One low-maintenance trick with a courtyard is to ‘‘semi pave’’ it. Work out a pattern where every third or fourth paving stone is left out, then plant the open space with something delightful, hardy and low growing. This gives you greenery and less summer glare; no mowing; minimal weeding, as well as providing a firm surface for feet or furniture that will take far more wear than grass.

The classics for ‘‘between pavers’’ are white alyssum, a fast growing glorious froth that blooms nearly all year round and needs replacing about every 3-4 years; thyme, including the flat thymes like orange peel or caraway thyme; winter savoury; chamomile (though that needs regular water and seems to attract every wind-blown wind seed in the district), golden marjoram, which needs sun and heat to turn its rich yellow; oregano, and many more.

All of those, except the alyssum, are more fragrant when trodden on though even alyssum has a delicious honey fragrance if you are sitting above it. But I have just come across three relatively new plants that I would love to try, even though none of them are scented, but all three are probably more heat and drought and neglect hardy that the ground covers above.

The first is Japanese Blood Grass (look for Imperata cylindrica ‘Rubra’). It’s a small growing grass (it doesn’t need mowing) but is intensely dramatic with blood red leaves that are richly coloured all through summer and autumn, but still ‘red’ the rest of the year. It grows to about 30x30cm so is perfect for a missing paving stone spot, and like most ornamentals, looks best when there is a lot of it. So don’t plant three and expect visors to go ‘‘wow!’’ It’s also incredibly hardy once established. Just water it at least twice a week in its first year, and then whenever you get around to it after that.

The second is good old erigeron, or ‘‘seaside daisy’’, which can become a weed, so grow it in courtyards where it won’t spread into the bush. It blooms all year round, with the major drawback that the flowers are small and often held under the new leaves so they are totally inconspicuous.