Have you got a ‘yarden’? The expert’s guide to what to plant

I have designed many a “yarden” over the years — the word some now use for a courtyard garden — and generally approach them slightly differently to a larger back-garden design. They are small spaces, and tend to be inward-looking and shady, with high boundaries and (before I get my hands on them) entirely paved over and gloomy, with a few dried-out plants in pots.
Yet a small courtyard may be the only private outside space that some people have — and with a little thought and planning can be transformed into an interesting an enjoyable garden. Here are the main things to consider when planning your design.
With most designs I tend to veer away from formal layouts, yet some courtyard spaces may benefit from a symmetrical plan. If the entrance/door/gate is central and the space is roughly square, regimented order could be the way to go if you like that kind of thing. A series of circles, smaller squares and rectangles will fit nicely.
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A formal layout doesn’t mean the planting has to follow suit. It could be very loose, but this will provide an underlying structure and create clear positions for the placing of ornaments and furniture. In most gardens I try to draw the eye towards a long view, but courtyards are different in that a central feature (such as a large pot, sculpture, water feature or specimen plant) placed right in the middle can work well to draw the eye in and act as a central fulcrum for the elements and planting around it.
Many courtyard gardens are the result of a house modification, with plenty of glass at the back or side, which brings the garden composition into play year-round from indoors. Such spaces tend to be more contemporary, quite informal and more connected to the interior. Even a small courtyard will probably have enough space for a bench or table and chairs to sit out in during the summer. The placing of these will probably dictate the layout of where everything else goes.
OK, you may have inherited a fully paved courtyard. If you haven’t and are planning the surfacing, I implore you to leave plenty of pockets for planting directly into the ground, especially around the edges to green up the boundaries or in areas that you won’t need to walk on — such as in the corners or under windows.
Plants grow better and bigger (and need less maintenance) in the ground and you can always add in pots and containers later. If your entire courtyard is paved, can some pavers or slabs be lifted so that you can get to the soil below? It sounds like a lot of work, but may not be. It all depends on what’s beneath.
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The paving layout and material used in a small courtyard is something to get excited about. Large units (stone slabs) and small units (clay pavers or setts) work well, perhaps mixed up or using them to clearly or subtly define areas. One colour of paver for paths and transitions and another (laid in a different pattern?) to delineate where the table and chairs go? Or a combination of stone and gravel, or outdoor tiles. There are some great colours and designs — or maybe create your own mosaic paving? Something funky.
Get your tape measure out and measure accurately. Precision is everything. Another consideration is the tone of a material. In shady spaces dark greys add to the gloom, so seek out lighter materials. There are some lovely light grey and buff clay pavers, which bounce light around and will make a huge difference to the overall feel.
A courtyard garden is likely to have imposing boundaries. Consider fixing a feature on them around eye level (perhaps creating a focal point out of a key window). Yes, a wall-mounted water feature may work nicely (and add some sound and movement), but consider how you visually lose any cables and grow plants around it, so it looks nicely nestled in.
• Summer flowering shrubs: my favourites, from hydrangeas to pittosporum
If the existing walls are a thing of beauty (such as a lovely old brick or stone), leave a good portion visible. Climbers will help to hide ugly walls, and can also be trained into interesting decorative shapes by designing the pattern of the wires you put up on the wall (diamonds, fans, circles?). Or, if you choose trellis, the shape of the panels. Paint is also a cheap and quick way to deal with an ugly fence or breeze-block wall.
If you have solid paving, consider large pots and raised beds. Or you may want some nice large pots anyway for their decorative value and to augment the plants in the ground. Raised beds (timber, brick, stone, rendered block) need to be deep enough to grow decent-sized plants if they go directly onto a paved surface, I’d say 50cm minimum (a good seating/perching height too, so consider building it wider in some areas). Don’t build up against house walls and ideally keep away from any other structures, leaving an air gap. Include drainage holes low down. Backfill with some loamy soil rather than garden compost as it will retain moisture better.
Planting will determine the look and feel of the courtyard. Starting out with a strong theme may be a good idea to set the tone rather than randomly collecting plants. Here are three potential ways to go.
Perhaps keep it simple, and stick to a palette of green and white using plants such as clipped evergreens (yew/Euonymus japonicus ‘Jean Hugues’, phillyrea, osmanthus and holly, for example) mixed with hydrangeas, roses, foxgloves, Japanese anemones, gillenia and so on. For climbers, there are climbing roses, jasmines, and clematis.
Shade is likely to dominate and in heavy shade a green tapestry of plants with contrasting forms may be the way to go. Some shrubs (Abelia grandiflora, Viburnum rhytidophyllum). Plenty of ferns, shady grasses (hakonechloa, sesleria), ground covers (such as Asarum europaeum, Pachysandra terminalis, epimediums) and climbers such as ivy and climbing hydrangea.
Courtyards often have their own protected microclimate, so you could go down the exotic route (which could go well with the funky mosaic paving) using tall tree ferns, bananas, well-behaved bamboos (not all are) etc. And plenty of shady foliage plants (such as from the selection above to fill in beneath).
by Stephen Anderton
Without regular pruning bottlebrush shrubs (callistemon) can become hollow and straggly. Snip off the flowered shoots just behind the spent flowers and shorten back the longest of the leading shoots to keep the shrub compact and less droopy.
Succulent black-leaved aeoniums such as ‘Zwartkop’ tend to become ever taller without branching. If yours is gangly and unstable, chop the top off, like a 10cm mushroom, and root it in a pot of gritty compost (easy to do) so you will have something more manageable to overwinter when you bring it indoors as the frosts arrive.
In the same way, your favourite scented-leaved pelargoniums, which have been outdoors through the summer, will be full of good shoots with which to make cuttings now, allowing you to keep a few small, well-established plants indoors over winter and to scrap the old woody parents.
There’s nothing like a good clump of penstemon for flowering right to the end of the season. However, that depends on getting those spent flower stems cut off as soon as they are done. Remove them just above a promising low-down pair of buds, to throw up another couple of stems. If you see white roots appearing around the stems at the base of the plant, those would make easy new plants, so cut back and pot up next month.
All those late-season daisy type flowers deserve constant deadheading to keep their show on the road. Rudbeckias, cosmos, helenium and, of course, dahlias. Summer droughts can slow them down, but an occasional can of water will work wonders.
Fences and decks are probably as dry as they are likely to get at this point in the year, so this can be a good moment to apply preservative — if you can get past the plants.
Q. We have an old mixed hedge around our property which is very gappy at the bottom, so we see feet passing on the pavement beyond it. What could we plant into the bottom of the hedge to fill the gaps?G Hahn
A. The competition is going to be fierce, so autumn is the time to do it, planting into generous, well-composted holes made between the old roots. The best bet by far for this purpose is ordinary green holly, planted small (20-30cm tall, no more). Under deciduous hedging plants you could also use the evergreen Iris foetidissima.
Q. I planted a purple hazel, Corylus maxima ‘Purpurea’, but it is nowhere near as colourful as the adverts I’d seen. Is there a special form of it that I should have bought? K Pimm
A. Unfortunately it can be a pretty deadly purple, like stale Fruit Gums, and the improved ‘Red Filbert’ is not so much better by midsummer. But that’s if you don’t prune it. The way to get that amazing glowing, plummy, hairy foliage with all purple hazels (ah, those photos!) is to prune them hard or even coppice them every other year. Then the new shoots in spring will be wonderful.
Q. I love hydrangeas but our soil is very dry and they always wilt. Are there any that need less water? P Charleton
A. All the mopheads and lacecaps are thirsty, as you say. Where moisture is short that is the time to grow them in a little more shade. Varieties of Hydrangea arborescens, such as ‘Annabelle’, are slightly less thirsty — and varieties of Hydrangea paniculata less thirsty again. The one that copes with remarkably dry soil is the oak-leaved Hydrangea quercifolia. It has large, rugged foliage and good autumn colour. Alas, you can only have white flowers with this one.
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