Garden enthusiasts don’t have to drive to garden centres and destroy the inside of their cars with compost any more. Garden designers Tycho Mays and Anthea Howbert have just launched an online garden centre, Delivering Your Garden, at www.dyg.ie.

It can deliver a large range of plants and garden accessories directly to customers, according to Mays, who was a judge on RTE’s garden design show, Super Garden, last year.

‘‘I’m neither technologically minded nor entrepreneurial, yet it occurred tome that viewing and ordering plants for your garden is easier to do online,” said Mays.

The husband and wife team have been running their own landscape business, Howbert and Mays, near Ashford in Co Wicklow since 2002.They have worked on several large projects and expanded the business to include the website service earlier this year.

The website is aimed at experienced and novice gardeners, with advice on plants and planting, before and after pictures of previous projects, and a plant search facility. Howbert and Mays have avoided large costs, by running a streamlined online operation.

‘‘We don’t stock plants,” said Mays. ‘‘We order them from Irish nursery suppliers for clients , so we don’ t have unwanted stock or stock withering away when not in season.”

The website also has a section on ready-made planting schemes, with selected plants for shady, sunny, wet, seaside, town, balcony or herb gardens, for example.

Each scheme comes with a set number of different plants, a set price, planting instructions and maintenance advice.

The site also sells garden tools, accessories, books, pots, soils, bulbs, seeds and gift vouchers.

The company delivers nationwide, and the website has a clear section on delivery times and charges. Mays said there had been noticeable trends in gardening in recent years.

‘‘In the past, clients wanted big plants and instantly gratifying gardens,” he said. ‘‘Now we’re seeing a trend towards smaller plants and smaller gardens.

‘‘Another trend for the past two years has been homegrown produce. I think young gardeners have found growing their own [produce] to be a little more difficult than they expected.

‘‘We’re really happy to see gardeners focusing on native Irish plants and Irish-grown plants,” said Mays. ‘‘We only buy Irish-grown plants. I hope this trend will be one that will stick with the gardening public.”