Learn to love the dim and shadowy corners of your plot – without the harsh glare of the sun’s spotlight, you can build an environment rich in texture, gentle colour and seasonal interest

When writer Sheila M Averbuch and her husband moved into their Pencaitland home in East Lothian over 20 years ago, the garden was little more than a flat upper lawn with a steep slope down to the bung

When garden designer James Scott of The Garden Company was asked by the National Trust to work on a restoration of the Long Garden at Cliveden, he leapt at the chance. Partly it was the prestigious lo

Position logs randomly around garden borders rather than in neat piles to recreate the way they fall naturally from trees in the wild. You could artfully arrange them around spring-flowering plants or

To hide my new garden’s nakedness, I planted trees. Damson and mirabelle plum, ‘Discovery’ and reinette apples, two pears, a quince and a ‘Nottingham’ medlar. There was a purple-leaved filbert, a ‘Che

Kitchen gardens can work in big and small spaces and country or urban landscapes as these charming plots prove – here’s to a bumper crop