One of the most striking looks of the moment is an assortment of low-growing, dry-tolerant shrubs, perennials and annuals loosely scattered across an expanse of tawny-coloured gravel. Especially popular in places with long, dry summers, this gravel works as both mulch and walkway. There are no fixed edges between growing beds and pedestrian zones, which means that an area devoted to foot traffic one season might be filled with plants the next.

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This is aided by the fact that gravel, being both well-draining and moisture retaining, is such an ideal medium for self-seeding. Many plants that might be used in this style of landscape – euphorbias, paper daises, billy buttons, wahlenbergia and poas, for example – will readily spread themselves around, with the thinning-out of seedlings one of the key maintenance tasks required.

The atmosphere is so airy and casual that you could be fooled into thinking that there was no planning involved, that the beauty is entirely incidental.

But more formal and deliberate-looking uses of stone can lend relaxed, atmospheric tones as well. Stone walls, stairs and other rocky focal points can bring a sense of order without feeling imposing. Surround these structures with greenery and you can soften their edges, shape views and create a reclaimed-by-nature feel.

All sorts of plants can work well: large-leafed shrubs and climbers, fleshy-leafed succulents, spiky cacti, gnarly olives, gums, wattles, casuarinas and much more.

Whatever plants you choose, the best effects come from stone that hails from the local area rather than that brought in from afar. As well as being more environmentally sustainable, using local rock ensures that your garden feels at one with the wider landscape. Even in inward-looking city gardens with no borrowed views, it helps connect your space to what has gone before.

But another option that is gaining traction is to re-use the rubble and old building materials found on site, into forms that have raw, rock-like effects.

Instead of dispatching old concrete, bricks and pavers to landfill and acquiring new materials, this refuse can be broken up and rearranged into structures with weathered textures, sculptural touches and a low-carbon footprint. Like natural stone formations, these incursions can vary the topography and, with different layers of plants threaded around them, even look like they belong.

While this aesthetic doesn’t appeal to all gardeners, it is attractive to wildlife. Insects, small lizards and other animals find habitat within it in the same way they do with forms made of real rock.

Stone and stone-like effects might not have the same dynamism as plants, but they do make gardens more lively.

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