Rosie Irving celebrates an easy-going shrub that gives so much for so little effort

I moved to a new home a few years ago, and its garden needed a major revamp to suit my needs. In the past two issues I’ve shown you how I assessed and redesigned the garden, to help you tackle similar

Create beautifully scented, long-lasting indoor arrangements using winter greenery and flowers from your garden. Choose fragrant blooms such as viburnum, witch hazel, Christmas box and wintersweet, an

Mahonia x media ‘Winter Sun’ Forgive me please because I have, in my youth, been a bit sneery about mahonias. I recognise that this was a mistake as they have an awful lot in their favour: colour at a

Ivy flowers have gone over and now berries are starting to form. Avoid cutting these back and allow them to develop as a food source for birds. Ivy berries ripen in late winter and are often not eaten

P leached trees are often described as ‘hedges on stilts’. But that somewhat prosaic description doesn’t do justice to just how versatile, useful and beautiful an artfully pleached tree can be. Specia