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Evergreen trees and shrubs are tricky. They are a very important part of our gardens at this time of year, but they need to be used with great care and a light touch.I'm thinking about this at the moment because I'm planting a new woodland for a

Being a caring fellow, I will ease you gently into a new year of gardening by telling you the story of my pyracantha.Pyracantha - or firethorn - is a much undervalued plant. It's a big spiny shrub, originally from China, and is most usually seen

(no matter how beautifully photographed) is just about the most horrible shrub in the world. There. I've said it.It is not just the flowers —which are a particularly unforgiving, almost violent shade of yellow — but the timing. We are awash

out there that punch way, way above their weight when it comes to fragrance.As an example Sarcococca hookeriana, a sparky little evergreen shrub with deep maroony leaf stems and tiny white flowers like the tassels on a stripper. Last year I had one

irises.I digress; my favourite roses at the moment are the Hybrid Musk roses. They were mostly bred by the Rev. Joseph Pemberton in the early 20th Century and make great shrubs and small climbers. They are soft coloured, like cowrie pink 'Penelope', clean

and perfect. The frost, however, tends to accentuate every line; the branches of trees and shrubs are sprinkled with shards of ice that glint like tiny blades; things you never noticed before suddenly stand out.Wandering through the garden as the sun rises

learned was Symphoricarpus laevigatus 'Alba' which sounded frightfully sophisticated. I saw this shrub in a local park in Shepherd's Bush and was rather captivated by the plump white berries. At that time I knew nothing but was quite interested in finding

was cold but Kew was looking beautifully autumnal. We were wandering along trying to identify trees and shrubs, when I was stopped dead in my tracks by one particular plant: Euonymus alatus, the winged spindle or burning bush.I have fallen in love with many

.I did a big shrub planting for a client in the spring and for various reasons there was a hiatus between planting and erecting a fence. I have just walked round to see what had been nibbled and can report that there are three distinct groups. Firstly

vegetables and shrubs involve much less work than annual vegetables.The rough principle is this: imagine that you live in a clearing in a forest: on the edges of that forest there is enough light and sunshine to grow all sorts of edible plants. There should