Alice’s planting tips

1 Include lots of structure. The bones of a garden are important all year and especially in winter. If you’re planting a garden from scratch, it’s the first thing to do! 2 As a flower arranger I like to have things I can pick and combine together throughout the season. Pi osporum is invaluable, as are rosemary and phlomis. And I love allium seed heads and ornamental grasses, too. 3 I plant for pollinators. They love the rosemary and salvias, and the nepeta ‘Six Hills Giant’ is always covered in bees! Hummingbird hawk-moths visit the garden, but I like all wildlife and it would be fantastic to a ract a hedgehog.

With increasingly dry weather, sedums and succulents, such as these echiveria, do well