roses on the fences for privacy and a bench at the top.

After: the same plot as a cottage garden, an oak framed gazebo with a slate roof where the summerhouse was, a teak table and chairs under it, a gravel path through lavender and catmint, borders of pink roses, blue delphiniums and silver lamb’s ears on both sides, clematis and roses on the black fence either side of the gazebo
Full sun · dry

Gazebo garden makeover

A lawn gone brown and dry and an old summerhouse, redesigned as a cottage garden with an oak gazebo and a gravel path through lavender.

After: the same view with the pergola in full wisteria flower over the deck, a lawn with curved edges and deep borders of foxgloves, mullein, geum, catmint and black eyed Susans, a path of sandstone slabs through gravel to a small sandstone patio with a bistro table and two chairs to the right of the lawn, and the brick walls and back shrubs where they were
Full sun

Wisteria pergola garden makeover

A patchy lawn under a wisteria pergola, redesigned as a curved lawn with deep borders for bees and a sandstone patio to the right of the lawn.

After: the same view with a path of grey and buff stone laid in herringbone curving down the middle to the foot of the spiral staircase, borders of Mexican feather grass, Japanese forest grass, blue fescue and heuchera on both sides with blue delphiniums and purple top verbena rising through them, lavender beside the path, lilac clematis and pale climbing roses on the fences, and the staircase, the brick house and the shrub where they were
Part sun · clay

Urban garden makeover

A narrow strip of artificial grass under a spiral staircase, redesigned as a curved herringbone path through borders of grasses and perennials.

After: the same view with paths of pale gravel winding out from the patio between drifts of purple salvias, lavender, pink coneflowers and yellow black eyed Susans, a small pond with a pebble edge and a stepping stone on the right, an untreated oak bench against the back fence, the fences stained a warm brown behind blue Californian lilac and orange firethorn, and the tree, the conifer and the patio where they were
Full sun · clay

Wildlife pond garden makeover

A wide lawn scorched brown, redesigned as a gravel garden with a small pebble edged pond, drifts for bees and an oak bench at the far end.

After: the design drawn from the patio edge, with a winding path of buff gravel held by low stone edging, deep borders on both sides of pink and white roses, astrantia, catmint, white foxgloves, blue delphiniums, sea holly, white brunnera and lady’s mantle, a white clematis over the trellis on the left, the yew where it was, the fences stained a warm brown and a weathered teak bench under the trees at the far end.
Full sun · acid

Winding path garden makeover

A lawn beside a patio, redesigned as a winding gravel path with low stone edging through deep borders of roses and catmint, to a bench under the trees.

After: a design drawn from the owner’s photo, with large grey slabs laid at an angle with dark pebbles between them, curved beds edged in metal holding New Zealand flax, agave, yucca, purple salvias, orange geum, white gaura and Mexican daisies, the fences stained charcoal with star jasmine on the right one, an L of teak seating built round a gas fire pit in the back corner, an olive tree in a tall planter beside it, the boarded wall and the potted shrub where they were, and the neighbours’ brick houses and roofs beyond.
Light and soil not recorded

Fire pit garden makeover

A lawn gone brown between a boarded wall and a fence, redesigned as a paved garden with slabs floating in pebbles, architectural planting and teak seating built round a fire pit.

After: the same garden drawn as a cottage garden, a flagstone path down the left, a circular lawn in the middle, deep borders of blue delphiniums, pink and white foxgloves, purple hardy geraniums, pink and peach roses, catmint and box balls, espalier fruit trees on the wall at the back, a timber arch, oak table and chairs on pea gravel at the far end, and roses and lilac clematis on the warm stained fence.
Full sun (the design’s notes) · soil not recorded

Cottage garden plan makeover

A lawn beside a concrete path, redesigned as an English cottage garden: a circular lawn in deep borders, a flagstone path, espaliers on the wall and oak seating on gravel at the end.

Transform My Garden like this