Why Scent Works Harder in a Tiny Courtyard

A courtyard garden is a gift to a scented planting scheme, even if it feels like a compromise at first glance. Enclosed on three or four sides, sheltered from wind and warmed by brick or stone through the afternoon, a small space holds fragrance rather than letting it blow straight past you. Scent accumulates in still air. Sit out at seven in the evening and a single jasmine will scent the whole yard.

The other advantage is height. In a courtyard you are rarely walking past plants at knee level; you are sitting among them, brushing against them, reaching over them to get to the door. That means a handful of well-chosen pots can do the work of a border ten times the size. You do not need many plants. You need the right ones, in the right containers, in the right corners.

Get the Pots and Compost Right First

Everything else follows from this. Scented herbs and climbers are unforgiving about wet feet, and a courtyard often has hard paving that sheds water slowly. Before you buy a single plant, sort out the containers.

• Size matters. Aim for pots at least 30–35cm across for lavender and mint, and 45cm or more for a jasmine that will live in the same container for years.
• Terracotta or glazed stoneware is worth the money. It is heavy enough not to blow over, and it breathes, which helps roots in a hot, sheltered corner.
• Drainage is non-negotiable. A layer of crocks over the hole, and pot feet to lift the base clear of the paving so water never sits underneath.
• Compost: John Innes No. 2 suits lavender, rosemary and jasmine, which prefer a firmer, leaner mix. Mint is greedier — multipurpose compost with a little grit is fine.
• Watering: in a courtyard, small pots may need watering every day in July and August. A morning soak beats a midday sprinkle.

Three Scented Essentials: Lavender, Jasmine and Mint

Lavender is the backbone of a sunny courtyard. Choose a compact English variety such as 'Hidcote' or 'Munstead' rather than the taller French lavenders, which are less hardy and flop in rain. Give it the sunniest spot you have — six hours or more — and go easy on the feeding. Rich compost makes lavender soft, leafy and short-lived. Clip the flowered stems back by about a third in late August, but never cut into the old, leafless wood, because it rarely reshoots.

Jasmine gives you the evening. Common jasmine, Jasminum officinale, is hardy through most of the UK in a sheltered spot and produces its white, pink-flushed flowers from midsummer into September. Its scent intensifies after dusk, which is exactly when you want it. Train it up an obelisk or along a wall with vine eyes and wire, tying in the new growth as it goes. If your courtyard is very cold or very shaded, star jasmine is a steadier bet, though it needs a south or west-facing wall to flower well.

Mint is the one people forget, and it should not be. Moroccan mint and apple mint both carry a clean, cool scent released whenever you brush past, and their small flowers are among the best late-summer bee plants going. Keep it strictly in its own pot — sink that pot into a larger container if you like the look — or it will run through everything else within two seasons.

Layering the Scent Through the Season

The trick to a courtyard that smells good for months rather than weeks is overlap. Plant for a sequence and let the fragrances hand over to one another.

Lavender starts you off in June and carries on into August. Jasmine takes over in July and holds the evening shift until the first frosts. Mint fills the gaps all summer, quietly, whenever you move a chair. Add a pot of night-scented stock or tobacco plant near the door for late evenings, and a clove-scented pink for early summer, and you have something in flower and in perfume from May to October without any single plant having to do too much.

Making the Courtyard Work for Bees

A scented courtyard is a bee café if you let it be. The key is to leave the flowers alone. Do not deadhead the mint — those unassuming little blooms are a magnet for honeybees and hoverflies in August when little else is open. Choose single-flowered varieties of everything; double flowers often have their nectar and scent bred away.

• Let lavender flower fully before you trim it, and leave a few stems standing over winter for shelter.
• Keep a shallow dish of water with pebbles in it at ground level. Bees need to drink, and they cannot swim.
• Group pots together rather than spacing them out — bees find patches of flowers more easily, and the plants shelter one another.
• Avoid sprays entirely. In a courtyard, there is nowhere for the residue to go.

Small Jobs That Keep It Going

In spring, scrape off the top 5cm of compost in each pot and replace it with fresh, then water well. Through summer, feed the jasmine and mint fortnightly with a diluted tomato feed, but leave the lavender alone. In autumn, move the most tender pots against the house wall and raise them onto feet again — the wall gives back warmth through the night.

Come winter, a courtyard can look bare, but that is fine. The jasmine will hold its structure, the lavender will hold its shape, and the whole thing will be quietly building itself for next June. Fill a pot with winter-flowering heather or a small skimmia if you want something in the meantime. Then wait for the first warm evening, open the door, and let the scent do the rest.