Eyecatchers are a great way to draw people around a garden and to show them where you’d like them to go – that there’s something else to see. Not many of us have the space that they have at Chatsworth to play with eyecatchers on this scale, but they work on any scale. This urn is at the end of a tree-lined avenue and invites visitors to “…come and look at the view from here…”. It also gives an attractive ‘full-stop’ to the line.

An eyecatcher in smaller gardens could be a water spout on the wall of a small courtyard or a sculpture opposite a window – tempting people out into the garden. They can also be used to distract the eye from looking at something that you’re not too keen on – next door’s leylandii or the oil tank. Perhaps hang a suncatcher in a tree where it’ll be caught by the sun through the dappled light. Tuck a small sculpture in a border, half hidden to ‘surprise’ people as they pass.

Chatsworth is a great day or two out for a good explore and to pick up loads of ideas for your garden. It’s is huge so to do it justice you need to allow for several hours and a return trip. So many different micro-environments and a huge man-made rockery to mimic the natural, rugged, limestone landscapes of the Peak District.