Using gravel in your garden can create an excellent, in-expensive but practical garden surface. It's attractive, maintenance-free, simple to lay and fits in well with plants. It will work well with irregular outlines, and it can be effective in any area large or small. Whole gardens can be turned over to gravel with some judicious use of complimentary paving and attractive planting.

Most Japanese gardens require little maintenance because the components that are used are things like gravel, pebbles, stones, wood, water and occasional, carefully-chosen and well-positioned shrubs or small trees.

The Garden Design
It is important to create a sense of tranquillity and if possible provide areas for contemplation in the garden.

Edging the lawn with brick or paving, so that the mower can run over it saving time and energy, means that the only trimming you will need to do will be occasionally cutting back any long stems of grass that grow over the paving.

1)Lay paving slabs or bricks on the grass for positioning, and use a half-moon edger (edging iron) to cut an edge.

An established wildflower garden requires much less maintenance than a conventional one. Making one, however, can initially be quite demanding as there is some basic preparation of the soil required and the garden takes time to become established. Creating a large meadow will need much more effort, so it is advisable for the time pressed gardener to concentrate on a small wildlife swathe.

Robust heathers make excellent low-maintenance beds in open sunny positions.

There are varieties to provide year round colour and most have attractive foliage, which often changes colour according to the season.

If you have space, heathers look best planted in bold drifts. Depending on the size of the bed, plant them in groups of perhaps ten or twenty of each variety.

Garden birds are not just about looking nice while hanging from your bird feeders, they actually provide a vital role. If you are a keen gardener then you may already have birdfeeders in your garden to attract your local birdlife, but if you don't here are some good reasons why you should.

If you are a keen rose grower or maybe enjoy the produce of your vegetable plot then you will know how difficult it is to keep away the pests.

If you thought that filling your garden with plants and flowers would create lots of extra work and attention think again. You can create a stunning low maintenance garden simply by following a few simple rules.

Beds And Borders
Attractive, well-filled beds and borders bring a garden to life, but they are potentially time consuming. You can reduce the amount of work involved simply by choosing low-maintenance plants and keeping them weed-free by mulching, perhaps with a decorative chipped bark, or with chemical controls.

It's not just nice for you to have birds visit your garden, it is also good for your garden as well, the reason is that most varieties of garden birds have a great appetite for insect pests that populate your garden and cause harm to your plants and shrubs.

If you want to make your garden bird friendly and attract birds to your garden you have to consider the following things.