Begin with the bones, not the blooms

It is tempting to fill a small garden with whatever is flowering on the day you visit the nursery. Resist, at least for the first hour. In a compact space every plant is visible from the kitchen window, and once the summer show is over, a garden built purely on flowers can look hollow for five months of the year. Structure is what carries a small plot through winter, and it is far easier to put in place before the borders fill up.

Think of three or four permanent elements: a clipped evergreen, a path or paved edge, a pot that stays put all year, and a boundary that earns its keep. Good choices for a small British garden include Buxus sempervirens or box alternatives such as Ilex crenata, a pair of Euonymus fortunei for variegated evergreen colour, and a strong shrub for winter scent such as Sarcococca confusa or Viburnum tinus. Keep these shapes simple, repeat them, and the garden will read as intentional even in February.

Read your light and soil before you plant

Small gardens are rarely uniform. A ten-foot border can shift from baking sun at the front to dry shade under a fence within a couple of metres. Spend a day noting where sun falls at 10am, 1pm and 4pm, and look at the soil in your hand. Most UK plots are either heavy clay, which holds water and nutrients but sits cold in spring, or light and sandy, which drains fast and dries out in a hot spell.

• Sunny, sheltered: lavender, Salvia nemorosa, Geranium 'Rozanne', verbena, sedum and dwarf grasses.
• Part shade: astrantia, hardy geraniums, epimedium, hakonechloa and most ferns.
• Dry shade: Dryopteris ferns, Liriope, epimedium, Cyclamen hederifolium and spring bulbs.

Improve clay with compost and grit, and add plenty of organic matter to sandy soil. In pots, always use a peat-free multipurpose compost and raise containers onto feet so they do not sit in winter wet.

Layer bulbs for months of quiet colour

Bulbs are the cheapest way to buy yourself months of interest in a tiny space, because they occupy ground that later belongs to perennials. Plant them beneath herbaceous plants so emerging foliage hides the yellowing leaves after flowering.

Build a succession: snowdrops and Cyclamen coum in January and February, daffodils and Narcissus 'Tête-à-Tête' in March, tulips in April and May, then alliums to bridge the gap into early summer. In containers you can layer them lasagne-style — the largest bulbs deepest, smaller ones above, with a few centimetres of compost between each layer. Use fresh compost each autumn for tulips, which resent sitting wet through a British winter.

Perennials and shrubs that do the heavy lifting

Aim for plants that give more than one season of value. Foliage first, flowers second, seedheads third. Hakonechloa macra turns from fresh green to coppery gold and holds its shape into winter. Geranium 'Rozanne' flowers from June to the first frost if you shear it back after the first flush. Helleborus 'Anna's Red' carries deep evergreen leaves and flowers in the bleakest weeks.

For winter, include Cornus sanguinea 'Midwinter Fire' for glowing stems, Skimmia for red buds that sit tight through the cold, and Mahonia for scent and structure. For late summer, add Verbena bonariensis and Penstemon 'Andenken an Friedrich Hahn' — both are airy enough to suit a tight border. Deadhead regularly, but leave a few seedheads on sedum and grasses for birds and frost.

Make the most of pots and vertical space

In a small garden, containers are not an afterthought — they are extra borders you can move. Group them in threes, vary the heights, and plant a mix of evergreen shape, trailing foliage and something seasonal.

• Winter: a clipped evergreen, Helleborus niger, ivy and a few winter pansies.
• Spring: layered bulbs topped with wallflowers or Bellis.
• Summer: a tender perennial such as Salvia 'Hot Lips', trailing verbena and a grass.
• Autumn: heathers, cyclamen and a small Skimmia.

Go upwards where the ground runs out. A wall-mounted trellis with Clematis cirrhosa 'Jingle Bells' will flower in winter, and a climbing rose or Trachelospermum jasminoides gives scent and evergreen cover. Window boxes, a shelf of herbs and a fixed bench that doubles as storage all earn their footprint.

A working calendar for year-round interest

Plan in these blocks and you will always have something waiting to perform.

• January to March: snowdrops, hellebores, cyclamen, daffodils, scented daphne and cornus stems.
• April to June: tulips, alliums, wallflowers, geraniums, peonies and early roses.
• July to September: salvia, verbena, penstemon, astrantia, crocosmia and annuals.
• October to December: sedum seedheads, grasses, berries, Mahonia, winter jasmine and evergreens.

Finally, keep a simple notebook. Note what looked tired in March, what self-seeded, and which pot needed repotting. A small garden rewards editing far more than it rewards adding, and a garden that reads well in January will be spectacular by June.