Claudia De Yong

2. Cultivate a mature shrub When is a tree not a tree? When it’s a mature shrub. Yes, there are plenty of shrubs that will grow tall enough to screen as effectively and bird-pleasingly as a tree, and you may even already have some in your garden that could be repositioned or strategically pruned for the job. You can also grow shrubs as trees by pruning out side shoots. This overlooked urban garden was redesigned by Roberto Silva after the owner found his profile on Houzz.

Autumn-beautiful trees There are so many trees that provide wonderful colour at this time of the year. Some have berries for the birds to enjoy, such as the many crab apple varieties, including Malus ‘Butterball’, for example, which has gorgeous golden fruits that glow in the light, and Malus ‘Evereste’ (pictured). Other trees have wonderful leaf colour, such as the katsura tree (Cercidiphyllum japonicum), whose dropped leaves, some say, develop the lovely smell of candy floss or burnt sugar.

Homeowners Tom and Bea Schumacher dreamed of converting their conventional lawn yard in Pasadena, California, into a landscape of outdoor living rooms connected by a series of paths and naturalistic gardens. “One aesthetic I longed for is from reading ‘The Secret Garden’ as a child,” Bea Schumacher says. Working with FormLA Landscaping, the couple overhauled their front and back yards to include multiple seating and dining areas, native and low-water plantings and a private spa retreat.