Inspired by tropical travels, one gardening enthusiast transformed a sandy Leicestershire plot into a colourful, plant-packed paradise for all ages

In December 1997, we moved from a tiny London garden to our new home, Old Park Barn in Buckinghamshire. It was daunting – a huge leap of faith from gardening in an urban courtyard to essentially an ov

Purple punctuates the planting: here an acer, verbena and some pinky-purple crinum, or swamp lily, stand out

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

Spring is heralded with a rich array of rocky gems in this wonderful west Scottish garden

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