Small Garden Design Formula
Online Course
Make the most of a small space garden
Simple Design Formula
Learn which design layout will suit your shape and size garden. Getting this right is the key to design success.
Maximise Space
Make the most of the available space and make the garden look and feel larger using simple designer tricks.
Add the WOW Factor
Give your small space garden the WOW factor with correct placement of features to create the most impact.
- no complex software required
- suitable for complete beginners
- methods taught work anywhere in the world
- suitable for any shape of garden (up to tennis court size)
- 100% online - works with computers & mobile devices
Think your garden is too small to do anything with?
Think again…
With the right design, small can look just as stunning as big.
Even if your garden is tiny, it’s entirely possible to transform it into a beautiful space.
Here’s how to transform a small garden…
The Small Garden Design Formula online course guides you through making the most of your small garden space, explaining techniques, tips and examples in an easy-to-understand way.
It covers everything from getting the design shape and landscaping materials right to utilising space in the most effective ways possible.
There's lots of ideas that will make your small garden look and feel larger and even more interesting!
You'll learn all the things they don't teach in books and traditional college courses.
Meet the course tutor, see inside the course & examples of student designs
Small Garden Formula Modules and Bonus Course
MODULE 1
Get started with the KEY concepts you’ll need to know to successfully create a stunning small garden. The module shows you how to start and how to know which style of garden suits your needs.
MODULE 2
Delve deeper into the ‘Shape First System’ that’s KEY to successfully designing your small garden. Rachel walks you through how the system works while showing you a formula to getting the proportions right for your small garden.
MODULE 3
Rachel demonstrates the rules for different design shapes and styles of garden. So if your small garden is long and narrow, how you arrange the shapes will be completely different to those in wide or square gardens. Awkward shaped gardens also have their own rules.
MODULE 4
Learn Rachel’s cunning tricks that make small spaces look larger. The types of materials you use and even subtle things like the direction you lay the flooring in make a TREMENDOUS difference to how big your garden looks and feels.
MODULE 5
Time to add the ‘WOW’ factor to your small garden by adding features, lighting, in-built seating etc. The trick is to fully utilise the space while adding storage and interest. Print off this module’s useful ‘cheat sheets’ that cover all the main design shapes and principles for each garden shape.
BONUS – Survey Your Garden Mini-Course
Before you start the design process, it’s really important to have an accurate scale plan to work from. That way you will know that your design fits your garden accurately. You’ll also be equipped to order the correct amount of materials to build your garden. Drawing a scale plan isn’t as difficult as it sounds. The downloadable PDF guide and 4 short video tutorials guide you through the entire process step-by-step. There’s also a BONUS video included that shows you how to make a simple drawing board.
Bonus – Plan Drawing Formula & Cheat’s Guide to Visualising
If, like me, you’re not a natural artist or have trouble visualising, The Cheat’s Guide To Sketching and Visualising will be a life saver! I’ll show you all the cheeky tricks I use to produce perspective sketches which help with visualising the way the finished garden will look. You’ll also learn some tricks that don’t even require you to sketch! And the Plan Drawing Formula will show you how to ink up your sketches and designs to presentation standard.
Bonus – PDFs
The Designer Guidelines will save you a lot of time designing your garden. I give you all my formulas for step heights and widths, pergola heights as well as top tips for dealing with changes in level and choosing materials. There are also my top tips for making sure your design works and how to avoid the most common novice errors.
The Getting Your Garden Built PDF will walk you through how to choose the right contractor to build your garden once you've designed it.
And finally, the Care of Your New Garden Guide walks you through how to look after your new garden once it's been built. With everything from how to care for paving and decks through to plants and general maintenance.
Course Video Tutorials
There are 13 videos demonstrating how to design: Long gardens, wide, square & awkwardly shaped. As well as how to design around existing patios, decks or features. How to deal with changes in level and sloping gardens. How to do a front garden makeover. And there are plan reviews where I give feedback to students on their designs and show how to improve them, which are great to learn from.
As well as 20 garden inspiration galleries with amazing gardens from designers all over the world there are bonus 6 'Designer Details' video tutorials on how to incorporate different materials and structures like pergolas and walls into your garden.
Small Garden Plan Pack
Contains over 60 professional garden design plans that you can modify to suit your garden or get ideas for your own unique design. There are a mix of different shapes and size gardens for you to choose from, up to approximately the size of a badminton court.
*NEW* Course - The Food Garden Formula
This course shows you how to turn any garden into a beautiful food producing one as well as how to preserve and store the produce to last you through the winter months.
Pricing Options
Choose how you want to learn
FUNDAMENTAL
£198
($264 USD) INCLUDES:
100% online - start anytime
5 downloadable design PDFs
19 fast-track design video tutorials
20 garden inspiration galleries
BONUS Sketching & Drawing course (£48)
Lifetime access to the course
BONUS Survey Formula Course
CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE IN USD ($264) or...
ADDITIONAL
£495
(OR $693 USD) INCLUDES:
100% online - start anytime
5 downloadable design PDFs
19 fast-track design video tutorials
BONUS Sketching & Drawing course (£48)
20 garden inspiration galleries
Lifetime access to the course
BONUS Survey Formula Course
BONUS Garden Style Wizard (£48)
5 Minute Plant Expert (£48)
Plant Design Formula Course (£198)
FEEDBACK from Rachel (£249) up to 2 design plans (not planting schemes)
Gift Purchases
If you wish to give the course as a gift, after purchase email us the details of the recipient and we will send them the course on the date you specify.
Frequently Asked Questions
Immediate, lifetime access to the Survey Formula, the Small Garden Design Formula and ability to ask Rachel questions in the members' area (though she's rarely needed as the courses are so thorough).
Any size or shape of garden up to the size of a badminton court. If your garden is bigger than that, then the Fast-Track Garden Design Course is a better option as that covers both large and small gardens.
No. Absolutely not. The course is designed to show both complete beginners and experienced gardeners a really simple design method that can be used to transform any size, shape or style of garden, quickly and easily.
There are 7 in the Survey Formula Course and 40 in the Small Garden Design Formula (20 of which are image galleries).
The course is 100% online, with immediate, lifetime access. So you can view it any time that is convenient for you, as many times as you want.
Yes. The design techniques shown in the course work on any garden, anywhere! The principles of design do not change. The landscaping materials and plants will need to suit your location but the underlying framework of good design is a constant and not location specific.
You will definitely learn something new. The methods I teach in the Small Garden Formula are ones that I’ve developed over the last 25 years as a professional garden designer, so you won’t have come across them anywhere else. Good design is a completely different skill to gardening. What you’ll learn in the course will enhance your existing knowledge.
That will depend on how much time you devote to it each week and your individual learning style. As a rough guide, the main design section of the Small Garden Formula could be completed over a weekend, but I would recommend you take 2 weekends to allow time for the information to be fully absorbed. The survey course included with the course can also be completed over a weekend.
No. The course has been primarily designed for homeowners who wish to improve their own garden without needing to attend a college course for weeks on end, so there is no qualification. That being said, I have had a lot of landscape professionals who've done the course and say that they've learned more from it than their professional certified training courses! Only our Great Garden Formula course has the option for a diploma.
You can ask Rachel any questions you have about the course material in the members' area of the website.
This isn't something that's included in the course, but as a Small Garden Formula student you can purchase a plan review service from Rachel at a reduced cost, if you want her to double check your design.
If you have a question that hasn't been answered above, please email us here.
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