If you have a small backyard, you've probably found that designing a landscape plan for it is a big challenge. The lack of space can really put a damper on the plans you might have had in your mind, but now see that you can't pull off with the space available. To avoid over-cluttering your small space, instead consider getting a little bit creative with it.

The first thing to understand is that size, whether perceived as large or small, is all an optical illusion that can be manipulated with smart design. A small space can seem huge if designed correctly and a large space can quickly become cramped if designed incorrectly.

In a small space, your first step is to hide the boundaries of the space: make the fence, wall, or edging hard to distinguish from everything else. Some paint and careful placement of plants and objects to break up the outline and remove any sign of a "line" at all will do this. Make the edges seem boundless or non-existant.

Playing with levels is another method of accomplishing this same task. By making things seem taller or shorter, wider or thinner than they really are, you can stretch the boundaries of your yard to make it look much bigger than it really is. Interior decorators do this by adding "height" to the room with tall, thin lines and by avoiding fat or cross-lines. The same works in your garden: use taller plants that seem to reach, but aren't very wide for their height. This creates the illusion of "big."

Finally, curved elements are another smart way to remove boundaries and make things look larger than they really are. Lines that can't be easily followed without they eye moving up and down (curves) create the illusion of height by giving the impression that the "line" is longer than it really is. Circles appear longer and larger than straight, thin lines do. Use that to your advantage.

Make the small areas in your backyard paramount. This is where you'll spend your time, sitting and enjoying your beautiful yard. The entire purpose of a back patio is to have a place to retreat to: to sit and relax and forget the world around you. Do this by using and objects to break up or block sounds, to shield you eyes from seeing neighbors' yards, fences, freeways, etc. Make your garden a secluded place you go to that is not part of the rest of the world.

Finally, make sure you don't go overboard with your ideas. Don't over crowd the space with so many things that it becomes cramped and disorderly. The idea is to create the illusion of disorder on the outside, like everything is more or less natural, but to have an underlying symmetry so it does not look totally chaotic.