Making a garden: A PLACE TO ENTERTAIN

Sunny days and warm, balmy evenings are here at last, so make your garden the perfect welcoming space for meals, parties and celebrations with Alan Titchmarsh's easy guide

- Alan Titchmarsh

In my experience, a trouble shared might be a trouble dragged out until bedtime, but a garden shared is a garden enjoyed to the full. What is the point in putting in all that work if you can't share the fruits of your labours with friends and family? The garden especially in the summer months is a place to make happy memories, to eat, drink and laugh with our nearest and dearest, who will hopefully admire our efforts and give us a rosy glow.

Gardens that are created with company in mind are the ultimate shared pleasures. If a garden is designed from the outset to allow for al fresco dining, for having friends round for drinks of a summer's evening and family lunches on warm weekends, then that extra dimension makes it even more valuable as an outdoor room than it is from day to day as simply somewhere to grab a breath of fresh air before and after work.

Over the years I've found that three or four spots - large and small-scattered around our garden, allow us to enjoy each other's company and that of friends and neighbours, who can drop in for a coffee during the day or a glass in the early evening. Versatility is the key, and with a bit of planning you'll find that even the smallest of gardens can become a welcoming space in which to entertain.

Finding the right spot

Of course it's easier if your garden is large, but even in a tiny patch there's usually room for a single chair or a 'bistro set' of tiny table and a couple of chairs outside the back door for a morning coffee or an evening bevvy.

The tiny table between two all-weather wicker chairs outside our back door has upon it a bonsai hornbeam given to me as a present, but in very hot weather the miniature tree is moved to a shady spot and a potful of something seasonal replaces it - a scented-leaved pelargonium or a shallow half-pot filled with succulents.