ROOM TO GROW

A ilsa Richards took a slightly unconventional approach to choosing her family’s home in the country. While most househunters start with how many bedrooms they want, and what the kitchen and living room are like, Ailsa was far more concerned about the type of trees there were in the garden and whether there was scope to encourage everything from pollinators to hedgehogs into the outside space.

Ailsa only needed to see the gnarled old apple trees and a 300-year-old yew in the back garden to decide that the little two-bedroom cottage