Garden hotspots easily identified in unique winter light

Despite the cold, the winter can be useful for assessing how light interacts with the different features in the garden.

According to the Daily Telegraph, winter light provides "subtle and slanting" rays which help accentuate "every nuance of shape, tone and texture".

This can be especially useful for planning the layout and aesthetics of the garden for the coming year.

While gardeners may be inclined to stay in the warmth of the greenhouse, using the unique lighting conditions that occur in winter – especially after a rainstorm – to assess the way light interacts with the garden can be a great way of planning where to place features.

A bench placed in a "hotspot" next to a fragrant plant can create the perfect place from which to enjoy the gardens beauty throughout the year.

The paper also advises gardeners to place wall-climbing plants in a hotspot on a south-facing wall.

The Royal Horticultural Society suggests that plants such as Chimonanthus praecox, Abeliophyllum distichum and Jasminum nudifolium are ideal for this sort of situation.