Orderly hedges and classic features contrast with unruly wildlife-friendly planting in this rural Hertfordshire garden

REAL readers' gardens!

The days might be cold and grey but your outside space can still bring you joy – there are sturdy, vigorous plants that will fill it with beauty and heart-lifting colour…

In 1993 Sarah and Chris Vermont moved from Brixton, London, to Hungerdowns in Essex, an old farmhouse dating back to 1600 with a Georgian front added in 1757. In the garden there were existing hedges,

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

The quiet beauty of winter sets the stage in this garden, where topiary shapes and the borrowed landscape are the main performers