Audit a small garden before drawing the attractive version

Freeze the existing site

Measure the property edges, house wall, doors, steps, drains, service covers, level changes, trees, sheds, and anything that cannot move. Add the direction each door opens and the route used for bins, bicycles, deliveries, wheelbarrows, or emergency access. A plan that ignores these movements is not finished.

Map conditions at more than one time

Observe direct sun, shade, reflected heat, wind, puddling, and views in the morning and afternoon. Repeat in another season when possible. A narrow courtyard can change from cold shade to intense reflected summer heat, and a roof overhang can keep part of a bed dry during rain.

• Mark good views to frame and poor views to screen.
• Photograph the site from seated and standing eye level.
• Test how water leaves the space before adding more hard surface.
• Locate buried or overhead services through the proper local process before excavation.

Write the brief as priorities

List the primary jobs: food growing, dining, play, storage, privacy, wildlife, or quiet. Rank them as must-have, useful, and optional. A compact garden becomes more usable when two or three priorities are given comfortable space instead of seven activities being reduced to decorative symbols.

Test full-size objects on paper

Draw furniture, beds, containers, and storage at the same scale as the site. Include chairs pulled out, doors open, and the room needed to work around a bed. Path and guard dimensions may be regulated, so treat book examples as design prompts and local accessibility and building rules as the authority.