Many gardeners prefer the smaller garden for they have little time or inclination for anything larger. Have you ever thought how much time you need or want to devote on your garden? Well perhaps it’s not as much as you think. Maybe as little as one or two hours a week. Let us take a very simple example. A small lawn will take probably less than an hour a week to cut and will keep lawn weeds down. A hedge will need to be cut at least once or twice a year. The remaining work will just mean walking around for a few minutes each week with a pair of scissors or sharp secateurs dead-heading or cutting out the weeds with a garden hoe. After this arduous work schedule you may sit back in your garden chair and admire what must be one of the most boring sights ever. After a time most of us will want to make the view more interesting by adding a bit more colour or some plants with interesting form. So why not become a garden designer? You’ll need a sheet of paper and a pencil and a comfortable chair.
Start to really think about shapes, and plants and what they actually do. Draw the outline of your garden. Square? Or rectangular? Curved shapes will increase the interest of your borders. Squares or rectangular shapes make the place look hard and angular so try and alter them. 
Lawns which are curved are easier to mow. Ornamental grasses soften the look of everything, and need to be cut down no more than once a year. Plants with large shiny leaves reflect light and are great for use on the patio or in a shadier part of the garden. Try and plant blocks of colour or interest. Plant in threes, fives or sevens. The impact will be greater.
If you have a patio (or want one) don’t raise it more than a foot or so above the general level.
Use some large ornamental pots. Not the Alibaba kind that could hold a donkey. If you want them for plants don’t, whatever you do, make the mistake of trying to fill the entire thing with good compost. Instead half fill them with polystyrene and then put in the compost. Your borders will need plenty of compost, no doubt to prevent water evaporation, encourage worms and improve drainage, but then don’t ignore small (coloured) stone. Try and improve your fencing. Chain link fencing is all very well and long lasting, but sometimes the old fashioned wattle fencing will do wonders for the look of a particular area. It can be placed in front of your chain link fencing to hide it.
Having said all of this don’t get carried away too much for you are still a part-time gardener. Your time is precious but you’ll get great satisfaction if you make it a bit more interesting, and it will increase the value of your property. You may also be able to afford to pay someone to look after things once you have finished your improvements, although your own input need still not involve more than an hour or two a week. Make certain that the work you do in the garden is of the highest quality. Don’t be slap happy, for we need to set a good example for the youngsters around us. When you have made the improvements you think might work, then I suggest you sit back in your comfortable chair, take a cooling drink and give yourself a pat on the back. The time you will spend maintaining your garden need not have increased at all, but the view will have improved. And so will the value of your property. Until next week may your God go with you wherever you may be.
