It's using a restricted palette of plants in large swaths that makes designer gardens look... well, designery. But have you got the self-restraint?

How do you stop yourself indulging in plants when the array is irresistible? Too much choice has a downside: our gardens become eclectic collections – a disjointed jumble on which the eye struggles to rest. Sticking to fewer varieties and planting in bigger sweeps has greater impact and is better in terms of design, but it is hard to maintain one's resolve: I often succumb to a mouthwatering plant without a clue where it's going to go.

If your outside space is microscopic, you need to be extra-clever about giving it atmosphere. So steal some nifty tricks from indoors

It's been endlessly said that gardens have become "extensions of the home" without this cliché telling us much. But the idea of an interior room begins to be useful when you're trying to make something of a micro yard – that minuscule patch before an abrupt wall, where the sky is visible only when you crick your neck all the way back.

Ageing: How to age successfully

We need to be wary of prejudices regarding our elderly family members. Asked for the first images that spring to mind regarding old age, large samples of both old and young people most commonly use the following adjectives: ill, infirm, forgetful, frail and decrepit. This is a stereotype, and ageism (a term coined in 1969) is as bad as sexism or racism.

Many ornamental grasses look gorgeous but are either invasive or produce forests of seedlings. Here are 10 well-behaved beauties