Start with the bones, not the bedding

A courtyard is generous in some ways and mean in others. It offers shelter, warmth trapped against brick, and a privacy that a wider garden rarely manages. What it does not offer is room to waste. The most common mistake is a courtyard crammed with colour in July and left as a collection of brown sticks by Christmas. Reverse the process: decide what will still look deliberate in January, then let the colour come and go around it.

Plan in three tiers — a ground layer up to about 30cm, a mid layer between 60cm and 1m, and a vertical layer carrying the eye to 1.8m or more. Fill all three with evergreen and a quiet month becomes a question of texture rather than absence.

Evergreen shrubs that earn their keep

Small courtyards need plants that do several jobs at once: hold shape, tolerate shade, and cope with life in a pot.

• Buxus sempervirens — clipped into balls or low cubes, it gives crisp geometry in sun or partial shade. Watch for box blight and vine weevil in containers, and clip in late spring.
• Taxus baccata — yew is slower and tougher, making a superb dense cone or pillar for a corner. It clips beautifully and shrugs off neglect.
• Pittosporum tenuifolium — small wavy leaves in grey-green or near-black, excellent against brick. Give it a sheltered, sunny wall.
• Skimmia japonica — neat domes of glossy leaf, red buds through winter, and a tolerance of shade few evergreens manage.
• Sarcococca confusa — unremarkable until January, when the scent arrives and stops you in your tracks.
• Ilex crenata — a fine-leaved alternative to box for low hedging where blight is a worry.

Trellis, wires and the useful vertical

In a space six metres square, the walls are your greatest asset. Fix trellis on battens that hold it 4–5cm clear of the brick: air moves behind the wood, rot is discouraged, and you stay well away from any damp course. If you would rather not drill, a freestanding panel in a weighted base makes a decent screen and can be moved when you change your mind.

Tensioned stainless-steel wires are tidier than trellis and cheaper than you might expect. Choose evergreens for the permanent framework: Trachelospermum jasminoides for scented summer flowers and rich red winter foliage, Clematis armandii for early cream blossom on a sheltered wall, Garrya elliptica for grey-green leaves and long winter catkins, or Hedera helix for a green wall that never sulks. A climber in a pot needs a container at least 45cm across and a loam-based compost to hold moisture through summer.

Pots as sculpture, not afterthoughts

In a courtyard, containers are the furniture. Three or four large pots will always beat a dozen small ones. Choose frost-proof terracotta, glazed stoneware, cast aluminium or fibre-clay, and check the base is wide enough to stay upright in wind — a tall pot on a narrow foot is a liability.

Raise pots onto feet so water drains freely, and top-dress the compost with 2cm of horticultural grit. It looks deliberate, keeps liverwort at bay and stops rain splashing soil onto the leaves. Repeat the same pot in two or three sizes rather than collecting a mixed set; repetition is what makes a small space feel designed.

Heights and textures: drawing the plan

Before you buy a single annual, sketch the courtyard from your main vantage point — usually the kitchen window. Mark the heights: a low band of ferns or hardy geraniums in front, a clipped dome or two at the mid level, then a pillar, cone or climber behind. Aim for contrast between foliage textures: fine, needle-like leaves next to broad glossy ones, upright spires against soft mounds.

Ferns such as Polystichum setiferum and Dryopteris erythrosora handle shade and bring a lacy quality nothing else matches. Fargesia bamboos give slender vertical stems without running riot. Acer palmatum, in a large pot out of drying winds, supplies elegance in return for diligent watering.

Now add the colour

With structure in place, colour becomes a pleasure rather than a crutch. Spring brings pots of tulips and wallflowers, with hellebores and epimediums beneath. Summer follows with cosmos, nicotiana and begonias for months of flower, plus a scented pelargonium by the door. Autumn offers heucheras, Japanese anemones and berries on the skimmia; winter brings cyclamen, winter pansies and the odd orange seedpod of Iris foetidissima.

Feed containers fortnightly from April to September, water daily in hot spells, and repot permanent plants every two or three years. Keep the evergreens clipped and the grit topped up, and your courtyard will look composed on the dullest day of the year.