Just like starting over

In his final column for the season, Joe Swift looks back at a memorable year — and work for the months ahead

A good time to visit The Old Rectory in Doynton is as dusk falls on a frosty December evening. Driving in through the gate, you’ll be cheered by the sight of two illuminated Portuguese laurel cylinder

John and Jenny Brett have created an all-year garden design at St Mary’s, combining formal plant structures with colourful insect-friendly perennials, but in winter, when dusted with white and dancing with shadows, the garden shimmers

REAL readers' gardens! Putting the garden to bed ...

In winter, when the art school here at Benton End closed for the year and the garden fell quiet, Cedric Morris would head to warmer climes to escape the chill of his 16th-century house, but also to pa

The garden was a blank canvas when I first moved in. A single tree. A lawn invaded by alkanet. London clay so hard you couldn’t push a spade in. I was more concerned with urgent matters such as the de