Gravel, sun, and plants that ask for almost nothing — the Mediterranean garden is the most climate-sensible way to plant in Britain now, and the RHS agrees: climate-resilient, drought-tolerant planting is the direction the whole country is heading. Happily, it's also the most beautiful.

Build it from the classics: an olive with real age in its trunk, a bay clipped to shape, a lemon for the warmest corner, Yucca rostrata for pure architecture. Terracotta pots complete the language. Everything here is happy in free-draining soil, full sun and a dry summer — water to establish, then largely let the weather do its worst.