A small area around the country house is not a reason for grief. Remember the Japanese and their famous Japanese gardens, which they equip in very tiny areas. Landscaping a small area is a very exciting activity that can be attributed to a kind of art. Connect your imagination, desire and skill, use the practical advice of friends or authors of articles, and you can create an exotic corner for relaxation in front of your house with your own hands.
The use of wood in landscaping a small area
Increase space
Of course, it is physically impossible to make something big out of small things with any trick, but there is such a thing as “optical illusions”. In the case of designing a small area, this means the use of some tricky simple tricks that will visually increase the volume and create the impression of spaciousness and fullness. The main thing is that everyone can create these tricks with their own hands.
Fence
Tall and from all four sides it turns a small territory of a summer cottage into a box without windows and doors. Most of the territory is shaded for the entire solar period, which creates, in addition to a gloomy look, also an obstacle to the lush growth of greenery and flowers.
To fence a small area, the fence should be low or high, but transparent. In this case, rare picket fences are applicable, all types,. 
An example of the use of a fence in the landscape design of a site
If for some reason you still need a deaf and high fence, try to make it at least not from all sides and decorate it as much as possible with green spaces, climbing plants and flowers.
An excellent option for a fence in front of the house: a high fence made of forged rods or mesh, densely lined with tall evergreen shrubs on the inside. Visually, it will look from the yard, like a house surrounded by a large forest, and from the street, such a fence will be opaque.
Another trick: a heavy, dark-colored one can be pasted over with convex mirror surfaces. The surroundings of the country house, displayed in these details, will visually double in size.
Water
It is not necessary to have a pool or pond on the site. 
Arrangement of a small pond in a small area Small, or will be able to visually enlarge the territory by displaying on its mirror surface. In addition, this is a kind of red herring: a few of these small surprises in different corners will not make it possible to focus on the size of the yard.
Correct tracks
Another trick for visually expanding space is the right one. Regardless of from, its location is important. Longitudinal paths do not need to be made straight, let them wind, twist, go around bushes and flower beds.
Let the path rest against a fence, similar in color to the color of the material of the path, and climbing plants close the top of the fence. This will create the effect of continuing, just like a path ending near dense thickets. 
Arrangement of paths in a small area Visually expand the area will also help paths passing through arches entwined with lianas.
Plant placement
The layout of the suburban area is created in such a way as to fit on it a garden, a vegetable garden, and outbuildings next to the house. On a small plot, it is not necessary to create whole large ones; plants in pots and tubs look very original, arranged where there is a place. By the way, in the same pots, the inhabitants of the garden also feel good.
Read also
Cheap fences for summer cottages
It is desirable to place all vegetation according to the cascade principle: in the background there are tall trees, as you approach the facade - smaller ones, and in front of them - a lawn and flowers. It is rare that a suburban area is complete without trees - a corner with a shadow is also very necessary. 
An original solution in the landscape design of the site Try to make the best use of the space around the trees: here you can place circular garden benches for summer cottages, plant shade-loving plants, arrange interesting crafts, sculptures.
Unusual discoveries
How do you like this lawn? For us, a curiosity, but in the Scandinavian countries, and in the same Japan, a flower bed, a garden bed, or even a whole mini-garden on the roof is a common thing. Saving space is one thing, and a thermos-effect roof is two.
Bright moments
What do stylists recommend? In order to hide a flaw, it is not necessary to hide it. Enough to highlight the benefits. Also in the design of a summer cottage: bright details will distract from small sizes. It can be unusual, a bench, especially framed by bright flowers, bright crafts, sculptures, an unusually located garden.
Let's transform the garden
Creative ideas in the design of a country garden will significantly change the attitude towards this part of the site. If we discard a purely practical look at the garden and add a little creativity and imagination, useful beds will also become a decoration, created by oneself at no special cost.
Garden design options:
Raised beds above beautifully laid paths
Borders for decoration can be made from any available materials at hand: the remains of bricks, stones, profiled sheet strips, etc. What is good about this method:
- you can give the garden any shape;
- beds raised above the surface are better warmed by the sun;
- the care procedure is simplified: you can approach from any side, without dirt;
- planting vegetables in the garden can be combined with flowers, so that after harvesting the garden remains pleasing to the eye.
An example of a combination of vegetables with flowers: sowing onions alternates with any flowers that bloom later: asters, gladiolus, zinnia, marigolds. 
Onions are harvested in the middle of summer, and the flowers remain to delight the owners until the frost.
Bed in a barrel
The container does not have to be a barrel. It can be any volumetric dishes, large pots, boxes. Old barrels can be transformed with your own hands, painted to match the general decoration of the summer cottage, and they themselves will already become an element of decoration.
Cucumbers are extremely fond of such a planting: the harvest from a barrel-bed is not inferior to the harvest from an ordinary garden bed, which occupies twice the area.
A large crop of potatoes cannot be harvested from such a garden, but a garden in a barrel may well provide a family, in addition to cucumbers, also tomatoes, herbs, carrots, beans, and it will perform a decorative function. So that the containers are not empty after harvesting, add to them a bush of flowers with a long flowering period. 
An example of arranging beds in barrels The highlight of such a garden is that the containers can be moved to any convenient place, removed after harvesting.