Picture in your mind’s eye an idyllic, warm summer Sunday afternoon spent in a garden – bright flowers gently nodding to lazily buzzing bees, the air sweet with the thick scent of nectar. Probably the most common and popular garden style that we imagine is the traditional English country cottage garden: lovely to look at in the spring and summer but high maintenance and not much ‘bang for your buck’ in the winter.The trick for the majority of clients is to come up with a design which gives the feel of a cottage garden but is not high maintenance while also giving year round interest. This is precisely what I achieved in the garden shown in the picture opposite.