Gardening tips for January: Dig out a shrub
If there's a dry patch coming up, try taking the opportunity to dig up old shrubs


All good things come to an end, and a spell of dry weather in the dead of the year is the long-awaited opportunity to remove a big shrub whose best days are over. With banana saw, loppers and secateurs, remove the outer branches, then cut down the main structure to leave a sufficient lever.
* Country Life New Year subscriptions sale
Dig round in a circle, removing soil as you go, until the thick roots are exposed. Cut through these and search down until you've severed those below. When all this is completed, no more resistance will be offered. The moment of glory is at hand.
Image from www.arborfoliage.org.uk
* Follow Country Life magazine on Twitter
Sign up for the Country Life Newsletter
Exquisite houses, the beauty of Nature, and how to get the most from your life, straight to your inbox.
Country Life is unlike any other magazine: the only glossy weekly on the newsstand and the only magazine that has been guest-edited by HRH The King not once, but twice. It is a celebration of modern rural life and all its diverse joys and pleasures — that was first published in Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee year. Our eclectic mixture of witty and informative content — from the most up-to-date property news and commentary and a coveted glimpse inside some of the UK's best houses and gardens, to gardening, the arts and interior design, written by experts in their field — still cannot be found in print or online, anywhere else.
-
'I have lost a treasure, such a sister, such a friend as never can have been surpassed': Inside Jane Austen's Winchester home, the house where she penned her final words and drew her final breath
Jane Austen spent the last days of her life in rented lodgings in Winchester, Hampshire. Adam Rattray describes the remarkable recent discoveries made about the house in which she died.
-
An utterly charming island home in Scotland with gardens so beautiful they made the cover of Country Life
An Cala on the Isle of Seil has a fascinating history that is only enhanced by its amazing setting.