• Reliable varieties of favourite garden plants, such as Salvia ‘Amistad’ and Geranium ‘Rozanne’ provide long lasting colour
• Easy plants to grow from seed include the delicate umbel Orlaya grandiflora, along with sweet peas, which add a cottage garden touch

Charlie’s Courtyard is an imaginary garden for my daughter’s first London home. It’s a west–facing space with a cottage garden style. Two, deep perennial borders surround a terrace of clay pavers, set out in a herringbone pattern. A small greenhouse sits in the south-eastern corner, containing pots of young plants. More terracotta pots, with herbs and annuals, fill the garden.

This garden is designed to show how to create abundant, frothy borders with a limited number of easy, reliable plant varieties – some grown from seed – and in a simple colour palette of purple, pink and white.