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Stylish and practical
The colour scheme and style of your back garden should match the style of your house, so if you have a Spanish-style house your backyard should follow suit. If your house has no distinctive style, choose a theme; you may even want to extend it to the rest of your home's exterior later.

Decide on a style before you do anything else:

If the idea of a French courtyard appeals to you, scout around garden centres or even junk shops for decorative iron or wire gates in the French style. Wall-mounted plant-holders of iron and wire filled with herbs will complete the picture. For paving, use cobblestones or cream-coloured gravel.

For a contemporary look, you need accessories of iron and zinc, with gardening tools in aluminium. Team them with gravel or pale pebbles, or even painted concrete.

For an Italian effect, introduce large terracotta pots and potted lollipop-shaped shrubs and lemon trees. Use terracotta tiles as paving, or spread earth-coloured gravel.

A Spanish style calls for warm, bright colours and mosaics on pots or walls. Ivy pelargoniums and nasturtiums in wall-mounted pots, along with snow-white daisy bushes, continue the theme. Tiles or mosaics in concrete make ideal flooring here, but you can also opt for flat pebbles set in concrete.

Bright colours such as orange and lime green are essential elements of a Mexican theme, which also features more earthy colours and terracotta. Potted succulents and cacti provide greenery, while the ground should be covered in bark, peach pits or macadamia nutshells – or simply paint existing concrete slabs.

An African-styled back garden calls for natural elements such as clay pots, railway sleepers and grass screens and mats. Drape beadwork around pots, or hang beads from wall-mounted plant holders for added colour and authenticity.

A courtyard or entertainment area in the oriental style features lush foliage in the form of bamboo and tree ferns, along with a small wooden deck. Cover the ground with large pebbles to resemble a riverbed.

You can also completely ignore convention and allow the artist in you free rein by using found items to create a unique style. Paint your walls in bold, bright colours such as orange or turquoise, use old, weathered enamel bowls, jugs or washbasins as planters and create storage with wooden pallets or large concrete blocks, for example.

Space to play
In the interests of safety, the children's play area should be near the kitchen door. A playhouse, climbing frame, swing or sandpit provides welcome distraction from the TV, and will keep the kids from under Mom's feet when she's cooking. Ensure that climbing frames and swings are well-maintained to prevent injuries caused by rusted nails, splinters and loose boards. A slide should be supported with side struts so it doesn't topple over with a child on top, while swing ropes should be strong and firmly fixed. The sandpit should have a cover to keep out the neighbourhood cats. Brighten the dog's weather-beaten kennel with a coat of lead-free enamel paint in a cool colour such as blue or grey. Make sure that the water and food bowls are always clean; matching enamel or stainless steel bowls are durable and attractive. Your dog likes burying bones, so create a little patch where he or she can dig without invading your flower beds, and also make sure there's a cool, green patch of lawn for rolling around.

The washing line
Conventional washing lines take up a lot of space, which makes them problematic in smaller gardens. Some townhouse back gardens are little more than a narrow strip – a path to the garage or vegetable garden, or simply an alleyway between the house and the boundary wall – into which the washing line simply has to fit, come what may. That makes foldaway or retractable lines ideal, but make sure you have enough wall space, or that the boundary wall is sturdy enough.

The surface under your washing line should be practical. Some form of paving or gravel – or a combination of the two – is ideal, as you don't want your clean washing landing in mud. A small bench near the washing line creates a hideaway for reading or quiet times. If there's simply no hope of turning the area around your washing line into a showpiece, cleverly hide it behind screens or archways. Seating areas in your back garden can vary in style and appearance in line with your needs and the available space. Firstly, assess your needs.

A breakfast nook or a tranquil spot for tea with family and friends is great if you have the space. A few chairs and a table will fit into even the smallest back garden and, if there are no trees, use an umbrella for shade. But don't use rusted old metal or unmatched plastic furniture – remember, you're trying to turn your backyard into a showpiece. A spot such as this is also ideal for hiding away with a great read.

A decent entertainment area around a braai, particularly if you have nowhere else to entertain in your garden. Obviously your plans should include a built-in braai or pizza oven, a fire pit or a Mexican firepot, but you can also consider a built-in seating area with a mobile braai that can be stored away again afterwards. Take a good look at your braai area and be creative. You can create an African feel, for example, by building a boma: enclose the area with a screen of tree trunks and branches, and then install circular seating around a sunken fire pit.

Keep it neat
The back garden is generally the storage place for gardening tools and equipment, and a home to your garbage and compost bins, gas bottles, half-dead potplants and children's and pets' broken toys. Start sprucing it up by dumping: immediately get rid of dead plants and broken toys and garden tools. Old car parts and building rubble are totally taboo as well. See your back garden as an extension of your home – in effect it's a garden room where you should be able to entertain guests at any time.

Tools and the shed
Tools can be neatly hung against a wall. Your local hardware store has a range of interesting hooks, but stick to a single colour and style. And if you have no choice but to display your tools, keep them spotlessly clean; replace rusted and broken gardening tools. Small garden sheds specifically designed for tools are available at virtually all large garden centres, as well as at hardware stores like Builders Warehouse. But remember, large or small, the wood will have to be treated and the roof must be painted. A neglected shed is an eyesore so, if you're tired of weathered, peeling varnish, paint your shed with a thick coat of enamel that matches the style of your back garden.

The plant hospital
Most back gardens have an emergency ward of plastic pots with plants in various stages of disease and decay. Decide which plants need to be consigned to plant heaven or the compost heap, and return the pots to a small nursery for recycling. Then group those plants for which there is still hope on an attractive iron plant stand, or build your own with bricks against a garden wall. You can also create shelving with stacked bricks and wood painted with two or three coats of enamel to match your theme.

If you have the space and you're a serious gardener who regularly divides bulbs and plants, and pots up plants often, a workbench is essential. Build your own, or buy one at a garden centre. Cottage Craft in Pretoria sells them for R995 each.

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From shady space to showpiece