BORDER country.

IF you are looking to put new borders in your garden this year but know that you're not going to have much time for maintenance, planting an easy-care shrub border may be the answer.

Shrubs require little upkeep once they are in the ground as long as in the first season they are watered sufficiently to keep the soil damp in dry weather.

Loose mulches should be topped up from time to time, while evergreens and summer flowering shrubs can be pruned in early spring if necessary. Spring-flowering shrubs should be tidied up immediately after flowering.

Shrubs offering interest over two seasons are particularly useful, such as Mahonia x media, which has yellow winter flowers and architectural, evergreen foliage, and Cotinus coggygria 'Royal Purple', with purple leaves that turn red in autumn. Shrubs are certainly not as boring as they may sound.

When choosing shrubs, make sure they are not going to block any view, but use them instead to frame it.

When you decide on a shape for your new border, use a hosepipe to make the shape, then you can modify the curves until you are happy with it.

Before planting, dig over the soil, remove weeds and add some well-rotted manure to improve the soil, adding some grit if you have heavy soil. Position shrubs, still in their pots, so that you can stand back and view the effects from different angles.

Each shrub should be planted through mulch matting at the same depth as it is in the pot, or cover the soil between shrubs with a 5cm (2in) thick loose organic mulch to keep the soil moist and prevent weeds from invading.

Go for shrubs which will give you allround interest - evergreens are probably the easiest. Combine Ceanothus thrysilforus var. repens with Euonymus fortunei 'Emerald 'n' Gold', Hebe rakaiensis, Photinia x fraseri 'Red Robin' and Lonicera nitida 'Baggesen's Gold'.

The red photinia leaves and blue ceanothus flowers will provide interesting spring colour, while the hebe has white flowers in summer.

Introduce shrubs which offer all-year foliage, such as the spotted Aucuba japonica or a variegated euonymus, and replace beds of annuals with shrubs to reduce the amount of time you need to dig up and change plants.

Good, low-maintenance shrubs with a long flowering season include potentilla, hebes, low-growing cistus or patio roses.

Under taller shrubs and roses plant good ground cover perennials such as wild geranium (cranesbill) or Alchemilla mollis, and take note of the atmosphere you want to create through colour. Hot colours, such as reds and oranges, will bring warmth, while greys and blues will cool down a hot spot.

If you don't want to replant or create a totally new border, buy some specimen plants to act as focal points in your existing garden, such as Phormium tenax, with its sword-shaped leaves, or Fatsia japonica, which provides sculptural foliage in a shady spot, callicarpa or cotoneaster for colourful berries and Acer palmatum for a real burst of autumn colour.

You should soon be able to sit back and watch your garden burst into life with new colour and texture - without breaking your back in the process. what to do this week

Complete the pruning of greenhouse vines while they are still dormant and remove loose bark which may harbour pests.

Bring in pots of forced bulbs for indoor flowering when ready.

Protect winter-flowering bulbous irises in the garden from severe cold or damp.

Start forcing pots of lily bulbs for Easter and early summer flowering.

As cyclamen flowers go over, remove the stems by giving a sharp tug, which should remove the whole stem.

Take hardwood cuttings of blackcurrants, redcurrants, white currants and gooseberries.

Renew grease bands around fruit trees, if they have been in place a long time, to protect trees against winter moths.

Pick yellowing leaves off Brussels sprouts and other brassicas promptly, to prevent spread of grey mould and brassica downy mildew.

Bring container-grown shrubs like camellias into a cold greenhouse for extra winter protection.

Sow seed of slow-maturing half-hardy summer bedding plants including pelargoniums, begonias and verbenas, in heated propagators.

Start keeping a gardening diary and record book and update it each week.

Buy in well-rotted farmyard manure or mushroom compost to mulch borders and dig into soil.