Start with a Tape Measure and an Honest Look at the Light

Before you buy a single pot, spend an hour getting to know your courtyard. Measure the whole space, including the awkward strip behind the bins, and note how much of it is genuinely usable. A courtyard of 3m by 4m can feel generous or cramped depending entirely on how you arrange it.

Next, track the light. Check which way the space faces, then watch it at three points in the day: morning, early afternoon and late evening. A south-facing courtyard will bake and dry out fast; a north-facing one will be cool, damp and shaded for much of the year. Both are workable, but they call for very different plants. Also note where wind funnels between buildings, where rain drips from a gutter, and where the drain covers and taps are — you cannot pave over those.

Finally, decide what the space must do. Seating for two or four? Somewhere to dry washing? A spot for bikes? Being clear about this stops you filling every corner with pots and then having nowhere to put a chair.

Grow Upwards: Vertical Planting That Earns Its Keep

In a small courtyard, your walls and fences are the most valuable growing space you own. Fix trellis to a fence or wall, using battens to hold it about 5cm clear of the surface so air can circulate and you can still paint behind it. Climbers will then double your planting area without taking a single centimetre of floor.

• For scent and evergreen cover: star jasmine (Trachelospermum jasminoides) on a warm wall, or winter jasmine for flowers in the dullest months.
• For shade: climbing hydrangea or a self-clinging vine, which will cope where little else flowers.
• For quick colour: sweet peas and nasturtiums sown in spring, which will scramble up obelisks and canes in a single season.

Wall-mounted planters, stacked pots on brackets and even a length of guttering fixed to a fence make excellent troughs for herbs, strawberries and salad leaves. Keep the floor as clear as you reasonably can — it makes the space feel bigger and makes sweeping far easier. Group small pots in threes at different heights rather than scattering them one by one.

Furniture That Disappears When You Don't Need It

The single biggest mistake in a tiny courtyard is buying furniture for the space you wish you had. Choose pieces that fold, stack or fix to the wall and you will keep the floor open.

• A folding bistro set for two takes up almost nothing when collapsed and can be hung on a hook.
• A drop-leaf table bolted to a wall gives you dining space on demand and folds flat when the plates are cleared.
• A bench with storage under the seat doubles as a place to stash cushions, tools and children's toys.
• Stackable stools do duty as side tables, plant stands and extra seating.

Aluminium and teak are both light enough to move single-handed and tough enough to leave out. Aim to keep a clear route of at least 60cm between the door and the far end of the courtyard — anything narrower and you will be shuffling sideways every time you carry a tray.

Trick the Eye with Mirrors and Clever Lighting

A weatherproof outdoor mirror is the cheapest way to make a courtyard feel twice its size. Hang one on a wall opposite your planting and the border appears to continue into the distance. Choose toughened glass or acrylic in a frame, screw it to a solid batten, and think about what it reflects — a mirror facing a dull grey fence will simply give you two dull grey fences. Angle it towards greenery, and check it does not bounce low evening sun into a neighbour's window.

Light does the same work after dark. A string of warm-white festoon lights on a wire between two walls creates a ceiling without clutter. A couple of solar uplighters tucked under a shrub or a small potted tree will throw shadows up a wall and add depth. Pale paint, light gravel and a shallow bowl of water all help bounce what daylight you have into darker corners.

Flooring, Zoning and Keeping the Workload Realistic

Change of surface is the simplest way to make one small space behave like two. Clip-together decking tiles can be lifted for cleaning and laid over existing concrete. Porcelain pavers on a compacted gravel base are hard-wearing and easy to sweep. A gravel margin around the edges lets you move pots without scratching the paving.

Watering is what defeats most courtyard gardeners. Fit a timer to an outside tap and run a drip line through the pots, or group thirsty plants together so one can of water does more good. Use loam-based compost rather than pure multipurpose, mulch the surface of larger pots with gravel, and water in the morning rather than the evening. Feed with a slow-release granules in spring and top-dress once a year.

Planting for Year-Round Interest in a Small Space

Choose plants that work hard across several seasons, and repeat a few of them rather than collecting one of everything. Repetition looks calmer and makes a narrow space feel wider.

• Structure: a clumping bamboo such as Fargesia, an evergreen fern, or a small clipped box in a pot.
• Scent: sarcococca for winter, lavender and rosemary for summer, both happy in a sunny corner.
• Long season: salvias, heucheras and hardy geraniums, which keep going from early summer into autumn.
• Bulbs: layer snowdrops, daffodils and tulips in the same pot at different depths for three months of flowers from one container.

Add a small acer or a potted olive for height, and let a grass such as Hakonechloa soften the edges. With a mirror on one wall, lighting overhead and greenery on every vertical surface, even the smallest urban courtyard can feel like a proper retreat — and one you can tidy up in ten minutes.