LAZY DAYS

Alice Vincent has had a hectic 2023, but for next year she's come up with a cunning plan to give herself more time and reduce her carbon footprint

SCULPTING THE LANDSCAPE

Charlotte Rowe's elegant design for a country garden in Hampshire fuses modern and traditional styles and captures the Zeitgeist for naturalism with a contemporary edge

Flavour of the seasons

Smallholder and former chef Julius Roberts suggests three easy, warming recipes for a winter feast with seasonal produce

JOINT ENTERPRISE

In southwest Germany, a couple have combined structural grasses and perennials with good seedheads in their garden to great effect, especially when touched by winter frost

COUNT YOUR BLESSINGS

There is a biodiversity loss crisis, but research into the wildlife found in gardens has made it clear just how important these spaces are as habitat. Discover how much you can learn, and gain, by identifying and documenting what you find beyond your back door

MATTHEW BIGGS

Horticulture's nicest practitioner on his journey from sweeping playgrounds to Gardeners' Question Time via offering gardening advice to insomniacs

YOUNG AT HEART

The garden of the late, great landscape architect Jacques Wirtz, which is more than 50 years old, is now being renewed by his children

PITTOSPORUM

These evergreen shrubs come in a multitude of sizes and shapes with shiny, often variegated or colourful leaves and small scented flowers

Festive flourishes

Entertain in style this Christmas with ideas for natural decorations from Swallows & Damsons

LUKE SENIOR

A former Ruth Borun scholar at Great Dixter, Luke is now one of the garden's full time gardeners

Change of view

Designer Katie Guillebaud updated the Cotswolds garden of a garden photographer to make it picture perfect all winter

DIGGING THE DIRT

As Ken Thompson explains, the key to a good soil lies both in its structure and in the life it sustains. But is any of it improved by digging?

December plants

Åsa Gregers-Warg rounds off her year of plants with a winter-flowering clematis, exotic-looking succulent and a burst of sunshine from a lemon-coloured marguerite

12 free gardens to visit this summer

Garden visits don't have to cost the earth - in fact, there are many beautiful places up and down the UK that you can enjoy for free during the summer holidays, with top-notch, inspirational planting schemes

Outer calm

Soothing green planting and paired-back hard landscaping have transformed a tired lawn into a tranquil space for reflection

Bright and beautiful

This small city garden in Utrecht is now buzzing with life thanks to a transformation by designer Carolien Barkman

Urban oasis

Behind a terraced house in Milan, designer Roberto Benatti has transformed a tiny garden into a green, English-style oasis

Forward thinking

When your front garden offers a better aspect than your back garden, it makes sense to make this your primary space

Family matters

Award-winning garden designer Matt Keightley transformed the small, narrow space behind his 1930s London home into a lush, leafy glade that all the family can enjoy

DROUGHT-TOLERANT PLANTS: EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW

With summers predicted to get hotter, and water becoming a precious resource, everyone is talking about drought-tolerant plants. But are they the answer in the UK and what should we know about planting and caring for them? We ask plant experts and landscape designers for their advice

JAMES WONG

The self-confessed plant geek on the fun of putting the detective work into horticulture, his love of houseplants and his fascination with Instagram

All change

Designer Kristina Clode has transformed her clients previously dull garden by revamping a series of borders with towering perennials, hazy grasses, structural shrubs and the occasional small tree

AEONIUM

These dramatic and often statuesque succulents are finally having their moment in the sun - which is just where they like it

ED EDGE

Lead gardener Ed is heading up work on the Four Seasons Garden at The Newt in Somerset

Moving pictures

The garden of designer Jelle Grintjes is a dynamic display of creative plant combinations, which he moved plant by plant from his previous home

LETTING THE WILD IN

Like many gardeners, Alice Vincent used to want to feel in control of her garden space, but now she is learning to let go a little and welcome in the wildness

New awakenings

Dutch designer Frank van der Linden’s garden is a study in seamlessly integrated functionality and naturalism – an approach developed more by accident than design

PHIL STERLING

The ecologist who hatched a simple but effective plan to bring more moths and butterflies into our lives, on creating the right conditions for wildflowers to thrive

Just add water

This suburban garden has been utterly transformed to place ponds, plants and wildlife at its heart

Cool and unusual

Specialising in rare perennial species and 'fancy' forms of weeds, Growild Nursery in southwest Scotland prides itself on propagating all of its stock on site, organically and from scratch