We are blessed to live in the best neighbourhood and it's not because of the town, the amenities, the view, the shops, the transport links and everything else people have mentioned....it's because of our neighbours. We are several households with ages between 26 and 50, some with children (aged 4-23), others don't, we cover a range of professions and interests from sheep rearing to blogging to sausage making, horse riding and cycling. We have monthly get togethers that include curry nights, bbqs and games nights, some of us go on holiday together, others go camping and there's a brewery tour and beer festival every couple of months. We spend hours at a time chatting in the street after work and believe me when I say the men are worse than the women at this! We have a Christmas party every year and support a local school on quiz night. The pudding bake offs are reaching "legendary"status. The kids hangout together in their relevant age groups, I now have a surrogate son and daughter! But even with all of the above its not like we live in each other's pocket, we all do our own thing but we know that we can knock on a door if we need anything. When we went to Australia for 5 weeks at Christmas, leaving my 19 year old daughter to look after the dogs and house I could do it knowing that if she needed anything, just anything she could knock at 44, they even put themselves on the dog walking roster! Forget everything else, without great neighbours the rest of it doesn't mean a thing!

Hello Diane, What about introducing some buxus balls planted either into the soil or potted.. Clusters or other arrangements are fabulous.. If you are good at tending to them fairly regularly they should be easy to maintain! Then you can introduce bee friendly plants and herbs like Rosemary which is easy to pot and also comes in "standard" or otherwise known as Lollypop trees. Bee's love these and they have little blue flowers in spring.. Perhaps consider the bay tree too? These all tend to look after themselves and require only a bit of pruning to keep their shapes the female bay has little yellow/white flowers.. If you get sun then Olive trees are also beautiful.. Other climbing plants like Clematis and or some Roses.. Consider how you want to arrange these.. Round the home, garden area in rows and or clusters. To attract wildlife.. consider a bird feeder like this.. open and easy for a couple of birds to feed... I have about 3 of these.. I also put food on a small wooden slatted side table which the squirrels like.. Maybe consider a composting area and or some hedgehog nest boxes, bird boxes hidden in any climber on a fence for example.. Keeping some degree of natural areas like soil and some overgrown areas with some ivy or other climbing plants.. Keeping any hedging trimmed which promotes more dense growth.. Birds love this and other areas they can build nests in.. Tree's and or plants with berries.. I also have a fire pit/bbq which I let fill with water... It's like a drinking hole and a bird bath and the birds and squirrels love it... Oh and I have one plant suggestion for winter! Witch Hazel! It's like a bursting display of fireworks.. There are many varieties all with different colours.. but this I think is spectacular! So a few ideas which you may like.. You may want to consider a cherry blossom and or other small tree with lovely flowers.. Things to consider are light and soil although.. I have found a good all round compost works beautifully and I have all the above trees in large teracotta pots! (apart from the W.H which I'm waiting for. : ))

Hi there 81bec. I'm not sure if you've gotten started on the chances to your patch of garden, but if you haven't here are some tips, from someone who also loves low maintenance gardens that are drought proof but look gorgeous all year round..start buy getting rid of the camellia, what ever evergreen is hiding behind it and the red robin..leaving the one plant you actually seem to like, the Cordyline (good choice). Rake away all the gravel and lay down some good compost (after planting, layer over with mulch as it'll stop weeds and retain moisture, resulting in a lower maintenance garden). Next, put a piece of trellis against the side of the porch that currently has the camellia and evergreen and plant a Trachelospermum Jasminoides (Star Jasmine)-it's evergreen, a climber, low maintenance and has dark green leaves in summer with clusters of strongly fragrant white star-shaped flowers and rusty red leaves in winter, lovely. Next, plant a mix of Pennisetum Firework grass and Ox-eye daisies (sometimes called Marguerite) at the back near the wall. In the middle "row" plant a mix of Stipa Tenuissima (Mexican Feather Grass) and Echinacea (purple coneflower) and in the front, maybe either side of a wooden love seat, plant Chasmanthium Latifolium (Spangle grass). All are showstoppers year round, low maintenance, drought proof and do well in sun or semi-shade. The grasses all need the same kind of care once a year, as do the flowers, meaning you only have to do maintenance twice in a year as well as a little watering when it's really dry in exchange for year round interest and beauty that will perfectly compliment the Cordyline. Hope this was helpful. If you have any question on maintenance of any of those plants I'll be happy to help.

Fireworks all the way! I hate the commercialism of Halloween and there's nothing better than a clear, bright chilly night with hat and mittens to keep you warm, mulled wine and fabulous fireworks!