Notes from the borders

The tidy-up instinct runs deep, but a border cut to the ground in October is a border with nothing to say until April. Here’s what we leave, and why.

No irrigation, no mown lawn, and barely a weed — how a south-facing bank near Craven Arms became the easiest garden on our care round.

Half the perennials we plant now start life in our polytunnel. Rosa on what we grow, what we buy in, and the one crop we’ve given up on.

No mortar, no shortcuts, and a habitat in every crevice. A morning with Ted Prosser, the waller we’ve worked with for a decade.

January is when a design shows its bones. Six things we plant so a garden earns its keep in the coldest, lowest-lit weeks of the year.

Those swooping clouds of numbers and Latin aren’t as cryptic as they look. A gentle guide to what your designer’s drawings are telling you.