Like many keen DIYers, although she may have meant well, Anneka Rice's attempts at landscaping seem to have done more harm than good.

Historians have revealed that when the former TV star descended on Weymouth in Dorset as part of a Challenge Anneka task to restore the famous White Horse, she actually brought in several tons of unsuitable stone to put on top of the feature.

Since 1989, they have been slowly slipping down the hillside and have now congregated around the hooves, weighing that section down and exposing the rest of it to the elements.

Rodney Legg, a historian from Dorset, said: "What they did was a bit of a do-it-yourself garden landscaping when really they should have used a proper civil engineer."

Although you may not need anything as drastic as a civil engineer in your own garden, it pays to work with the areas you want to alter instead of against them.

For example, if you have a garden prone to flooding, consider landscaping using pea gravel such as that from Garden Chic to aid drainage.

A paving kit that uses solid slabs may be more suitable for well-drained sections that are not on a hill.

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