Design magazines and home decorating catalogs tend to feature sprawling backyards with big wooden decks and room for everything from decorative fountains to artificial ponds.

But few of us have that much outdoor space.

Still, with a few strategic choices, you can create something truly special out of even the smallest yard or porch, says Los Angeles-based designer Brian Patrick Flynn.

Here, he and two other design experts — small-space specialist Kyle Schuneman and landscape designer Chris Lambton — offer advice on the best furnishings, plants and decorating strategies for making the most of a small yard, modest deck or petite patio.

Go flexible and mobile

“With a small outdoor space, I really like to think double duty,” says Schuneman, author of “The First Apartment Book: Cool Design for Small Spaces” (Potter Style, 2012). Look for seating that has hidden storage space inside and tall planters that add privacy.

And choose items that can easily be moved, such as lightweight flowerpots or planters on wheels, says Lambton, host of the gardening design series “Going Yard” on HGTV. “It’s an easy DIY thing,” he says, to buy an assortment of inexpensive plastic pots and paint them to match your outdoor décor.

If planters are lightweight or on wheels, you can move them to get proper sunlight at different times of day, and rearrange them if you’re entertaining guests and need more space. And, Lambton says, they can be moved inside to a sunny window or doorway when cold weather arrives.

Choose the right furniture

“The easiest way to make small outdoor spaces appear smaller is to fill them with lots of pieces,” says Flynn, founder of the design website decordemon.com.

“Instead, go big with sectionals, or flank perfectly square or rectangular areas with identical love seats or sofas. This not only maximizes the seating potential, but it also keeps the space from becoming too busy or even chopped up. In my outdoor living room, I used a U-shaped outdoor sectional which seats up to seven comfortably.”

When arranging furniture, consider the view: If the home’s exterior is more attractive than the outdoor view, Flynn says, consider positioning seats so that you’ll face your home rather than looking away from it.

Plant wisely

All three designers say your choice of plants is especially important when space is limited.

Choose plants with a purpose: “Lavender’s great,” Lambton says, because it’s attractive, easy to grow and deters bugs. Marigolds will also help keep insects away.

Lambton also suggests putting up a trellis as a privacy wall, and planting it with colorful wisteria or climbing hydrangea. Or choose a tall holly or cypress plant in a large planter.

“Holly will be green all year round,” he says, and can help transform an unappealing view.

None of these plants are hard to take care of, Lambton says. “If you’re having coffee in the morning, just go out and dump a little bit of water in.”

Flynn agrees, and also suggests using potted grasses, which are “low maintenance and, as they grow, they create a full wall of privacy.”

Think vertically

If you love plants but have minimal space, add a wall-mounted garden filled with succulent plants to one wall, says Schuneman: “It’s a great way to add life and texture without actually taking any real estate up on your small balcony or patio.”

He also suggests using narrow planters to create “long, narrow, raised flower beds that go the length of the space.” They provide room for plants to grow, while also creating a ledge that’s “great for coffee cups or a casual lunch,” he says.

Flynn suggests playing up the height of your space by adding long outdoor curtains or hanging pendant lights.

Drench with color

“I usually paint concrete slabs (on the floor) a bold color or an accent color carried out from an adjacent room,” Flynn says. “This helps the patio feel like an extension when you look out to it through a door. On the flip side, when seated out in the patio looking inward, the consistent use of color flowing inside and outside makes the patio itself feel much more open.”

Flynn also suggests using outdoor curtains for a burst of color, and to block an unattractive view or hide items like electrical boxes and storage bins. “Outdoor draperies are, hands-down, the easiest way to soften an otherwise all-concrete and stucco space, while also being able to control how much or how little neighbors can see.”

Or, he says, order a basic trellis from an online retailer like Hayneedle.com, then “paint it a bold color and use it to instantly make an outdoor space feel more room-like.”

And for a burst of natural color, Lambton suggests adding a small, tabletop fire pit for a golden glow at night. “Some are small enough, and they don’t put off a lot of heat,” he says.

Create your own art

“Most people don’t think of using art outside, but it can be done, especially in a DIY manner,” Flynn says. “My favorite trick is to use tent canvas and stretch it across a DIY frame made from pressure-treated lumber, and add some gesso to the surface for texture.”

Once you’ve created your canvas, he says, “pick up some exterior latex paint, then get as abstract as you want to play with color shape and texture. Once the art is dry, add a sealer to protect it from moisture, then hang it up to create a focal point, and/or add another layer of privacy.”

You can make any outdoor space more beautiful, Lambton says, with just a few hours of effort and a small investment.

“If you get two or three pots and a couple of bags of planting mix,” he says, “it’s easy to do for a couple hours on a Saturday. … Just a little bit of color and life will really dress up your outdoor space.”

Grace Amboka from Nairobi, Kenya, and Charling Chen, a recent Washington University graduate, share a common purpose: Saving bees and other pollinators and growing more fruit and vegetables.

Concerned about the world crisis of declining bee populations, they and 26 other college students are designing and helping plant pollinator-friendly gardens in Florissant, Nairobi and Tucson, Ariz. Across continents and cultures, they say, they hope to increase public awareness about the importance of hazards facing bees and the need for human intervention to help.

“Most people don’t connect the micro-scale of the bee to plants and then to the food on their dinner tables,” Chen said.

With fewer bees to pollinate flowers and vegetables, crops and food production are adversely affected.

The year-long program is called PAUSE, Pollinators/Art/Urban Agriculture/Society/and the Environment. It’s part cultural “cross-pollination,” part ecological mission and part arts and garden design. In addition to the students, the Kenyan group includes scientists from the National Museums of Kenya in Nairobi. The American staff and experts come from the St. Louis Zoo and Tohono Chul Park in Tucson.

Increasing the number of native pollinators is so important to the St. Louis Zoo that it has its own Wildcare Institute Center for Native Pollinator Conservation. Ed Spevak, Curator of Invertebrates, is the center’s director and is coordinating the project here.

On June 18, the Zoo will offer the public a “Bee Thankful” dinner featuring food made possible by bees and other pollinators. The PAUSE students will speak at the event, part of “Pollinator Week.”

Next week, Chen, Spevak, Brittany Buckles, a recent graduate of Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville, and Mary Brong, a graphic designer with the Zoo, will travel to Nairobi to see the pollinator garden there.

Last month, Spevak and a Kenyan group traveled to the Tucson garden. Then, the Kenyans stayed a week in St. Louis to help plant the Florissant garden.

The U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs has contributed about $86,000 to the $200,000 cost of the one-year program. The remaining costs are shared by the Zoo and its project co-sponsors in Kenya and Tucson.

Spevak hopes the students will carry the message of the importance of pollinators to the community and especially to their generation.

“We want this — the Florissant garden — to become a model for other sites around St. Louis,” Spevak said. “We want to show others how you can develop and design a community garden or even a park that is pollinator-friendly and have benefits for local communities and beyond. Pollinators are incredibly important for all of our survival.”

To help pollinators survive, the St. Louis students are building a large two-flower sculpture they designed for the Florissant garden. It will used by bees for a nesting habitat. Colorful asters, sunflowers, cup plants and cone flowers also will draw and retain them.

In addition to Chen and Buckles, other participants are: Aaron Mann, an art education student at UMSL, Anna Villanyi, a Washington University communication design and anthropology major, Bingbin Zhou, a graduate student in architecture at Washington University, Trincy Nyswonger, a wildlife biology major at Lewis and Clark Community College, Heather Richardson, an anthropology major at SIU-E, Brianna Hamann, a speech communication major at SIU-E, Julia Gabbert, a Webster University student in journalism and environmental studies, and Shannon Slade, an architecture major at Washington University.

“Some people are fearful of bees but they’re so essential for our food,” Buckles said.

Other Missouri pollinators they hope to attract to the Florissant garden are butterflies, flies and ruby-throated hummingbirds.

The Florissant garden, at 601 St. Charles Street, by Old St. Ferdinand Shrine, now serves as Florissant’s Community Garden. Under PAUSES’ plans, it will be expanded to cover 3.5 acres.

Once completed, it will offer visitors a chance to stroll through prairie habitat, a wildflower walk, historic and Native American gardens and an orchard. A shared garden for local food banks will feed the poor and there will be raised beds for people using wheelchairs.

PAUSE is working with the city of Florissant, the Florissant Community Garden Club and Gateway Greening, which promotes community urban gardens, and expects to bring in the Missouri Prairie Foundation. Florissant gardeners are doing the day-to-day work on the garden.

Knoxville Botanical Garden and Arboretum is hosting a talk by historian Judith B. Tankard about England’s most famous gardener, Gertrude Jekyll, on Saturday, June 8.

Tankard is the author of eight books on American and European landscape history; her most recent work is “Gertrude Jekyll and the Country House Garden.”

Tankard writes that Jekyll “was an artist, a gardener, a designer, a writer, and much more.” Jekyll (1843-1932) spent most of her life in Surrey, England, working from her home at Munstead Woods, a 15-acre estate she transformed into an extensive woodland flower garden. She published several important books, including, most famously, “Colour in the Flower Garden,” and wrote a long-running column in Country Life, one of the most influential gardening magazines of the period.

Jekyll designed hundreds of gardens in her career, including collaborations with many of the most important architects in early twentieth century England. Her gardens often remind viewers of impressionist paintings with their compositions of large drifts of colorful bedding plants.

Tankard has contributed articles in numerous national publications and previously edited the Journal of the New England Garden History. She has a M.A. in art history from the Institute of Fine Arts, New York University and taught at the Landscape Institute at the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University. She is one of America’s leading scholars on American landscape design.

Tickets to the June 8 lecture are $20 for members and $30 for non-members. Call 865-862-8717 or email dana@knoxgarden.org for reservations.

Tankard responded via email to questions about her work.

Your books are generally about landscape designers of the last century and the work they created. What is it about them and their gardens that captivates you?

A: I am interested in British and American architects associated with the Arts and Crafts Movement and all my books reflect the collaboration of architects and garden designers.

How did your career evolve from owning a clothing business to focusing on landscape design?

A: I have a master’s degree in art history specializing in British architecture and design. My interest in the history of landscape architecture evolved from my knowledge of British and American architects of the late 19th and early 20th century, including Edwin Lutyens, who designed gardens with Gertrude Jekyll. My former careers include art book publishing and a brief career as a clothing designer.

What do suburban gardeners need to understand about creating their own outdoor spaces?

A: My best advice is to keep everything as simple as possible, from the layout to the palette of plants. No need to cram every idea and thing into one space.