In the first of three special programmes, Monty and the team celebrate the joy that the gardening year brings with a selection of brand new stories.

Adam Frost finds a world of inspirational planting designed to shine in winter when he visits Cambridge University Botanic Garden; Joe Swift heads to a garden in north London that was inspired by a holiday to the Grand Canyon; Nick Bailey extols the virtues of evergreen planting, which come into its own at this time of year; and Kate Bradbury shows us how we can look after the wildlife in our garden over the winter months.

We catch up with the three sisters from Dorset we met last year, who share the joyful highs and occasional lows of their gardening year; we head to Somerset to see how a garden designer achieves not one but two glorious peaks in her own garden; and we get tips on growing perfect peonies from a passionate plantswoman in the Welsh borders.