Why scent belongs at the heart of a small garden

Space is the one thing a small garden cannot manufacture, but scent is the thing that makes it feel bigger and more generous than it really is. A narrow courtyard with a pot of night-scented stock beside the door, or a balcony where you brush past rosemary on the way to your chair, gives more pleasure than a much larger plot that is simply looked at. Perfume travels, which means a handful of well-chosen plants can scent an entire seating area.

The trick is to stop thinking of scented plants as a collection and start thinking of them as placed deliberately — along the routes you take, and around the spots where you stop.

Siting perfume where you will actually notice it

Scent needs to be met at nose height, or disturbed as you pass. In a small space this is easy to engineer:

• Line both sides of a path, or the edges of steps, with low, brushable herbs.
• Put the strongest perfumes within arm's reach of a bench or chair — not at the far end of the plot.
• Cluster scent near the back door so it greets you when you step out, and again when you return in the evening.
• Use a warm, sheltered wall — south or west facing — because heat coaxes the oils out of leaves and petals.

Paving matters more than you might think. Stone or brick slabs absorb warmth during the day and release it slowly at dusk, which is exactly when the best evening perfumes begin.

Old roses: choose perfume over perfection

Old roses — gallicas, damasks, albas, bourbons and moss roses — are the aristocrats of garden scent. Many flower just once, in early to midsummer, but they do it with a depth most modern repeat-flowerers cannot match. In a small garden that exchange is usually worth making, especially if you mix in a repeat-flowering bourbon or two.

A few to look for: 'Madame Isaac Pereire', a bourbon with huge raspberry-pink blooms and a famously heady perfume; 'Comte de Chambord', whose tight pink rosettes smell of old rose and spice; 'Souvenir de la Malmaison', a soft blush bourbon that repeats well; and 'Reine des Violettes', whose name tells you what to expect. For a smaller or north-facing wall, 'Boule de Neige' is a compact alba with white blooms and a clean, powdery scent.

Roses in small gardens do best in pots of at least 45cm across, in a loam-based compost such as John Innes No 3, or trained up a wall or obelisk. Deadhead repeat-flowering kinds to keep them going; leave once-flowering old roses to set hips if you like the autumn display.

Herbs for brushing past

Herbs are the workhorses of a fragrant small garden because they release their oils when touched, not only when in flower. That makes them perfect for squeezing into the gaps where you will graze them with a sleeve or a shoulder.

• Rosemary — evergreen, scented all year, and happy in a pot or trained against a wall. Prostrate forms will spill over a step.
• Thyme — plant creeping thymes between paving stones so every step releases scent.
• Lavender — 'Hidcote' and 'Munstead' stay compact and neat.
• Sage — including the fruit-scented varieties, which are surprisingly good value in a small space.
• Oregano and marjoram — low-growing, generous, and useful in the kitchen.
• Mint and lemon balm — keep these in pots, or they will take over.

Scented-leaved pelargoniums deserve a mention too: rose, lemon and peppermint types will scent a whole doorway if you brush past them, though they need to come indoors before the frosts.

Planting for dusk and warm evenings

Some plants deliberately save their perfume for the evening, releasing it to attract moths. If you are the sort of gardener who finally sits down at eight o'clock, these are the ones to plant. Night-scented stock, tobacco plant (Nicotiana), evening primrose, honeysuckle, common jasmine and sweet rocket all come into their own as the light goes.

Night-scented stock and sweet rocket are both easy from seed, sown direct in late spring, and will flower the same year. Put them in containers near your seating, and the effect is immediate.

Layering scent through the seasons

A small garden can be fragrant for most of the year if you plan for succession rather than one big hit:

• Winter: sarcococca, winter honeysuckle and daphne, all of which scent cold air remarkably well.
• Spring: wallflowers, hyacinths and sweet violets.
• Early summer: old roses, pinks and the first flush of herbs.
• Late summer: lavender, nicotiana and later roses.
• Autumn: the herbs again, plus hips and any late blooms.

Finally, protect the perfume you have created. Do not overfeed herbs — rich soil makes lush leaves with less oil, and therefore less scent. Grow them in full sun where they concentrate their oils, and clip lavender and rosemary after flowering to keep them compact without cutting into old wood. Group pots together so they shelter one another and the scent gathers in the still air between them, and move a favourite pot to the door on the evenings you plan to sit out. In a small garden, that kind of small adjustment is the whole art.