Low maintenance garden design and ideas

One planted mostly with evergreen shrubs and grasses, with gravel or planting in place of a small lawn. The RHS says there is no such thing as a no maintenance plant, but many hardy evergreens need little care once established, and grasses need only one cut a year.

Compact shrubs that keep their shape without clipping, such as hebe, pittosporum and dwarf mountain pine, with blue fescue or Mexican feather grass in front of them. Water them through their first year, and after that they rarely need it.

Yes, at first. The RHS advises watering new plants regularly for their first year or two, even drought tolerant ones. Once established, most shrubs and grasses in the ground cope without extra water except in long dry spells.

Most do not once they are in the ground: the RHS says most shrubs thrive without extra feeding, and established grasses rarely need it. Plants in pots are the exception and need feeding through the growing season.

Yes. Add a photo of your garden, choose the Low maintenance style, and see it redesigned in about a minute. Your house, fences and trees stay.

Yes. With the Pro and Max plans every design names its plants: garden centre favourites and RHS Award of Garden Merit winners, chosen by a professional gardener, with how big each grows and where each goes.

Your first 3 designs are free, with no card needed. The Pro plan is £29 and the Max plan is £49, paid once, with nothing to cancel.

Yes. Make different designs and compare them on your own garden. Your first 3 are free, and Pro, one payment of £29, gives you 20 designs over 14 days, two at a time, so you can see several looks side by side.

We show your garden at its peak, in full flower, so you can see how full it can look. It is an artist's impression: your real garden changes through the seasons. Every paid design comes with a flowering calendar, so you know what flowers each month, and evergreen shapes help it look good in winter.