Garden sports for all the family

Life seems to be all balls at this time of year. You cannot turn the television on or open a newspaper without them bouncing out at you. The garden is often the place where the stars have played their first games and what better place could they wish for?

If your lawn is fairly small, you may think that only the more informal games are possible: clock golf, French cricket and swing ball are the obvious ones. But my father, who is fanatical about tennis (he has played at Queens and Wimbledon), swears by the tennis practice net (from Stadia Sports, 01353 668686; www.stadia-sports.co.uk, £123.50). This slots into a small space just 4m x 4m (13ft x 13ft), which rapidly gives way to a sharp slope, but it gives him hours of pleasure and he thinks it does wonders for his strokes.

I am working on a garden with glorious views and a prominent flat piece of ground that must have once been a court. The owners wanted to reinstate a grass court, but were concerned about ruining their outlook with ugly netting.

After visiting Courteenhall House in Northamptonshire, which is said to have the best grass courts in the county (visually and in terms of playability), the solution was obvious: an attractive, finial-clad, cylindrical, black metal post at normal netting height on each court corner.

Steel wires are then fixed to the top and bottom of each post and see-through cricket practice nets (normally casually wrapped around the posts) are drawn across between the posts before each game.

I imagine this system is not only brilliant in terms of aesthetics, but also in terms of cost and would be far less likely to be a problem with your local planning committee, where the high fencing required is the normal stumbling block.

Darron Wilks is the brilliant head gardener (he has given me great topical tips for Gardeners' Question Time) and he mows the grass three times a week, but says you might get away with doing it once a week. He marks the lines weekly using a transfer roller and it takes him 10 to 15 minutes.

For short tennis, which is used to teach children the game, you only need a small space: 13.4m x 6.1m (44ft x 20ft) should do it.

Football is ever popular, even if the England team isn't. I am not keen on the off-the-shelf white goals, which are impossible to hide. We made ours from rustic poles and used unobtrusive cricket netting. You have to have some damage limitation strategy as a gardener.

My father's passion for balls bypassed me and when my children got to that age I was strict about them trespassing into borders. Any balls that went in, stayed in. At least when I was watching.

Some gardening friends allow balls in the dormant season, when the herbaceous plants have their heads down. Others designate a space and surround it with toughies such as buddleias, cornus, box and potentillas that will shoot back after a hammering, though it does slow the rate of play as much time is spent ferreting for lost balls. If you have very special plants, it might be better to go down the Frisbee or shuttlecock route.

For those seriously short of space, outdoor table tennis tables are conducive to good, rowdy games. Home-made versions can be made by fixing a painted wooden top of the correct size to an old kitchen table for a fraction of the cost.

If rowdiness is too much of a factor, try croquet and petanque – commonly called boules –which is quieter, although in our house it has been known to become a contact sport!

A decent lawn helps with croquet and it is ever popular, being Jaques of London's best seller. Boules is ideally played on a Breedon gravel surface. This is a bound gravel that is also perfect for a soft-looking hard surface that will accommodate chairs and tables. It is also much less expensive than traditional paving (www.ennstone.co.uk) .

A netball/basketball ring is a must for many, and palas can be played on any surface in small spaces. All that is needed is a wooden bat (similar to a table tennis bat) and a ball. There is no net, no court and few rules.

There are many garden games: look at the Jaques website for ideas. You never know, you might have a budding Andy Murray in the family and it would be a shame not to get him or her off to a flying start.

Games and their required pitch sizes:

Badminton: 13.4m x 6.1m (44ft x 20ft), 2-4 players.

Croquet: 25.6m x 32m (84ft x 105ft), 4, 6 or 8 players.

Lawn Tennis: 23.8m x 11m (78ft x 36ft), 2-4 players.

Palas: No court. In a confined space, fix the ball to elastic tied to a brick. Any number of players.

Rounders: Pitch about 12m (39ft) between posts.

Short Tennis: 13.4m x 6.1m (44ft x 20ft), 2-4 players.

Volleyball: 1.5m x 9m (4ft 11in x 29ft 6in), 6 players

Boules: 4m x 15m (13ft x 29ft)

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