Your garden should be a multilayer food forest, says RHS horticulturist

Tom Massey advocates swales to hold water, ground-level planting and multiple layers up to the tree canopy. Photograph: Random House

Your garden should have many layers, like a rainforest, to perform for biodiversity and climate, a leading garden designer has said.

Tom Massey, an award-winning horticulturist, said most gardens only have a couple of layers, with a mown lawn, some bushes and perhaps a tree. But adding multiple layers, with intermingled planting, helps to mimic what one may find in a biodiverse forest, with each layer giving benefits for wildlife.