Garden Guru: Tricks of the trade

Old doors make useful, inexpensive tables (left), and a good bench will instantly elevate your garden design. Photos / Supplied

I'm reading Winnie the Pooh to the kids. Somewhere under the surface I think there is something clever going on and I'm hoping that somehow I will absorb some of that pseudo-philosophical cleverness.

The boys certainly lap it up though I'm not sure they follow it all. Perhaps they just like the pictures or the funny voice that I do for Piglet and of which I'm rather proud. Or perhaps they get a buzz just from the knowledge they get to stay up that bit later.

There is a parallel with gardens: there is the surface stuff most of us can see and then, sometimes, there is deeper significance, meaning or artistry. The funny thing is that if, on the surface, you can get a few basic things right, you could be credited with all the deep stuff, too, and mistaken as some sort of design genius. But if you invest in a few tricks of the trade - the big pots, the single-colour theme - and you can pull the wool over the eyes of the most tasteful of your friends without ever having to learn a Latin name. While it's the plant fanatics who have junk-box gardens crammed as chaotically as a mad professor's desk drawer, it's those who hate plants and maintenance - who cringe at the thought of a pittosporum showering its leaves in their lap pool - who often have the best gardens.

What you will need is some ambition to make something of your outside space and a willingness to put in a bit of effort now and again. And now is certainly the time in the run-up to Christmas just before the onslaught of summer visitors who will be downing all your beers and criticising your over-indulgence in palms.

Here are a few no-nonsense projects guaranteed to give your plot a lick of confidence - and confidence always scores above ability.

Seats - near to the house you want something that is highly functional and comfortable but if you treat yourself to one garden feature this Christmas invest in a decorative bench - one that looks the part no matter how uncomfortable. Put it away from the house as a focal point to draw everybody out off the deck. Site it where it is not staring back to the house or at the dustbins, and on an angle where you won't have the sun in your face when you park your bum. Decide on a simple, definite shape for your lawn and trim the edges accordingly. A perfect circle/ellipse/oblong will always be infinitely more classy than a whole spaghetti bowl of wiggles. Water features can go horribly wrong: foam, slime and the lingering whiff of barleystraw and chlorine can hang around near the barbecue as you try to rectify an algae bloom. More often than not they tinkle, too, so unless you can afford a decent gush, don't bother.

When it comes to pots, the bigger the better. All pots need to be grouped in a meaningful way. If you have a lot scattered about go into sheep-dog mode and round them into corners.

Group the glazed ones roughly by colour but don't be too contrived: browns with greys and black, good; red and rusts, okay; but blue is distinctly dodgy. Deposit the terracotta sorts in another part of the garden.

Throw some money at refreshing the planting in these. You can't go wrong with a cycad or three . The same goes for an aloe or a bit of topiary.

If going for flowers, avoid mixing colours. Choose just one or two types of plant and pot up everything with the same thing, which will glue together the hotchpotch of containers you have amassed over the years. Anything plastic or with dragons on the side should go behind the shed for the summer.

The tasteful garden never has enough big leaves but look for something a bit different rather than palms, flax and treeferns. Scheffleras have a great presence as do any of the industrial figs. Divaricating natives mixed in a sea of daylillies will give you a shot of colour mixed with some much-needed political correctness.

Finally, ditch notions of any expensive patio furniture made from tropical hardwood. Instead salvage a secondhand door from a skip and set it on decorators trestles to make a table. Non-matching chairs scattered about will show you are not only caring for the environment but watching your wallet at the same time. Thrifty is the new black.

Could do this week

* Most orchids love to be shoe-horned into their pots but if your cymbidiums are bursting at the seams and you want more you can take a spade or knife to them now and divide into clumps. Don't be too greedy - leave big clumps.

* Keep on top of the deadheading of roses and perennials, especially if you are likely to get busy at the end of the month.

* Try to get any bare areas of garden beds mulched to save weeding and watering through summer and plant up with groundcovers for a more permanent cover-up.

* Thin bunches of young apples and pears if you think you are in for a bumper crop so you don't exhaust the bushes. This way you'll be rewarded with larger fruit.