One idea done well is much more effective than a mishmash of things that don’t harmonise. It’s a common mistake to think that if you have a small garden everything in it must be small but in fact the opposite is often true. A few large, carefully chosen, plants can have much more impact than a clutter of smaller ones. Stick to bigger blocks of top performers with a long season of interest and limit the colour palate. For a sunny garden, Eryngium ‘Bowles Mauve’ coupled with Allium giganteum and Verbena bonariensis, will give three seasons of dramatic colour. If your garden gets very little light and is in shade for most of the day, make a virtue of that by specialising in plants that delight in the conditions you have. There are some wonderful, architectural ferns, coupled with Cyclamen, Hostas and hardy Geraniums will thrive in darker gardens and look superb. The most important thing, no matter what the size of your garden, is not to fight nature. This is something we are very keen to do when we design a garden.