Garden timesaversAround the garden

Get value for veg

Runner beans are easy to grow and offer plenty of rewards

If you want to grow vegetables, choose ones that are reasonably easy to care for and give a good return for your effort.

Avoid pest-prone cabbages, low-yielding peas, and hard-to-grow celery and cauliflower. By contrast, calabrese, courgettes, leaf beet, leeks, lettuce, mangetout peas, runner beans, shallots and tomatoes should return a good harvest.

You can save time and effort by buying small plants from garden centres rather than starting all your veg off from seed. Peas are the exception but their large seeds are easy to handle and usually grow reliably. Plant mini shallots, known as sets, rather than seeds.

Fill in with foliage

Fix problem areas like gaps in borders or plants that look dull for most of the year. Make use of plants with bold foliage that will look good over a long period such as bamboos and ferns, spear-leaved phormium or round-leaved bergenia.

Controllable climbers

Ribes speciosum

Climbers are great for making use of vertical space on walls or fences, but need regular attention and all too easily get out of control (see our ).

Wall shrubs need training into place initially but afterwards an annual trim is sufficient. Good choices include:

• Californian glory (Fremontodendron californicum)
• Ceanothus,
• Fishbone cotoneaster
• Flowering quince (Chaenomeles)
• Fuchshia-flowered currant (Ribes speciosum)
• Pineapple broom (Cytisus battandieri)
• Pyracantha
• Silk tassel bush (Garrya elliptica)

Beds with boundaries

For plants that only occupy the ground for a short time, such as veg, and flowers for cutting, consider building raised beds with permanent paths instead of taking a traditional allotment approach.

This immediately brings a sense of order and can be very decorative if you shape and arrange the beds to create a pattern.

Bring order and decoration by building raised beds

It also makes maintenance much easier. The paths give good access whatever the weather and raising the soil means jobs like weeding and sowing are quicker and easier.

Fuss-free fruit

If you fancy tasty, healthy, home-grown fruit, start with easygoing apples rather than pears (which need specific conditions to grow well) and raspberries (which are straightforward to grow, rather than strawberries that need lots of attention.

Blueberries are easy to grow in pots (few gardens have the really acid soil they need) and have pretty flowers and good autumn colour to add to the display. See our guide to growing soft fruit.

Get tooled up

Make the most of your labours by getting the best tools for the job. A stainless steel spade the right length for your height may not turn digging into a pleasure, but it will get it done more quickly and easily. A good rake will do the job in half the time, and sharp secateurs are better for the plant as well as the gardener.

Stylish furniture can add to your garden

Treat yourself to a large, manoeuvrable wheelbarrow that will hold all your tools, plants and rubbish as you traverse your plot – see how much fetching and carrying time you save.

Add carefree colour and style

Don’t rely on plants alone to keep your garden looking good. Replace that bedraggled collection of pot plants on your patio with attractive all-weather furniture or a stylish statue. Add colour by painting your shed, fence, trellis or plant supports in bright or subtle tones.