In your garden: Make small spaces look beautiful

The spring is a great time to be positive about those areas that seem to remain unloved each year.

One space we've been working on is an awkward gap between two sets of railings outside a front door, home to many empty fish packets that blow along the street. We use various community projects to supply us with containers, often making planters for the most unusual spaces, so this "coffin" shaped box was no problem.

Any container for a year-round, small garden needs to have as much volume as possible to make the most of root space and maximise water retention.

So, planter in place, filled with drainage medium and compost, it was time to plant. The householder wanted plants to provide a bright welcome each season - not a spiky supermarket car park type arrangement that looks the same all year.

To make a container garden work, plants need to be relatively slow growers so as not to overwhelm the space; be hard workers so flowering seasons are long; and finally give you the look or smell you want.

Our planter now has several contrasting species of Hebe in a chequer board pattern to provide year-round colour and long summer flowering. It has a lovely Cornus tree for spring flowers and bright autumn colour, and variegated trailing plants to soften the edge. There's still space for more - we're aiming for almost full ground cover as we don't fancy climbing over railings every week to weed it.

• Jackie Macdonald is a partner in the city's Small Green Spaces, specialising in container gardening for small urban spaces using locally and ethically sourced materials (www.smallgreenspaces.co.uk or 0131-557 1107).