When it comes to flavour, herbs pack a mighty punch. With a well-planned herb plot on the smallholding, you can enjoy a pinch of this and a sprinkling of that right through the year, writes Clare Hunt

The sweet violet, Viola odorata, may be a diminutive flower, but its small, slightly asymmetrical, pansy-like flowers are highly fragrant. They open in early spring before most plants have even though

Shake up your harvests with dazzlingly different fruit, veg and herbs

As well as being a visual feast, a garden can become a fragrant haven, says Heloise Brooke, head gardener at the National Trust’s Calke Abbey in Derbyshire. Here, she advises on plants to include for year-round perfume promise

From ice cream to underwear and explosives, plants are remarkably integral to much of the manmade world, as a new book reveals. Harry Pearson investigates

Louise Curley celebrates spring’s homegrown and low-carbon blooms, showing how to pick for months and arrange them in garden-gathered style