When I was a teenager, we moved to a beautiful dolls house in the sticks and planted a garden. This was the front garden, which we kept nice and simple. We planted lavender at regular intervals along the gravel path and twined a red climbing rose over the porch.
This is what a low-maintenance garden should look like. The plants, rather than any landscaping, are the stars of the show, and all that needs doing is the odd deadheading. Even this was hardly difficult: my friends used to pick the red roses and give them to their girlfriends, and cutting the lavender meant we could dry it and hang it up indoors. The back garden, with its brickwork-clay and mole housing estate was a different story. But this garden, with just two different plants in it, was the best thing we ever did.
