Bring the beauty of National Trust gardens to your own little patch.Some 80% of people who visit NT properties do so 'to look at the garden'. And one of the glories of NT gardens are their incredible beds and borders – plants that bring colour, drama and surprises year round. In this book, senior NT gardener Simon Akeroyd gives you a foolproof plan to get similar effects in your own garden with 100 key plants. How to plan, how to plant, how to prune. All of the plants will be easily available, and he will give alternatives if you want to mix things up. The book is organised seasonally, with features on important skills and tasks for each season - such as testing your soil, planting bulbs, pruning for winter and so on.

About The Author

Simon Akeroyd has written several bestselling practical gardening books: Lawns and Ground Cover (DK 2012), Shrubs and Small Trees (DK 2007), Allotment Handbook (Mitchell Beazley 2013). He is currently Garden Manager for the National Trust English Riviera portfolio but before that he was Garden and Countryside Manager at Polesden Lacey in Surrey, and a RHS Garden Manager. Between 2001–05 he worked at the BBC as a horticultural researcher and writer on various gardening programmes.