In praise of micro gardens
1 May 2026
When I met my girlfriend 2 and a half years ago, we went on a first date after finding each other on a dating app and when I asked if she had a garden (essential first date chat) she replied “Yes, well, I have a prison yard.” I laughed at this - I knew she was living right in the centre of Southend, where green space is limited. But when she showed me the garden (it was winter, we had a fire pit and drank wine in thick coats and gloves), it wasn’t a ‘prison yard’ at all. But I could see how it probably once was like that.
Roughly 20ft long and 8ft wide (at best), it’s a paved rectangle in the heart of the city centre, overlooked by university halls. With stairs coming down from the kitchen (she’s on the first floor), I can imagine how when she moved in during the pandemic from her beloved East London, this did look a little… correctional facility.
In the narrow beds astride the concrete slabs, she planted three trachelospermum (star jasmine), a hebe, some clumping bamboo, and a tiny ceanothus no taller than a drinks bottle bought from Morrisons. Painted the fences and stairs black, got some garden furniture, and popped a few ferns in pots - it’s amazing how that can alter a space (particularly a paved one).
That was June 2021 - to see it now is absolutely incredible. Annoyingly for her, people see the garden now and think it’s all down to me. I am always quick to correct them and say it was all her vision from the start. Sure, I’ve brought plants into the garden since I moved in in June of 2025, and yes, I do bring endless plants home from work and garden centre trips. We have added fence toppers, a shed (all painted the same black), moved things around in endless different iterations - the massive benefit of mainly container planting. We have grown things from seed, put pots all the way up the stairs and have planters hanging off the sides of the stairs too to maximise planting space. We even have a wisteria now, to train around the kitchen door.
I guess I’m writing this to say that it doesn’t have to be a 100ft lawn with sweeping borders and established trees to make a garden.
