Why evergreens earn their keep in a small plot

Small gardens are unforgiving places. There is nowhere to hide a shrub that sulks for eight months and looks decent for two. Evergreens hold the shape of a garden all year round: they screen a tired fence, frame a seating area, and give the eye somewhere to rest in February when everything else is bare sticks and mud.

There is a practical benefit too. A dense evergreen traps still air around it, and on a cold or windswept site that pocket of calm can be two or three degrees warmer than the open part of the garden. That is often the difference between a marginally hardy plant surviving the winter and quietly curling up its toes.

Match the plant to the spot before you buy

Stand outside on a wet, windy day and take notes. In the UK the damaging wind is usually a cold easterly, or a salt-laden blast if you are anywhere near the coast. Watch where the frost sits longest and where the water pools after heavy rain. Then look at light: a north-facing border, dry shade under a mature tree and the narrow strip beside a wall all behave very differently from an open, sunny spot.

Soil matters less than drainage for most hardy evergreens. They will forgive poor fertility, but almost none of them forgive waterlogged roots. On heavy clay, dig in plenty of organic matter and a few handfuls of horticultural grit, and plant slightly proud so water runs away from the crown rather than sitting in it.

Compact evergreens worth growing

Look for slow-growing, dense varieties. A plant that takes fifteen years to reach a metre is far more useful in a small garden than one that does it in three, because you will still recognise the garden in a decade.

• For deep, dry shade: Aucuba japonica (spotted laurel) is almost indestructible, Sarcococca confusa gives you sweetly scented winter flowers in the gloom, and Fatsia japonica adds bold, tropical-looking leaves. Ilex crenata is a neat, small-leaved holly that clips beautifully.
• For wind and coastal plots: Brachyglottis 'Sunshine' has grey felted leaves and yellow daisies in summer, Euonymus fortunei 'Emerald Gaiety' and 'Silver Queen' are tough as old boots, and Veronica (formerly Hebe) 'Mrs Winder' copes with salt and drought.
• For tight corners and pots: Nandina domestica 'Firepower' colours red in winter, Pinus mugo 'Mops' stays a rounded cushion, Thuja occidentalis 'Danica' is a little green cone, and Skimmia japonica 'Rubella' carries red buds right through the cold months.
• For screening without bulk: Taxus baccata 'Standishii' is a narrow golden yew column, Ilex aquifolium 'Ferox Argentea' is a hedgehog holly that nobody pushes through, and Prunus laurocerasus 'Otto Luyten' is a compact laurel that tolerates shade.
• For scent and flowers: Daphne odora 'Aureomarginata' is worth the fuss, Pieris japonica 'Little Heath' has variegated leaves and lily-of-the-valley flowers, and a camellia will perform well if you give it shelter from early sun.

Planting so they settle in quickly

Autumn and early spring are the best windows, as long as the ground is not frozen or sodden. Dig a hole twice the width of the rootball but no deeper, so the plant sits at the same level it did in the pot. If the rootball is dry, stand it in a bucket of water until the bubbles stop, then tease out any roots that have spiralled round the edge.

Backfill with the excavated soil mixed with garden compost and a small handful of fish, blood and bone, firm it in with your heel, and water thoroughly even if rain is forecast. Mulch with a five-centimetre ring of well-rotted manure or bark, keeping it clear of the stems. In an exposed garden, rig a temporary windbreak of netting on the prevailing side for the first winter, and be prepared to water through the first two summers. Evergreens lose moisture through their leaves all winter, so a dry autumn followed by a cold, windy spring does more damage than frost alone.

Keeping them small and shapely

Little and often beats drastic cutting every time. With the exception of yew, most conifers will not regrow from old wood, so never cut back beyond the green. Prune spring-flowering shrubs such as camellia, pieris and skimmia straight after they finish, and clip Euonymus in late spring and yew in late summer while the sap is still moving.

Always check the eventual spread before buying, not the size on the label in the pot. If a shrub wants two metres, no amount of clipping will make it happy in a one-metre gap, and you will spend the next decade fighting it.

Let them shelter everything else

Plant your toughest evergreens on the exposed side first. A low yew hedge or a run of Brachyglottis will slow the wind and create a kinder microclimate for the plants behind it, so your roses, herbs and tender perennials all have an easier life. A porous screen is better than a solid one, since a solid barrier simply pushes turbulence over the top and down the other side.

Then use the calm pockets you have created. Tuck a scented Sarcococca by the front door, put a dwarf pine where you want a year-round anchor, and let a fat, glossy Aucuba fill the awkward shaded corner nobody knows what to do with. Get these quiet workhorses in first, and the rest of the garden will look after itself.