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When discussing trees with clients there’s one that often comes up as being particularly admired – the Japanese Maple, or Acer palmatum. It’s easy to see why it’s so popular – the leaves are pretty and often change colour more than once from spring to summer and on into autumn. If your garden’s exposed and windy, there are other trees that can work very well for you, but if you have a sheltered site, even if it’s very small, the Acer palmatum is well worth a try.

For the first time in over a century, the RHS Chelsea Flower Show was held this year in September instead of May, and after last year’s cancellation, eager crowds descended last week on the London showground to find out what’s happening in the world of gardens and garden design – and your columnist was one.

I think ornamental grasses are probably an acquired taste. When I first started gardening myself, I was definitely drawn to anything that flowered, and like a child in a sweet shop, the more flowers the better, and the bigger and brighter they were, the more I liked them. It took a while for me to appreciate the part played by foliage in the scheme of things, not to mention form, shape and structure, and that’s no bad thing – it’s all part of the wonderful journey of discovery that accompanies an entry into the great gardening world.

For the first time in over a century, the RHS Chelsea Flower Show was held this year in September instead of May, and after last year’s cancellation, eager crowds descended last week on the London showground to find out what’s happening in the world of gardens and garden design – and your columnist was one.

I always wish at this time of year that I grew more dahlias. Older gardens have the most glorious clumps of them, often supported by canes and string, and in such large groups that you can tell they’ve been growing happily there for decades. They just don’t behave so well for me – my soil’s very lean and the slugs are voracious – so unless I buy new each season or grow them from tubers, I have to admire them from afar.

It’s the time of year when summer pots and containers can start to look straggly and it can be tempting to think that their season is over and leave them to their own devices. With a little effort and TLC though, you can keep them flowering and looking good for weeks yet, until it’s time to pull them out and replace them with the more sedate winter container plants.

If there is one thing I would love gardeners to consider more often, it’s the need to be generous with your borders.

They must be one of the most impressive climbing plants, with glorious blooms in a beautiful range of shades, but there’s no denying clematis can be tricky. Winter and spring types can mostly take care of themselves, but summer flowering clematis fall into several different categories, all needing pruning, and if you prune at the wrong time of year, you could lose a year’s flowers. It’s this kind of calendar-watching that puts lots of people off gardening, so my rule of thumb is always to keep it simple and choose things that don’t need to be mollycoddled.

For many of us, the garden is the first thing we see when we open the door in the morning, or return to our homes after a day’s work. Increasingly, however, I find I’m called on to produce garden plans for second homes, for lots of reasons. The second property might be a holiday let, or a much- needed weekend refuge for city dwellers. It’s often the ‘home house’, originally belonging to parents and now being restored for the next generation to spend vacation time in with their families, keeping them linked to their roots. Sometimes, the plan is to move there altogether during the retirement years, so starting the garden now and allowing it to grow and mature in the meantime makes sense

A garden by the sea can be magical. Or windswept, bare and failing to realise its potential. Personally, I’d go for the former if I had one – and lots of people do – we seem to be drawn to towards the coast like a magnet, to live, to holiday, or just to spend a day near the water.