Garden design all about function

According to Bob Sweet, shows organiser for the Royal Horticultural Society, how much time people spend on their garden and what they need to do to get the best out of it can be quite different.

“Think about what you want your garden for to start with and if you want to invite friends around for a barbeque or you want the kids to use the garden to play football in, it would be a very different garden to one where you want it to be a showcase full of very delicate plants,” he explained.

For gardens that will be used for lots of activities, hardier plants like ornamental grasses are the ones to go for, as they will grow without much attention being paid to them, the expert suggested.

On the other hand, gardens that are set up to be full of colour throughout the summer will need lots of varieties of flowers, which will require plenty of hard work to maintain