Is the idea of the garden room still fashionable

A. It appears so. It is interesting that this is more and more an urban-led thing, or to be more accurate, led by those with small to medium gardens. The concept of the 'outside room'� is much less relevant if that 'room' stretches to a couple of acres surrounded by countryside. The obsession with makeovers, both inside and out, stylising and making the most of every nook and cranny of your average city terrace or town semi shows no sign of dying a death.

�

A. Perpendicular gardening, or more simply, making the most of limited space by growing things that go upwards rather than outwards.

�

This means the humble pergola for growing climbers up is currently top of the garden furniture fashion charts. Wooden trellis style pergolas are still widely used but ironwork ones, usually painted black, are the most popular, and not without reason. If you have success growing a climber or two up your pergola in a few years it will have to bear a deceptive amount of weight and whereas your average wooden trellis work will slowly deteriorate and rot, especially when sunk into the soil, iron should last for ever.

�

A.� Decking became popular as an alternative to the rather brash paved patio, and still is. However, there is a backlash against too much modernity and the sort of garden that looks more like a recently laid outdoor sauna than a garden with green bits and flowers. That said, decking is still a popular and cheap alternative for those of us who can't afford a seating area laid in local stone.

�

A.� Apparently all things metal. Your granny might laugh, but using her old tin bath as a planter for cool evergreens, silver foliage and purple blue, yellow and white blooms should meet with approval with the in-crowd. Even better are stainless steel planters that are almost like mirrors and will not rust.

�

A.� Unfortunately the humble garden gnome is still showing few signs of a comeback, except among those who like kidnapping them and sending postcards of their captives enjoying sunny foreign climes.

�