Recently someone asked me what the health and well-being benefits of a designed garden actually are. It took me a moment to articulate something I'd always taken for granted. Everyone knows gardens are good for you, right? But why?

Hilliers have been growing plants near Winchester since 1864, and the winter garden here rivals Wisley. Coloured bark, scent, stems worth planting en masse, and a warning about what b=nurseries mean by “dwarf”.

It’s winter. I’m not a great one for curling up by the fire with a seed catalogue. Ten books instead: three I reach for at work, three worth reading for the writing alone, and four I look at with deep-seated envy.