Courtyard garden ideas, on your own courtyard.
Courtyard garden ideas have to deal with two things no other garden does: most of what you look at is wall, and you see the whole of it from indoors every day of the year. Upload a photo of yours and see the idea on your real space.
First design free · no card needed · UK plants
After
BeforeA courtyard is a room you look into
Most gardens are walked into. A courtyard is mainly looked at, usually through a kitchen or living-room window, and often from an upstairs one as well. That changes what the planting has to do. There is no far end to draw the eye down and no season when you are not looking at it, so the schemes that pay you back are the ones with something worth seeing in February as well as July.
It is the strongest argument for weighting a courtyard towards evergreen structure and good foliage rather than a border's worth of flower. Get that right and the space earns its keep in February, which is when you appreciate it most.
Seeing the idea on a photo of your own courtyard is worth more here than anywhere else, because the proportions of an enclosed space are so particular. A design that suits a wide, open garden very often does not suit four walls.
The ideas that make the most of walls
In a small enclosed space the walls are the largest surface you own, so climbers and wall shrubs are not decoration, they are most of the planting. Greening two or three metres of vertical brick does far more for the feel of a courtyard than anything you can fit on the ground, and an evergreen climber keeps doing it in winter. A scented one by a door or a seat pays you back every time you walk past, because in a courtyard you are always within arm's reach of the planting.
The catch that surprises people is water. A wall takes the light, and it takes the rain too, so the ground in the half metre nearest to it is the driest in the entire garden even in a wet British summer. Planting that struggles at the foot of a wall is usually thirsty rather than sunless, which is why the dry shade guide is the useful one for most courtyards.
The warmth is the compensation. Walls hold heat and cut the wind, so a courtyard is often the most sheltered spot you have, and things that would sulk in an open garden do well in one.
From an idea to a plan you can plant
When a design feels right, unlock its planting plan: every plant named, how many of each to buy, exactly where it goes, and a month-by-month flowering calendar so the view from the window holds up through the year.
Your first design is free, so you can try courtyard garden ideas on your own space before spending anything. A professional garden designer usually charges over £1,000 for a planting plan.
Where to go next
The ground closest to a wall is the driest in the garden, so most courtyard planting is really dry shade planting whether it looks like it or not.
Because you look at the whole space all year, a white and cream scheme is worth considering: it lifts an enclosed corner and it still reads at dusk. The full style is on the courtyard garden design page.
Good to know.
Everything people ask about courtyard garden ideas.
How does the AI garden design work?
Upload a photo of your garden or a single border, and tell us what you'd like: refresh your borders, keeping your garden's shape, or redesign the whole space with new layout, paths and planting. Pick a style, and we generate a photorealistic redesign of your actual garden. When you love one, unlock its planting plan – every plant, how many to buy, and where each goes.
Are the plants real – can I actually buy and plant them?
Yes. Every design can become a planting plan of real, available UK plants, with quantities, each plant's mature height and spread, where it goes and a month-by-month flowering guide. The plans are built on real horticultural data and shaped by a professional gardener – not generic AI guesses – so the garden in the picture is a garden you can genuinely plant.
Is the first design really free, and what does it cost after?
Your first design is genuinely free, with no card required. After that, subscriptions start at £19 a month. The professional planting plan is a separate one-off you only buy if you want to make a design real.
Why does my redesign look like high summer?
We render your garden at its peak, in full flower, so you can see how lush and full it can look. It's an artist's impression, and your real garden will change through the seasons. The planting plan that comes with it includes a month-by-month flowering calendar and plants chosen for year-round interest, so there's colour and structure well beyond the summer picture.
My courtyard is in shade most of the day. Is it worth redesigning?
Shade is the normal condition for a courtyard, not a problem with it. Some of the best foliage plants there are want exactly those conditions, and enclosed shade is sheltered and frost-free in a way an open shady border never is. The design chooses plants that suit the light you actually have.
Why do the plants next to my wall always dry out?
Because the wall keeps the rain off them. The strip of ground closest to a house or boundary wall sits in a rain shadow and stays dry even after a downpour, so anything planted there needs to be genuinely drought-tolerant or given a hand with watering while it establishes.
More on courtyard garden design.
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