Even without a gardener, it is not difficult to create a haven like Beckwith’s. Your shoes may be from Shellys rather than Jimmy Choo, but here are a few pointers on making an It girl’s idyll:

Get fast-growing plants to shimmy up walls, filling out the garden and adding privacy. When Beckwith bought the house, the garden was far more stark and contemporary. Honeysuckle, clematis and jasmine quickly cover walls and fences, giving you a lot of bulk for your buck, even if they are planted in tiny borders around the edge of the garden.

Standard trees - those that have their leaves in a clump at the top of a single stem - add instant height and can be moved around. Evergreen topiary also adds height and smartness, although you will have to clip it once a year to keep it tidy. In a small space, stick to a restricted colour palette. Beckwith lightens up the predominant greenery with white - also a good choice as her garden is north-facing. It comes to the fore and almost glows at dusk, just when the champagne corks are popping.

Apply the same rigour to pots: too many styles and shapes, and the garden will look a mess. Keep to a few large containers - Beckwith has white-painted metal urns - and use them sparingly. Also, the smaller the pot, the faster it will dry out and need watering: not an activity party girls relish, as it might chip their nail varnish.

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The garden should be a haven of sensory experience. Use highly scented plants such as the climbers mentioned above. Beckwith’s pots are planted with stocks and lemon trees; the blossom produces powerful perfume. Roses are an obvious choice for both beautiful flowers and scent, but only if you can be bothered to prune and feed them.

Go for a variety of shapes and textures of foliage rather than a riot of colour - flowers fade and have a tendency not to come out when you intended them to. Also, greenery tends to be more bulky and so makes the garden look lusher. Variegated foliage - two colours in the same leaf - introduces lightness into a dark garden, as do shiny leaves.

Lighting can make a garden into an outdoor room for evening entertaining. It needn’t be expensive: even night-lights hung in jam jars from branches produce a magical effect. For a more formal look, line them up along the top of a wall and down the sides of steps. Or you could install a proper outside-lighting system, complete with uplight-ers for the most striking plants (make sure these are low maintenance, though - you don’t want to highlight something that is going to look straggly or dead). For those with larger wallets, John Cullen Lighting (020 7371 5400, www.johncullenlighting.co.uk ) has a garden-design service.

Use design tricks. Beckwith’s garden is on two levels - dividing a space, whether with a screen or steps, does not necessarily shrink it. Sometimes, going from one area to another can make it seem bigger, as every inch in each area is used to the full.

Attract birds into your garden by hanging feeders from branches. They eat pests such as aphids, slugs and snails, which means less work for you and more time to party. Cats are one creature you don’t want to attract, however, so make sure the feeders are well out of the reach of the local felines. Otherwise, not only will you find winged corpses around the garden, but other more unwelcome offerings in your flowerbeds and pots.

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