Shady Garden at www.japanese-home-gardens.com

WORK OUT how much you can afford to spend on your new garden. • There is no point thinking up a grand scheme if you can't afford to carry it out. Work out how much spare time you have to spend in your garden to maintain it. • If you lead a fast-paced life, you may well not have a lot of time to garden, in which case, work out a low-maintenance plan for your new garden. Ask yourself what you want out of your new garden. Are you a passionate plant collector? Do you have small children? Do you want to grow vegetables as well as flowers? Assess your backyard and consider what is possible and what is not possible to achieve. • If, for example, you have a shady garden backyard, it's no use having a new design that incorporates larye areas of flower filled with sun-loving plants. Similarly, if you live in an area of chalky soil, there are certain plants which will not thrive there.

Asingle pool in a garden tends to dominate. This design shows the advantage of using two smaller areas. Placed between the two ponds is a range of bedding plants that thrive in a shady garden, moist environment. With formal pools it is important not to have too many aquatic plants, and shrubs provide adiversity of foliage, which makes the garden seem larger than it really is.

A shady garden BACKYARD is not as disastrous as many people think it may be and, in any case, very few backyards have no sun at all; most have at least a gleam for part of the day. However, sunless spots can be brought to life by plants, for there are many that will grow in shady garden conditions.