Planting with prunings | In Fiona's Garden

All those woody shoots you've been lopping are begging to be popped into some gritty potting mix and put in a shady place to become new plants.

Many types of plant will make roots from stem cuttings: perennials, shrubs - including Australian natives, exotics and conifers - climbers and even some trees.

If you want more of something, give it a go, experimenting is half the fun of gardening.

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Autumn and winter being the best planting times in districts with dry summers, I like taking semi-ripe cuttings of my favourite shrubs now to plant them out in a year's time.

This avoids any worries about how long they take to root - time is on my side, and if I know what's sitting on my propagation bench I can plan next year's garden well ahead.

This is the biggest advantage of growing your own plants: there's nothing more infuriating than deciding you'd like, say, a hedge of tightly clipped teucrium (T. fruticans) and then being unable to track down the quantity you'll need.

You don't need much equipment to take cuttings.

The correct potting mix is the key: it needs to be damp but free draining, as in order to make roots, cuttings need adequate moisture without being waterlogged.

Half and half coir peat and coarse horticultural sand or grit is a good mix.

Fertility is unnecessary, cuttings make roots by seeking out nutrition, anyway you don't want competition from weeds.

Containers for cuttings depend on how many you're taking. Standard five centimetres deep seed trays are fine for large quantities, or you can use plastic pots; if using yoghurt or margarine containers, remember to punch drainage holes.

Fill with cutting mix almost to the brim and firm down.

Collect cuttings in the early morning before a shrub's wood has started to dry and its leaves to wilt and drop them straight into a plastic bag.

Take 15cm lengths of stem from this season's growth, if possible with a 'heel' - the bit where it's attached to the older growth below.

Remove all but a couple of leaves at the tip, dip the cutting base into hormone rooting liquid (this produces stronger roots), make a hole in the potting mix with a pencil, push in the cutting and firm it down.

And that's it - all you have to do now is to keep your new progeny damp or they will die, nothing surer.

Cover them with plastic or zip them into a propagation cupboard and water regularly.

New shoots are the best guide to new roots, which is when plants can be potted up individually.

The 12cm pots should be big enough for a year's growth, then out into the garden they go.

Of all the gardening that I do, taking cuttings is the most rewarding, and having home-grown plants to share with friends is the icing on the cake.

Garden Express (www.gardenexpress.com.au) offer Teucrium fruticans by mail order from mid-April to July unless sold out. A 68mm pot is $9.90.