In this issue

Plantsperson’s favourites
Åsa Gregers-Warg, head gardener at Beth Chatto’s Plants & Gardens, selects her top ten plants for December.

Plant profile: Pittosporum
RHS Garden Wisley’s curator Matthew Pottage picks the best of these evergreen shrubs that offer variegated or colourful leaves and small scented flowers..

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

5 mins

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?

4 mins

Change of view

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

4 mins

LUKE SENIOR

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

2 mins

Festive flourishes

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

5 mins

PITTOSPORUM

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

3 mins

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

3 mins

MATTHEW BIGGS

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

3 mins

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

5 mins

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

3 mins

Flavour of the seasons

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

8 mins

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

5 mins

Read all stories from Gardens Illustrated

Gardens Illustrated Magazine Description:

Gardens Illustrated features the best gardens, plants and designers around the world, making it a must for the discerning gardener.Published 12 times a year, it offers an irresistible mix of beautiful gardens and must-have plants. With stunning photography and the world's best garden writing, it offers you information and insights you won't find elsewhere.