Got a small garden, yard, patio or balcony but not sure how to make the best of it? Well fear not, you can turn your outdoor space into your own personal mini oasis with these great ideas from Lazy Susan. You don’t need acres of land to create a glorious garden.

Whether you want to use your little plot for work, rest or play, we’ve got a host of small-scale ideas that’ll help you maximize your outdoor space. Summer will be gone in the blink of an eye, so now’s the time to spend evenings and weekends enjoying the outdoors and with the perfect garden you won’t need to even leave the comfort of your own home. Even if you have a small city backyard garden or patio, there are still plenty of ways to enjoy nature, grow something green and entertain outdoors and Lazy Susan is here to share a few of our tips for maximizing patio space.

Probably not something a garden furniture company should be saying too loudly, but the key with a small outdoor space is to minimize your furniture if you have a small garden. We’re not gonna be very popular if we tell you to fill your small garden with a 10 seater garden furniture set. No, a love seat, two chairs and a bistro table are plenty for a small patio. Avoid keeping your BBQ in your garden/on your patio, that way the space can be used for living instead of just cooking.

To make the most of your outdoor area, consider furniture with built-in storage, such as benches with space on the sides, cocktail style tables with deeper wells, and planters that can also hold tools or children’s toys. When picking furniture, consider how much light your patio gets. If there’s lots of direct sunlight, then opt for a natural wood such as teak or cast aluminium furniture topped with cushions that will stay cool and not fade under the summer sun.

Make use of any walls and ceilings. Free up the floor by using the walls for your garden decor. Putting candleholders or a wall mounted water feature on the walls can enhance the ambiance without taking up valuable floor space, while outdoor shelving for items such as drinks or plants etc is a great practical space saver. Also consider adding wind chimes or hanging planters to add a little interest. Another good purchase is small fire pit that produces flames that’ll add a little warmth, lighting and mood. Perfect for the UK!

Wall art is another often overlooked garden accessory that should be given some serious thought. Patios and gardens that don’t get a great deal of sunlight are ideal for sculptures, fountains or wall art. A sculpture can tolerate any type of weather, and adding a coat of Thompson’s WaterSeal will keep it looking as good as new for many years to come. And why not go green?

A patio doesn’t have to be huge to be a growing ground for flowers and herbs. You can now purchase small pots made from rice that come with seeds for tomatoes, lettuce and herbs. For those on a budget, plants such as bamboo can be grown on a deck to add a splash of colour. Herbs like basil produce blooms and a lovely fresh aroma.

Meanwhile, those with space for a few annuals can grow bright blooms such as tulips and hyacinth’s. However, one thing you should avoid growingis viney fruits like strawberries in a small area because they can attract bugs. Otherwise, as long as your yard or garden gets direct sunlight, you can grow just about anything your heart desires.

Do a little research and have a look at some of the following top Lazy Susan space saving garden patio accessories:

Corner Plant Stands

An otherwise redundant corner can be brought to life by simply adding a tiered corner plant stand. You can also free up space but still retain ‘green’ interest with a planter fence, a clever way of incorporating a fence and planters all in one, that free’s up space for your Lazy Susan garden furniture.

Wall Shelving Not enough floor space for containers and pots? Then look for space on higher ground such as on window sills and on the exterior walls.

Mediterranean Style

Gardens Give the illusion of more space in your garden by keeping it simple and a Mediterranean style garden is the perfect solution.

The Minimalist Garden

Contemporary surfaces like wood, slate and metal create a garden that looks sleek, streamlined and spacious. A zen-like, minimalist garden can feature built-in seating and storage solutions.

Patio Gardening

If you have no flower beds to speak of and your garden consists of a dull slab of concrete, then bring it to life by mixing up a jumble of planters and containers filled with bright blooms.

Contemporary Decking

To help define your deck while maximising the sense of space, why not add a glass balustrade system to a deck. The new contemporary fusion glass panel system from Richard Burbidge for example adds interest to your deck without obscuring the view or the sun.

Add Colour

If your small garden gets little light, banish the shade by painting exterior walls in a warm, exotic colour.

Mini Water Features

Who says you need a grand stately home garden for displaying a water feature? There are some fantastic compact and wall mounted designs, in both traditional and contemporary styles, that’re are perfect for the smaller garden.

It’s always being said in the media that gardens have now become an extension of our homes, but many of the people who bandy this cliché about don’t really tell us much more than that we should all be embracing the ‘outdoor room’. However, the fundamentals of interior design do begin to become useful when you’re trying to make something of a small backyard or garden.

Small outdoor spaces benefit from the ideas you might usually associate with indoor rooms. For example, light bright paint, mirrors and focal objects can all help to create a delightfully intimate place to sip a coffee and smell the flowers. What you shouldn’t do is treat them like a standard garden.

You won’t benefit from, say, the kind of varied planting that a normal garden can enjoy. Stick to evergreens: box, ivy, camellias, rosemary, maybe grasses at a push. Or no planting at all: beautiful paint colours can do much to improve the brickwork that looms over you in a backyard.

Beware magazine images showing squishy, sofa-style furniture – those piles of cushions have to be lugged indoors whenever there’s a smatter of rain, then stored somewhere. Instead, keep things simple and weatherproof: a near maintenance-free space that needs little more than the odd sweep is the way forward.

The key is to give the eye somewhere to rest, a focal point is crucial in any small garden or backyard. Otherwise, the only thing you’ll be staring at is the back wall at the end of your garden.

To prevent the prison yard feel, think laterally about decorative objects. Anything wall-mounted is perfect. Pick a single idea and don’t elaborate: a focal point is a focal point because there’s only one of them to catch the eye immediately.

Paint is underused in tiny gardens, so render a brick wall, paint it white, dot with a few geraniums and you’re suddenly in a delightful Mediterranean courtyard rather than a claustrophobic urban jungle. Olives, sages, pale greys and blues are the perfect colours for outdoor enhancing light, and Farrow & Ball produce a fabulous range of exterior eggshell colours in a wonderful matt finish.