Today sounds the starter’s pistol for spring | Allan Jenkins

An exciting day for gardeners, but go slow – it’s still mainly about preparation but you can start sowing inside

March 1! The start of meteorological spring, beginning of the month the clocks go forward. What we lose for a short while when we wake we gain later in the day. Good news for gardeners. I know I’m not normally one to call for caution, but a word here to try to hold back. At least a bit.

Sow stuff indoors. In greenhouses, on windowsills, somewhere with good light. Most summer-fruiting veg needs a long season to ripen, so you can start sowing chillies inside, though I’d leave any tomatoes until the end of the month. March is the prime time of the north/south divide when what to sow outside depends on where you live in the UK. Scotland and the north in March are usually cooler and darker than Cornwall.

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Today sounds the starter’s pistol for spring | Allan Jenkins

An exciting day for gardeners, but go slow – it’s still mainly about preparation but you can start sowing inside

March 1! The start of meteorological spring, beginning of the month the clocks go forward. What we lose for a short while when we wake we gain later in the day. Good news for gardeners. I know I’m not normally one to call for caution, but a word here to try to hold back. At least a bit.

Sow stuff indoors. In greenhouses, on windowsills, somewhere with good light. Most summer-fruiting veg needs a long season to ripen, so you can start sowing chillies inside, though I’d leave any tomatoes until the end of the month. March is the prime time of the north/south divide when what to sow outside depends on where you live in the UK. Scotland and the north in March are usually cooler and darker than Cornwall.

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How much value does a loft conversion add to a property? Nottingham Estate Agents

If we cannot build out sideways, perhaps we should try building upwards? That is the thought process which more and more British home-owners are going through. In a crowded urban environment, building a large lateral extension to a property can sometimes be impractical or unlikely to get planning permission. But a loft conversion – provided […]

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Making a splash: a rental flat that’s awash with colour

For designer Anna Jacobs, colour is an essential mood enhancer – and buoyant aquatics proved the perfect backdrop for her family

I am very conscious of how much colour affects my mood,” says artist and designer Anna Jacobs, sitting on her pink velvet sofa in a zebra-print T-shirt and shocking pink trousers. “I need it around me, it really improves my wellbeing.” Glancing around her three-bedroom rental flat in Crystal Palace, south London, which she shares with her son Zach, 13, daughter Coco, 10, and Zuchon dog, Duffy, it’s abundantly clear Jacobs is no fan of neutrals, preferring to surround herself with a zinging spectrum of vivacious hues – with an emphasis on aquatic shades for their “healing, calming properties”.

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Making a splash: a rental flat that’s awash with colour

For designer Anna Jacobs, colour is an essential mood enhancer – and buoyant aquatics proved the perfect backdrop for her family

I am very conscious of how much colour affects my mood,” says artist and designer Anna Jacobs, sitting on her pink velvet sofa in a zebra-print T-shirt and shocking pink trousers. “I need it around me, it really improves my wellbeing.” Glancing around her three-bedroom rental flat in Crystal Palace, south London, which she shares with her son Zach, 13, daughter Coco, 10, and Zuchon dog, Duffy, it’s abundantly clear Jacobs is no fan of neutrals, preferring to surround herself with a zinging spectrum of vivacious hues – with an emphasis on aquatic shades for their “healing, calming properties”.

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Why we fell out of love with home improvement shows | Sam Wolfson

The likes of Changing Rooms were a bulwark against consumer culture. With YouTube tutorials, we’ve lost that DIY radicalism

If I could go back in time and give the participants of 1990s home improvement shows one piece of advice, it would be this: never tell Carol Smillie about your hobbies. Give that woman the slightest inkling that you have a penchant for silent films and she’d turn your room into a monochromatic tribute to Charlie Chaplin. Mention you went on holiday once, and you’d find your house kitted out with deckchairs and beach balls.

The 1990s were a wonderful and bizarre period for factual television. Shows such as Changing Rooms, Ground Force and DIY SOS had, at their peak, millions of viewers. While many of the makeovers now seem horrifying and tasteless, the home improvement format showed how you could change your living space on a small budget – without needing to buy lots of new stuff.

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Why Derek Jarman’s garden must be saved | Alys Fowler

The film-maker’s Prospect Cottage and inspirational garden on the Kent shingle should be preserved for future generations

Prospect Cottage and its garden sit on the shingle of Dungeness, on the Kent coast, not nestled but parked among the wild and washed-up things: sea crambe, horned poppies, driftwood, flint stone, sea worn metal and flotsam. It was with these materials that Derek Jarman, the film-maker, artist and activist, started his garden in the 80s. By the time I became aware of it as a teenager in the 90s, it had gained legendary status. It was a radical and queer act of garden-making at a time when clipped shrubs and clean lawns still ruled. Today, it is still a wild garden without boundaries: its borders just slip into the wild flora of the headland with the nuclear power station looming in the background.

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Gardening tips: catch rare camellias in full bloom

Then plant strawberry saxifrage and treat house plants infested with fungus gnats

Visit this The Grade I-listed conservatory at Chiswick House in London is home to 33 varieties of camellia: at their flowery peak until 22 March. The gardens are open from 10am to 3pm daily, chiswickhouseandgardens.org.uk.

Plant this Strawberry saxifrage (Saxifraga stolonifera) is equally content on a windowsill indoors as in shady, sheltered corners outside. Its rosette of hairy, fleshy leaves are joined by spikes of delicate white flowers in early summer; the plant sends out wire-thin runners that grow baby plants. Look out for the stunning green, white and pink cultivar ‘Tricolor’.

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Why Derek Jarman’s garden must be saved | Alys Fowler

The film-maker’s Prospect Cottage and inspirational garden on the Kent shingle should be preserved for future generations

Prospect Cottage and its garden sit on the shingle of Dungeness, on the Kent coast, not nestled but parked among the wild and washed-up things: sea crambe, horned poppies, driftwood, flint stone, sea worn metal and flotsam. It was with these materials that Derek Jarman, the film-maker, artist and activist, started his garden in the 80s. By the time I became aware of it as a teenager in the 90s, it had gained legendary status. It was a radical and queer act of garden-making at a time when clipped shrubs and clean lawns still ruled. Today, it is still a wild garden without boundaries: its borders just slip into the wild flora of the headland with the nuclear power station looming in the background.

Continue reading...

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Gardening tips: catch rare camellias in full bloom

Then plant strawberry saxifrage and treat house plants infested with fungus gnats

Visit this The Grade I-listed conservatory at Chiswick House in London is home to 33 varieties of camellia: at their flowery peak until 22 March. The gardens are open from 10am to 3pm daily, chiswickhouseandgardens.org.uk.

Plant this Strawberry saxifrage (Saxifraga stolonifera) is equally content on a windowsill indoors as in shady, sheltered corners outside. Its rosette of hairy, fleshy leaves are joined by spikes of delicate white flowers in early summer; the plant sends out wire-thin runners that grow baby plants. Look out for the stunning green, white and pink cultivar ‘Tricolor’.

Continue reading...

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50 simple ways to make your life greener

Expert tips on how to be kinder to the planet – from cooking and cleaning to fashion and finance

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50 simple ways to make your life greener

Expert tips on how to be kinder to the planet – from cooking and cleaning to fashion and finance

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Nine top tips for renting a property Nottingham Estate Agents

The private rented sector of the UK property market has grown dramatically since the late 1990s and the growth is predicted to continue. OnTheMarket’s renting guide Private rentals accounted for 4.7 million or 20% of households in England in 2016/17, more than doubling in number since 2002 (Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government, July 2018). […]

The post Nine top tips for renting a property appeared first on OnTheMarket.com blog.

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Let’s move to Masham, North Yorkshire: beer and sheep run through its veins

The keeping of one and brewing of the other have long gone hand in hand in this beautiful market town

What’s going for it? Sheep and beer. Beer and sheep. Sheep, beer. Beer, sheep. Often together (ahhh, a pint of Black Sheep! A lamb and ale stew! A lamb and ale stew with a pint of Black Sheep on the side... now you’re talking). There’s no getting away from them in Masham. There can’t be many places this size with two – TWO! – illustrious breweries in them. I wouldn’t be surprised if the citizens of this beautiful market town on the flanks of the Yorkshire Dales were buried with a fleece and a flagon of ale. Thanks to the monks (Jervaulx and Fountains Abbeys dominated these parts for centuries), the keeping of sheep and the brewing of beer have long gone hand in hand round here. They’re in the blood, in the culture (the fabulous Masham Sheep Fair is a sight to behold), in the landscape and definitely in the history. There are, it’s true, other things to do in Masham. A teacake, perhaps, at Johnny Baghdad’s. Fish’n’chips at Harry’s. You could potter round the giftshops, buy a canvas in one of the art galleries, play an over on the cricket pitch. There is, whisper it, a fine wine merchant in town. But remember, these are but sideshows to the main events. Move here and ewe will think beer and dream sheep. There’s no escape.

The case against What? You’re a vegan teetotaller? Also, out of the way, though not particularly remote; and quietly rural for those who like their hubbub.

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Let’s move to Masham, North Yorkshire: beer and sheep run through its veins

The keeping of one and brewing of the other have long gone hand in hand in this beautiful market town

What’s going for it? Sheep and beer. Beer and sheep. Sheep, beer. Beer, sheep. Often together (ahhh, a pint of Black Sheep! A lamb and ale stew! A lamb and ale stew with a pint of Black Sheep on the side... now you’re talking). There’s no getting away from them in Masham. There can’t be many places this size with two – TWO! – illustrious breweries in them. I wouldn’t be surprised if the citizens of this beautiful market town on the flanks of the Yorkshire Dales were buried with a fleece and a flagon of ale. Thanks to the monks (Jervaulx and Fountains Abbeys dominated these parts for centuries), the keeping of sheep and the brewing of beer have long gone hand in hand round here. They’re in the blood, in the culture (the fabulous Masham Sheep Fair is a sight to behold), in the landscape and definitely in the history. There are, it’s true, other things to do in Masham. A teacake, perhaps, at Johnny Baghdad’s. Fish’n’chips at Harry’s. You could potter round the giftshops, buy a canvas in one of the art galleries, play an over on the cricket pitch. There is, whisper it, a fine wine merchant in town. But remember, these are but sideshows to the main events. Move here and ewe will think beer and dream sheep. There’s no escape.

The case against What? You’re a vegan teetotaller? Also, out of the way, though not particularly remote; and quietly rural for those who like their hubbub.

Continue reading...

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UK house prices rise at fastest rate for 18 months

Increase in home values comes as estate agent Foxtons reports £8.8m loss

UK house prices have risen at their fastest rate since mid-2018, after December’s decisive election result triggered a rebound in demand.

The average price of a home climbed 2.3% year on year to £216,092 in February, Nationwide said, the strongest growth rate in 18 months.

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Watchdog to act as UK homebuyers 'misled and overcharged'

Competition and Markets Authority says it will do all it can to help leaseholders

An investigation by the competition watchdog has found “troubling evidence” that leasehold homeowners and prospective buyers were being misled and charged excessive fees by developers.

The Competition and Markets Authority said it would do everything it could to help people who find themselves in “serious traps”.

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Homeowners reveal their first-hand renovation tips

Find out more.

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Homes in former schools – in pictures

Get a touch of class with these former educational buildings, from Devon to Cheshire

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Top tips for viewing empty properties Nottingham Estate Agents

Empty properties can often be undesired or even overlooked but they can offer potential buyers many benefits. Find out why an empty home may be worth a second look. Unfurnished homes can be beautiful but they do not appear to attract the same level of attention as furnished properties. While it is true that good […]

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How do labour costs for extensions vary and what do I need to know?

Get the lowdown.

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Take a look at four homes with AMAZING extensions

They're a little bit special.

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Basement conversions: all you need to know about digging down Nottingham Estate Agents

If you have extended up and out, now’s the time to turn your attention downwards. The good news is basement conversions can add between 10-15 per cent to your property’s value, according to Savills. They can add much needed living space, or even be rented out as a separate flat, making them a nice little […]

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Blackstone pays record £4.7bn for student housing firm iQ

Goldman Sachs and Wellcome offload iQ in UK’s largest-ever private property deal

Blackstone has struck the largest-ever private property deal in the UK by agreeing to acquire the UK student accommodation firm iQ in a £4.7bn deal.

The New York-based private equity firm is buying iQ from the US investment bank Goldman Sachs and the health research charity Wellcome Trust.

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Five fixer-upper homes to inspire your own renovation

See what refurb projects are out there.

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How much will it cost to build an extension? Use our new calculator!

Read the full story, here.

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A guide to downsizing Nottingham Estate Agents

Are you thinking about packing up your family home and finding somewhere smaller to live?  Here, the NAEA Propertymark offers advice to make the process a little easier: Planning is key – Packing your home into boxes can be a real chore, particularly when you are moving to a smaller property, but planning well in advance can […]

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Combustible cladding: protesters call on Boris Johnson to end crisis

Owners of apartments wrapped in dangerous cladding urge PM to release billions in funding

Owners of high-rise apartments wrapped in combustible cladding have demonstrated in Westminster to demand Boris Johnson release billions of pounds to end a national fire safety crisis that continues nearly 1,000 days after the Grenfell Tower disaster.

Families with young children, retirees and working couples from tower blocks in Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds, Southampton, Ipswich and Birmingham were among more than 100 residents who travelled to London to rally on Tuesday for an end to their “living nightmare” by announcing a bailout in next month’s budget.

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If I put washing up water on my vegetable patch will my vegetables taste soapy?

The long-running series in which readers answer other readers’ questions on subjects ranging from trivial flights of fancy to profound scientific and philosophical concepts

If I put washing up water on my vegetable patch, will my vegetables taste of washing up water?

Peter Hanson, Whitestone, Exeter

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If I put washing up water on my vegetable patch will my vegetables taste soapy?

The long-running series in which readers answer other readers’ questions on subjects ranging from trivial flights of fancy to profound scientific and philosophical concepts

If I put washing up water on my vegetable patch, will my vegetables taste of washing up water?

Peter Hanson, Whitestone, Exeter

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Star property over £500,000 Nottingham Estate Agents

If you had to dream up a perfect farmhouse it would probably look something like this. Claybottom Farm is a magnificent whitewashed Lakeland residence with equestrian facilities, 12 acres of land, outbuildings, beautiful grounds and superb fellside views. It is for sale at £1.1 million and is marketed by Fine & Country, North Lakes and […]

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Renting with friends? What you need to know about joint accounts Nottingham Estate Agents

Opening a shared account when you’re renting can take away the stress of splitting the monthly outgoings. ‘Providing all parties have good credit history, a joint account for paying bills is the easiest way to neatly manage finances in a rented property,’ says Mustard estate agents, which covers Milton Keynes, Towcester and beyond. But there […]

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The acute social housing crisis and what Scotland can teach us | Letters

The sale of public land to private developers must be stopped, says Rev Paul Nicolson, while Kate Macintosh says the problem is not a lack of housing but affordability

Suzanne Moore got everything else right about the housing crisis but left out land (I’m on the housing ladder but I can’t cheer the rising prices, Journal, 22 February). Throughout the UK, truly affordable council housing was built on public land. The price of borrowing to build and maintain council estates and their communities was recovered over, say, 50 years by low earners paying low rents, which did not include the ever-increasing value of land. Councils are now using the high value of public land to finance developers to demolish council estates and build private housing, which council tenants cannot afford. Hence the 79% increase in homeless families in England to 86,000, including 127,000 children since 2010, some for up to and over 10 years, 1.1 million households on council waiting lists and 4,700 single adults sleeping rough each night.

The New Economics Foundation recently reported that the government sold enough public land for developers to build 131,000 homes, but only 2.6% will be for social rent. There is an urgent need for legislation that forbids the sale of public land and requires it to be used for affordable social housing.
Rev Paul Nicolson
Taxpayers Against Poverty

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Star property under £250,000 Nottingham Estate Agents

There can’t be many former school buildings as pretty as this one. Originally known as The School Room, Ravenlee is a mid-terrace Victorian Grade II-listed cottage which has been fully modernised throughout. View Ravenlee which is for sale at £225,000 and is marketed by Chancellors, Kington at OnTheMarket. In the little Welsh village of Norton […]

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Half a million people in UK live in flats with unsafe cladding – report

Pressure growing on ministers to launch £2bn bailout ahead of rally by debt-stricken leaseholders

More than half a million people are living in unsafe private apartments wrapped in combustible cladding, according to a survey by property agents, as pressure grows on ministers to launch a bailout that could cost over £2bn.

The estimated scale of the post-Grenfell cladding crisis is far higher than previous government figures have suggested and comes ahead of a rally in Westminster on Tuesday, when leaseholders from Manchester, London, Birmingham, Southampton and Ipswich facing unaffordable bills of up to £100,000 each will demand action from ministers.

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Does being married stop me being classed as a first-time buyer?

I’ve never owned a property, but we’re living in a house my wife bought several years ago

Q My wife and I live in a house my wife bought several years ago before we were married. I have never owned a property. If I were to secure a mortgage solely in my name to buy a new property would I get any stamp duty reduction for being a first-time buyer? The plan would be to sell the house we are currently living in as soon as we’ve moved in to a new property.
RK

A Contrary to what some solicitors and conveyancers have told other readers asking similar questions to yours, being married does not stop you from being defined as a first-time buyer and so qualifying for stamp duty land tax (SDLT) relief. Provided your spouse doesn’t already own property and you are buying in your name only, you can get relief on the first £300,000 of the purchase price of a property costing up to £500,000 (there’s no relief if it’s more than that).

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Estate agents Countrywide and LSL in talks over £470m merger

Tie-up between owners of Hamptons International and Your Move could result in job losses

Two of Britain’s biggest estate agency groups are in talks over a possible £470m merger that will bring together well-known brands such as Hamptons International and Your Move and could also mean job losses.

In a brief statement to the stock market, Countrywide said that “it is in discussions with LSL Property Services regarding a possible all-share combination”. LSL issued a similar statement, and added: “LSL reserves the right to introduce other forms of consideration and/or vary the mix or composition of consideration of any offer.”

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Top tips for buying a renovation property Nottingham Estate Agents

If you’ve ever been tempted by the prospect of a property that needs work – a lot of work – you’ll know that rush of excitement. And that feeling of trepidation. But the rewards can be great. We have thought of some property renovation tips for when buying a renovation property. ‘You’ve got to have […]

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Break the garlic rules for a big surprise | James Wong

Garden lore dictates you must plant garlic in the cold months. Here’s why that doesn’t always apply

“In gardening there are no mistakes, only experiments.” This quote by gardener Janet Kilburn Phillips has to be my favourite horticultural saying ever, for the simple truth it tells.

As someone with a lifelong fixation with plants, I can’t help but feel that the rigid rules that underpin much of our traditional gardening wisdom are often a huge – and entirely unnecessary – barrier to timid first timers starting out on their own gardening adventure.

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Break the garlic rules for a big surprise | James Wong

Garden lore dictates you must plant garlic in the cold months. Here’s why that doesn’t always apply

“In gardening there are no mistakes, only experiments.” This quote by gardener Janet Kilburn Phillips has to be my favourite horticultural saying ever, for the simple truth it tells.

As someone with a lifelong fixation with plants, I can’t help but feel that the rigid rules that underpin much of our traditional gardening wisdom are often a huge – and entirely unnecessary – barrier to timid first timers starting out on their own gardening adventure.

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A return to Plot 29 | Allan Jenkins

It’s dirty work, but the manure – and granddaughter – gives spring a helping hand

I rushed the rehab. Regretting it now. It was the enforced helplessness I was fighting. Snowdrops are out. Crocuses, too. Jeffrey’s daylilies are a half a foot tall. His daffodils are in flower. Spring’s call is insistent. My exile is over.

Baby steps were needed. The first couple of times I just sat and stood at the plot, soaking it all up. The third, I took out the hoe. A little light strimming of the bittercress and tufted grass. Fifteen minutes or so, resting in between. The next day I lifted the tired chard. It felt healing to connect with the land in a more intimate way. To be more useful.

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A return to Plot 29 | Allan Jenkins

It’s dirty work, but the manure – and granddaughter – gives spring a helping hand

I rushed the rehab. Regretting it now. It was the enforced helplessness I was fighting. Snowdrops are out. Crocuses, too. Jeffrey’s daylilies are a half a foot tall. His daffodils are in flower. Spring’s call is insistent. My exile is over.

Baby steps were needed. The first couple of times I just sat and stood at the plot, soaking it all up. The third, I took out the hoe. A little light strimming of the bittercress and tufted grass. Fifteen minutes or so, resting in between. The next day I lifted the tired chard. It felt healing to connect with the land in a more intimate way. To be more useful.

Continue reading...

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How to keep a property transaction on course Nottingham Estate Agents

The collapse of a property sale can have a far greater effect than just disappointment or irritation – it can cost sellers thousands. OnTheMarket offers the following tips to keep your transaction steady. The numbers According to YouGov, a staggering 300,000 transactions collapse each year. The average cost of each case is £2,727, and 12 […]

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New lease of life: how to redecorate a rental property

You don’t have to be a home owner or have lots of money to create a ‘natural and nourishing home’, says Africa Daley-Clarke

In the middle of the wall in Africa Daley-Clarke’s living room is a print illustrating the passengers disembarking from the Empire Windrush. Before moving into her flat last June, she sold all of the art on her gallery wall to fund the purchase of this new print. Three of Daley-Clarke’s grandparents took a similar journey from the West Indies in the early 1960s: it’s a journey she is reminded of every time she sees the print, and an image she hopes her daughters will remember growing up with.

Daley-Clarke, 29, lives with her husband, Jermel, 33, and two young daughters – Israel, 4, and Ezra, 2 – in a social housing flat in Islington, north London. The street they live on comprises mostly detached Victorian villas. The property they live in has been split into three apartments. Here, on the first floor, in a two-bedroom flat with a front room, kitchen, bathroom and small balcony, Daley-Carke has created what she describes as a “natural, nourishing home” for her young family. “I never want my family to go without because we can’t afford to live in a bigger home,” she says. “But really, we don’t need any more.”

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New lease of life: how to redecorate a rental property

You don’t have to be a home owner or have lots of money to create a ‘natural and nourishing home’, says Africa Daley-Clarke

In the middle of the wall in Africa Daley-Clarke’s living room is a print illustrating the passengers disembarking from the Empire Windrush. Before moving into her flat last June, she sold all of the art on her gallery wall to fund the purchase of this new print. Three of Daley-Clarke’s grandparents took a similar journey from the West Indies in the early 1960s: it’s a journey she is reminded of every time she sees the print, and an image she hopes her daughters will remember growing up with.

Daley-Clarke, 29, lives with her husband, Jermel, 33, and two young daughters – Israel, 4, and Ezra, 2 – in a social housing flat in Islington, north London. The street they live on comprises mostly detached Victorian villas. The property they live in has been split into three apartments. Here, on the first floor, in a two-bedroom flat with a front room, kitchen, bathroom and small balcony, Daley-Carke has created what she describes as a “natural, nourishing home” for her young family. “I never want my family to go without because we can’t afford to live in a bigger home,” she says. “But really, we don’t need any more.”

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How to grow Vietnamese herbs | Alys Fowler

Culantro and kinh gioi freshen up summer salads and rolls, with a coriander kick or lemon zest

It was late and there were still further trains to catch, so it was supper at the station: steaming bowls of pho and, to my joy, big fat leaves of culantro (Eryngium foetidum), floating in the broth. Culantro looks a bit like a dandelion in leaf, and has a powerful coriander kick. It’s much loved in many cuisines, hence its many names: Mexican coriander, chadon beni, long coriander, recao, Thai parsley and sawtooth herb. A few years ago, you’d have to hunt high and low to get the seeds, but not today – there are numerous online offers.

Related: How to grow crab apple trees | Alys Fowler

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Gardening tips: plant a mock orange

Then visit a Victorian glasshouse and make a trellis

Plant this As winter draws to a close, now is the time to invest in something gorgeous for your borders. Mock orange (philadelphus) is a hardy shrub that produces scented white flowers in early summer, if planted in a sunny spot. Choose ‘Manteau d’Hermine’ if space is limited.

Visit this If you are looking for glasshouse growing at its finest (and somewhere to escape on a chilly day), West Dean gardens near Chichester, West Sussex has 13 impeccably maintained Victorian glasshouses. See how they grow everything from ferns and exotics to nectarines.

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Home grown: how exotic blooms can be guilt-free

You don’t have to import cut flowers – one grower’s blooms are sustainable as well as beautiful

An overflowing vase of unseasonably fiery flowers is the perfect antidote to winter. But if you worry about how far imported blooms have travelled, and at what cost to the environment, brightening up your room needn’t be a guilty pleasure: a cut flower producer on the south coast may have the answer.

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How to grow Vietnamese herbs | Alys Fowler

Culantro and kinh gioi freshen up summer salads and rolls, with a coriander kick or lemon zest

It was late and there were still further trains to catch, so it was supper at the station: steaming bowls of pho and, to my joy, big fat leaves of culantro (Eryngium foetidum), floating in the broth. Culantro looks a bit like a dandelion in leaf, and has a powerful coriander kick. It’s much loved in many cuisines, hence its many names: Mexican coriander, chadon beni, long coriander, recao, Thai parsley and sawtooth herb. A few years ago, you’d have to hunt high and low to get the seeds, but not today – there are numerous online offers.

Related: How to grow crab apple trees | Alys Fowler

Continue reading...

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Gardening tips: plant a mock orange

Then visit a Victorian glasshouse and make a trellis

Plant this As winter draws to a close, now is the time to invest in something gorgeous for your borders. Mock orange (philadelphus) is a hardy shrub that produces scented white flowers in early summer, if planted in a sunny spot. Choose ‘Manteau d’Hermine’ if space is limited.

Visit this If you are looking for glasshouse growing at its finest (and somewhere to escape on a chilly day), West Dean gardens near Chichester, West Sussex has 13 impeccably maintained Victorian glasshouses. See how they grow everything from ferns and exotics to nectarines.

Continue reading...

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Home grown: how exotic blooms can be guilt-free

You don’t have to import cut flowers – one grower’s blooms are sustainable as well as beautiful

An overflowing vase of unseasonably fiery flowers is the perfect antidote to winter. But if you worry about how far imported blooms have travelled, and at what cost to the environment, brightening up your room needn’t be a guilty pleasure: a cut flower producer on the south coast may have the answer.

Continue reading...

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The budget: what it might mean to you

How you are currently taxed, what the new chancellor might change, and what, if anything, you can do about it

Current rules

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Top tips for selling your home if you have a pet Nottingham Estate Agents

Not every buyer will feel the same as you do about your beloved pet. OnTheMarket agent Aberdein Considine offers top tips on how to ensure potential buyers are not put off by the negatives which sometimes come with owning a pet Minimise the negatives – Remember to repair any damage caused by pets, including carpets, […]

The post Top tips for selling your home if you have a pet appeared first on OnTheMarket.com blog.

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Rebecca Long-Bailey challenges rivals on housing as Labour race gets personal

Leadership hopeful urges Nandy and Starmer to pledge 100,000 council homes a year

Rebecca Long-Bailey has publicly called on her rivals in the Labour leadership race to support a pledge to build more council homes, as the battle to succeed Jeremy Corbyn began to take on a more personal tone in the run-up to the vote.

With members’ ballots due to start arriving on Monday, Long-Bailey used a speech in Peterborough to argue that a promise to build at least 100,000 local authority homes for social rent per year would help “lay the foundations of aspirational socialism”.

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'The bats used to fly in': the extreme end of heritage living

From underground caves to Antarctic huts, living in Australia’s ultra-historic buildings has its bonuses – and drawbacks

Many of us dream of moving into a heritage building.

But Olive Ryan didn’t – even before she saw the ghosts.

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'The bats used to fly in': the extreme end of heritage living

From underground caves to Antarctic huts, living in Australia’s ultra-historic buildings has its bonuses – and drawbacks

Many of us dream of moving into a heritage building.

But Olive Ryan didn’t – even before she saw the ghosts.

Continue reading...

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Call for English councils to be given powers to regulate Airbnb

Caroline Lucas urges move to help ease ‘intolerable’ pressure on availability of local housing

Local councils in England must be given powers to regulate Airbnb and other short-term letting sites in order to alleviate the “intolerable” pressure they put on the availability of local housing, the Green party MP, Caroline Lucas, has said.

Her intervention followed a Guardian investigation that found one Airbnb listing for every four residential properties in some hotspots across Britain. Airbnb has disputed the finding.

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Let’s move to Coventry: ‘It’s the next UK city of culture’

Hopefully the investment, headlines and hullaballoo will help it to shout its many histories from its beautiful rooftops

What’s going for it? Little-known fact: did you know that all newspaper articles about Coventry by law have to mention Lady Godiva, Ghost Town by The Specials and the blitz?

So now we’ve got those out of the way, we can move on. Of course it’s hard to avoid the latter. Coventry was so heavily bombed on 14 November 1940, the shadow still looms large. It is unavoidable in the architecture, almost everywhere you look. The rebuilt centre became a potent symbol of Britain’s postwar renewal, its glorious new cathedral loaded with spiritual meaning linked to reconciliation and forgiveness.

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Let’s move to Coventry: ‘It’s the next UK city of culture’

Hopefully the investment, headlines and hullaballoo will help it to shout its many histories from its beautiful rooftops

What’s going for it? Little-known fact: did you know that all newspaper articles about Coventry by law have to mention Lady Godiva, Ghost Town by The Specials and the blitz?

So now we’ve got those out of the way, we can move on. Of course it’s hard to avoid the latter. Coventry was so heavily bombed on 14 November 1940, the shadow still looms large. It is unavoidable in the architecture, almost everywhere you look. The rebuilt centre became a potent symbol of Britain’s postwar renewal, its glorious new cathedral loaded with spiritual meaning linked to reconciliation and forgiveness.

Continue reading...

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Live the high life with a chauffeur-driven Bentley at this rental pad

We want one!

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I know what housing insecurity is like. Rising prices are not good news | Suzanne Moore

Entire generations will struggle to be able to afford their own property – the market has failed them

Leaflets pile up on my doormat from estate agents. “For sale” signs are erected outside houses on my street. Tarpaulins covering exposed loft conversions blow in the wind. The signs are clear: people are looking for property in my area. I didn’t need a Daily Mail headline to shout at me: “House prices surging in EVERY region.”

In the UK, the value of life is measured in house prices, for those lucky enough to own one. To see house-price rises (especially those worth more than £900,000) as a cheery fact is to lack awareness. Rising prices are excluding entire generations from the housing market. See that housing ladder you climbed? Well, here’s the snake.

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Shares ownership homes – in pictures

For some, buying a stake is the only way to secure a dream home

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Tenant Deposit Return: when should a landlord return your deposit? Nottingham Estate Agents

It is the elephant in the room in the landlord-tenant relationship. What happens if the landlord refuses to return the deposit at the end of a tenancy, giving reasons that the tenant regards as ridiculous or unreasonable? Many a tenancy has ended in tears because of a lack of clarity about the all-important deposit, which […]

The post Tenant Deposit Return: when should a landlord return your deposit? appeared first on OnTheMarket.com blog.

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Why is McDonald's selling burger-scented candles?

A hot new merch line? A cynical marketing ploy? Why not both! One Guardian staffer asked another to explain it ... quickly

Oh my gad McDonald’s is launching a range of candles that combine to smell like a Quarter Pounder – pass the sick bag … why is humanity doing this to ourselves?
Perhaps it’s because they noticed all the attention this independently made, quite probably trademark-skirting ‘Maccas Run’ scented candle scored last year; or this KFC candle from 2016. Get with the game, McDonald’s marketing department! Viral scented candles weren’t pulled out of Gwynny’s birth canal yesterday.

As for why we’re doing this to ourselves – I can’t think of a better passive-aggressive gift for the slob who has everything.

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Laura Ashley to raid archives as home furnishing sales plunge

Retailer plans to revive designs of late founder after narrowly avoiding collapse this week

Laura Ashley is to revive the “timeless” designs of its late founder in the latest attempt to breathe new life into the struggling British heritage brand.

Ashley, who started printing her trademark floral fabrics on her kitchen table, took the high street by storm in the 70s, but the appeal of her frilly world peaked in the 80s, when Princess Diana was among its famous fans.

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A first time buyer’s guide to finding your new home Nottingham Estate Agents

Finding your dream home can seem a daunting task as a first time buyer but OnTheMarket can help ensure you stay ahead of the game because we’re in business to improve the way you search. OnTheMarket features thousands of new properties each month, 24 hours or more before they are advertised on Rightmove or Zoopla.* These properties automatically feature […]

The post A first time buyer’s guide to finding your new home appeared first on OnTheMarket.com blog.

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Feast your eyes on one of Sandbank’s most exclusive homes

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Half house, half tent: the startling Spanish villa that breaks all the rules

British architects Space Popular have a reputation for clashing colours and computer game imagery. Now the rising duo have built their first house – and it’s been confusing the locals

A bright-green steel frame perches on a steeply sloping site north of Valencia, Spain, projecting out from the hill above a busy main road. It forms a large 3D grid, some of its spaces filled with white cubic volumes, others left empty as if still awaiting their final function.

“People kept asking if it was going to be a supermarket,” says architect Fredrik Hellberg, standing beneath the 10-metre-high frame. It’s a fair question: in Nueva Santa Barbara, a new suburb where houses are variously neo-Moorish, Spanish rustic or developer modern, this startling new home is unlike any other for miles around.

It is the first completed building by Space Popular, a young London-based practice founded by Hellberg and his partner, Lara Lesmes, in 2013 in Bangkok, where for five years they taught architecture. Working in the Thai metropolis gave them the rare luxury of being able to afford bespoke craftsmanship, even on limited budgets, allowing them to have every element of their first interior projects handmade to their designs, from furniture to fittings. Their work for a local spa chain features tubular steel chairs in minty green with yellow leather seats, pink marble countertops and baby-blue reclining loungers with a retro-futuristic feel. It takes pleasure in both natural and synthetic textures, combining diaphanous pleated curtains with raw concrete, leather and glossy resin floors.

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The filth factor: how to draw up the perfect cleaning rota

One mother has made her children sign a contract to keep the house tidy. But there are other ways to ensure your housemates, partner and kids get dusting

Anyone who has messy children, a lazy partner or revolting flatmates will be impressed by the resourcefulness of Katrina Neathey, the co-owner of a cleaning company in West Sussex, who has made her three teenagers sign a contract to help keep the house tidy. Any infraction – fizzy drinks in their bedroom, say, or failing to put their dirty plates in the dishwasher – comes with a £5 fine or removal of their phones.

It is one way of setting up a cleaning rota that people might stick to. “Cleaning is teamwork,” says Lynsey Crombie, also known as the Queen of Clean. “It’s not one person’s responsibility.” She advises getting everyone in the household together “to find out what people are better at. In our family, my husband is better at mowing the lawn, cleaning the windows and washing the cars. I love vacuuming; someone else might like folding the towels. You let someone do what they’re good at, or enjoy, so there’s more chance they’ll actually do it.”

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The filth factor: how to draw up the perfect cleaning rota

One mother has made her children sign a contract to keep the house tidy. But there are other ways to ensure your housemates, partner and kids get dusting

Anyone who has messy children, a lazy partner or revolting flatmates will be impressed by the resourcefulness of Katrina Neathey, the co-owner of a cleaning company in West Sussex, who has made her three teenagers sign a contract to help keep the house tidy. Any infraction – fizzy drinks in their bedroom, say, or failing to put their dirty plates in the dishwasher – comes with a £5 fine or removal of their phones.

It is one way of setting up a cleaning rota that people might stick to. “Cleaning is teamwork,” says Lynsey Crombie, also known as the Queen of Clean. “It’s not one person’s responsibility.” She advises getting everyone in the household together “to find out what people are better at. In our family, my husband is better at mowing the lawn, cleaning the windows and washing the cars. I love vacuuming; someone else might like folding the towels. You let someone do what they’re good at, or enjoy, so there’s more chance they’ll actually do it.”

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House prices rise in every region of UK for first time in two years

Land Registry figures show annualised increase of 2.2% in December

House prices have increased in every region in the UK in for the first time in two years, as the Conservative party’s election victory and a more settled economic outlook calmed buyers’ nerves.

House price data compiled by the Land Registry showed average annual house prices increased by 2.2% in December, up from 1.7% in November.

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Can you make an offer on a house that is under offer? Nottingham Estate Agents

One of the questions most frequently asked by house-hunters is: what is the difference between ‘under offer’ and ‘sold subject to contract’? They have seen both terms applied to properties and assume, reasonably enough, that they must mean different things. In fact, and confusingly, they mean pretty much the same thing. It just depends which […]

The post Can you make an offer on a house that is under offer? appeared first on OnTheMarket.com blog.

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Legionella: A landlords’ guide made simple Nottingham Estate Agents

We interviewed water hygiene specialist and Managing Director of uRisk, Luke Cheetham, to provide advice to landlords and tenants. Here’s what he had to say. How do you get Legionnaires’ disease? You can get Legionnaires’ disease by inhaling tiny droplets of water that contain Legionella bacteria. It is more commonly caught in commercial premises rather […]

The post Legionella: A landlords’ guide made simple appeared first on OnTheMarket.com blog.

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Is this the best home in the UK to watch sunsets?

It's absolutely fabulous.

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Escape the rat race and buy this beach-side café

How lush is this?

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Tell us: how you have been affected by debt?

We would like to hear from people who are struggling with debt. Share your experiences with us

Debt in the UK is at a record high. Household debt has soared by a third in the last decade and there are an increasing number of people complaining that they have no disposable income at the start of the month after their financial obligations are taken from their salary.

Meanwhile, it has never been easier to get credit - waiting in line at a high street store is enough time to be approved for a short term loan.

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2020 could be ‘your year to move’ says Rightmove’s property expert

Read the full story, here.

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Will HS2 affect property prices in the Midlands and north?

I’m wondering if prices will become high like the south-east once the high-speed rail link opens

Q I would like some advice. How much will HS2 affect property prices in the Midlands and the north? Will they become expensive like the south-east? Also, why are property prices in the south-east so high compared with the Midlands and the north and will this change in the future?
RE

A The short answer to all your questions is: I don’t know. What I do know is that when somewhere stands to benefit from a large-scale improvement in transport links – especially to London - property prices tend to go up. For example, when the original London to Oxford bit of the M40 was extended from Oxford to Birmingham back in 1991, my home town of Warwick saw – if not a though-the-roof increase in property prices – then at least a bit of a surge. By being less than 10 minutes from the motorway, the town had become an easy commute to Birmingham and, at a push, a reasonable weekly commute to London. A decade or so later, property prices saw a further positive blip when Chiltern Railways reopened Warwick station which provided access to its cheap train services from Birmingham Snowshill to London Marylebone. It’s doubtful, however, whether the coming of HS2 will see a further surge in property prices, largely because Warwick won’t have close access to HS2 services.

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What to do if your home isn’t selling: Five top tips Nottingham Estate Agents

Waiting for your home to sell can be incredibly stressful. Here OnTheMarket agent Austin Gray suggests five ways you can help get the ‘ball rolling’ The idea of selling your home, especially for the first time, can be a daunting one, let alone if the property isn’t selling. No sale period is the same so […]

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UK housing boom leads to £2,500 jump in asking prices

‘Boris bounce’ invigorates buyers and sellers, leading to 12% surge in sales

Britain’s property market is in the grip of fresh boom, according to Rightmove, with asking prices jumping by more than £2,500 over the past month alone.

The average asking price for a home rose to £309,399 in February, £40 shy of its all-time record, said Rightmove. Buyers and sellers have been invigorated by renewed economic confidence, described as the “Boris bounce”, it added.

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Why Jerusalem artichokes pack a real punch

Neither an artichoke, nor from Jerusalem, these bulbous tubers are easy to grow and offer pretty flowers and a delicious vegetable

As an ethnobotanist, I am forever fascinated by how we have come to eat the crops we do. Despite there being an estimated 50,000 edible plant species on Earth, most of us exist on the harvests from fewer than 100 species, meaning we are missing out on 99.8% of the options available. In fact, 60% of the calories that fuel humanity come from the seeds of just three grass species: wheat, rice and corn. Having grown and tasted hundreds of these alternative edibles, I can confirm that there are sometimes very good reasons why some just haven’t been popularised. “Edible”and “tasty” are often different things. However, once in a while there is an example of a crop that ticks all the boxes, yet remains totally undervalued. The Jerusalem artichoke is probably the easiest and most rewarding vegetable crop around – and now is a great time to get ordering them.

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Why Jerusalem artichokes pack a real punch

Neither an artichoke, nor from Jerusalem, these bulbous tubers are easy to grow and offer pretty flowers and a delicious vegetable

As an ethnobotanist, I am forever fascinated by how we have come to eat the crops we do. Despite there being an estimated 50,000 edible plant species on Earth, most of us exist on the harvests from fewer than 100 species, meaning we are missing out on 99.8% of the options available. In fact, 60% of the calories that fuel humanity come from the seeds of just three grass species: wheat, rice and corn. Having grown and tasted hundreds of these alternative edibles, I can confirm that there are sometimes very good reasons why some just haven’t been popularised. “Edible”and “tasty” are often different things. However, once in a while there is an example of a crop that ticks all the boxes, yet remains totally undervalued. The Jerusalem artichoke is probably the easiest and most rewarding vegetable crop around – and now is a great time to get ordering them.

Continue reading...

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Missing Plot 29’s healing powers | Allan Jenkins

After enforced rest for garden and gardener, it’s time to (slowly) start spring

I have been exiled from the allotment for a few weeks now in a smaller world of pain. The plot is at the top of a hill and walking steep slopes has been beyond me. The meditation medication it brings me has been unavailable. This weekend I think all that will change. Though it may involve taxis.

A garden, I think, responds to constancy and attention. Fidelity, regularity and care are what works, as in any relationship. It doesn’t do so well when these are withdrawn, no matter the sound reason or intention.

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Missing Plot 29’s healing powers | Allan Jenkins

After enforced rest for garden and gardener, it’s time to (slowly) start spring

I have been exiled from the allotment for a few weeks now in a smaller world of pain. The plot is at the top of a hill and walking steep slopes has been beyond me. The meditation medication it brings me has been unavailable. This weekend I think all that will change. Though it may involve taxis.

A garden, I think, responds to constancy and attention. Fidelity, regularity and care are what works, as in any relationship. It doesn’t do so well when these are withdrawn, no matter the sound reason or intention.

Continue reading...

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A guide to student property: Legal rights Nottingham Estate Agents

OnTheMarket looks at a few key facts for students to consider when renting their first property. Students renting self-contained accommodation from a private landlord will most likely have what is called an ‘Assured shorthold tenancy’ (AST), making the student an ‘Assured shorthold tenant’. This means the tenancy will usually last for six or 12 months […]

The post A guide to student property: Legal rights appeared first on OnTheMarket.com blog.

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Flaws and effect: Jenna Lyons’s ‘imperfect’ New York loft

Jenna Lyons, the former creative director of J Crew, uses her refurbished New York apartment to show off her love of objects with a past

Jenna Lyons, style titan and former executive creative director of J Crew, admits to a lifelong appreciation for the timeworn, which underpins her vibrant sense of design. “I love a sense of history in something. I love a patina, I love seeing someone else’s touch, or seeing a stain, or seeing a nick or a chip. Materials get soft and they get round and they change colour,” she says. This passionate embrace of imperfection can be seen throughout her three-bedroom loft in New York’s SoHo neighbourhood, which she spent two years renovating.

When she was looking for a new home, a long stint living in a Brooklyn brownstone informed her list of prerequisites – she wanted it to be all on one floor and large enough to accommodate the “main parts of life”, like cooking, eating and hanging out. “I rent the apartment downstairs as my office, but when I bought the loft above it was all open plan and hadn’t been touched in about 40 years,” recalls Lyons, who is currently working on a top-secret beauty project, designing a hotel in the Bahamas and gearing up to launch a lifestyle television series and e-commerce site in the summer.

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Flaws and effect: Jenna Lyons’s ‘imperfect’ New York loft

Jenna Lyons, the former creative director of J Crew, uses her refurbished New York apartment to show off her love of objects with a past

Jenna Lyons, style titan and former executive creative director of J Crew, admits to a lifelong appreciation for the timeworn, which underpins her vibrant sense of design. “I love a sense of history in something. I love a patina, I love seeing someone else’s touch, or seeing a stain, or seeing a nick or a chip. Materials get soft and they get round and they change colour,” she says. This passionate embrace of imperfection can be seen throughout her three-bedroom loft in New York’s SoHo neighbourhood, which she spent two years renovating.

When she was looking for a new home, a long stint living in a Brooklyn brownstone informed her list of prerequisites – she wanted it to be all on one floor and large enough to accommodate the “main parts of life”, like cooking, eating and hanging out. “I rent the apartment downstairs as my office, but when I bought the loft above it was all open plan and hadn’t been touched in about 40 years,” recalls Lyons, who is currently working on a top-secret beauty project, designing a hotel in the Bahamas and gearing up to launch a lifestyle television series and e-commerce site in the summer.

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Switcheroo: the former mill that’s now an upside-down family home

How one stylish couple have transformed a rundown cotton mill in Todmorden, West Yorkshire

The toss of a coin decided which half of a rundown cotton mill in Todmorden, West Yorkshire, Louise Lockhart and her husband Paul Slade would make their home. Unable to afford the whole building, they joined forces with another couple and bought the mill together, with the aim of bisecting it to create two separate homes.

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Use warming mats to heat your seeds | Alys Fowler

Rubberised pads are a cheap, compact alternative to a greenhouse

All my current fantasies are about greenhouses. I am tortured by emails from fancy manufacturers seducing me with modern glass cubes and cute-as-a-button wooden structures. Imagine standing in a greenhouse, I think, as I play Tetris with seedling trays on countertops at home. What starts off on windowsills quickly sprawls on to any flat surface.

So, for a fraction of the price of a greenhouse, I’ve been trying out BioGreen’s rubberised warming pads as a new solution. You sit the seed trays on flat plastic mats that heat the soil to 5-10 degrees warmer than the ambient temperature. If you stick a bit of recycled polystyrene underneath, and add in some cheap LED grow lights with a timer, you’ve got a pretty good propagation unit.

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Gardening tips: plant a rose

Then visit Edinburgh’s Royal Botanic Garden and force rhubarb, sea kale or a dandelion rosette

Plant this Take advantage of the current bare-root planting season to add a rose to your garden. ‘Starlight Symphony’ is a climber with clusters of single white blooms around a pink central boss of stamens. It’s compact, reaching 2.5m tall, and has good resistance to the usual diseases roses succumb to.

Visit this If you love plants, but are more of a palm than a snowdrop when it comes to cold tolerance, the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh has more than an acre of glasshouses to wander around. This year, it is celebrating 350 years. Check the website for lots special of events: rbge.org.uk

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Use warming mats to heat your seeds | Alys Fowler

Rubberised pads are a cheap, compact alternative to a greenhouse

All my current fantasies are about greenhouses. I am tortured by emails from fancy manufacturers seducing me with modern glass cubes and cute-as-a-button wooden structures. Imagine standing in a greenhouse, I think, as I play Tetris with seedling trays on countertops at home. What starts off on windowsills quickly sprawls on to any flat surface.

So, for a fraction of the price of a greenhouse, I’ve been trying out BioGreen’s rubberised warming pads as a new solution. You sit the seed trays on flat plastic mats that heat the soil to 5-10 degrees warmer than the ambient temperature. If you stick a bit of recycled polystyrene underneath, and add in some cheap LED grow lights with a timer, you’ve got a pretty good propagation unit.

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Gardening tips: plant a rose

Then visit Edinburgh’s Royal Botanic Garden and force rhubarb, sea kale or a dandelion rosette

Plant this Take advantage of the current bare-root planting season to add a rose to your garden. ‘Starlight Symphony’ is a climber with clusters of single white blooms around a pink central boss of stamens. It’s compact, reaching 2.5m tall, and has good resistance to the usual diseases roses succumb to.

Visit this If you love plants, but are more of a palm than a snowdrop when it comes to cold tolerance, the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh has more than an acre of glasshouses to wander around. This year, it is celebrating 350 years. Check the website for lots special of events: rbge.org.uk

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Switcheroo: the former mill that’s now an upside-down family home

How one stylish couple have transformed a rundown cotton mill in Todmorden, West Yorkshire

The toss of a coin decided which half of a rundown cotton mill in Todmorden, West Yorkshire, Louise Lockhart and her husband Paul Slade would make their home. Unable to afford the whole building, they joined forces with another couple and bought the mill together, with the aim of bisecting it to create two separate homes.

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Buying a house in a flood risk area Nottingham Estate Agents

Although most properties in the UK are not at risk of flooding, millions are, even in areas that are not immediately waterside. When a part of the country is devastated by floods and the television news is dominated by pictures of homeowners mopping up their basements, the natural human reaction is to think, ‘That could have been […]

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'There is life outside of London': converts to Leeds sing its praises

Art, culture, nature and property prices are tempting people away from the capital

In the past five years the number of Londoners moving up to Leeds has risen by 58%, from 2,720 in 2013 to 4,296 in 2018. Home to several universities and a cosmopolitan population, Leeds boasts a flourishing cultural scene, quality nightlife and large-scale regeneration that has transformed the West Yorkshire city in recent years.

Beyond the Victorian architecture of the city centre, there are leafy suburbs of Victorian terraces and high-rise apartment buildings. With average house prices around £182,700, 62% lower than the capital, Leeds is proving attractive to first-time buyers, families and renters alike.

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Let’s move to the New Forest: jolly, if you have the lolly

Ignore its more suburban edges and concentrate on the oaks, ickle ponies, witches and ye olde Norman lore

What’s going for it? Thanks to the Brothers Grimm, I’ve long had a fancy to live in a forest, aside from the obvious downsides of witches, wood-trolls and big bad wolves. Just a log cabin in a little clearing will do, so I can live out my Henry David Thoreau dreams – in easy reach of a decent coffee, of course. Since we Brits deforested our land centuries before palm oil conglomerates started work on the Amazon, there isn’t much choice on this island. The New Forest just about fits the bill. Brockenhurst and Lyndhurst are the two main clearings: smart, mostly Victorian affairs Lycra-bombed by cyclists on an average weekend, but jolly spots nonetheless. One can quite imagine Arthur Conan Doyle or Alice‑in-Wonderland Liddell trotting the streets here, under gothic gables. Forest would be a slight overstatement to anyone from Brazil or the Congo, but if I squint a bit and ignore its more suburban edges, concentrating instead on the oaks, ickle ponies, witches and local lore from ye olde Norman times, I can fill up on my bosky romance and be within a short drive of, say, The Pig, when I’m in desperate need of some yuzu juice.

The case against Traffic, especially in summer: gridlock, just to get home for your tea. Verges on the unromantically suburban, for those looking for rural idyll. Expensive: I don’t remember any Maserati showrooms last time I read Little Red Riding Hood.

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Let’s move to the New Forest: jolly, if you have the lolly

Ignore its more suburban edges and concentrate on the oaks, ickle ponies, witches and ye olde Norman lore

What’s going for it? Thanks to the Brothers Grimm, I’ve long had a fancy to live in a forest, aside from the obvious downsides of witches, wood-trolls and big bad wolves. Just a log cabin in a little clearing will do, so I can live out my Henry David Thoreau dreams – in easy reach of a decent coffee, of course. Since we Brits deforested our land centuries before palm oil conglomerates started work on the Amazon, there isn’t much choice on this island. The New Forest just about fits the bill. Brockenhurst and Lyndhurst are the two main clearings: smart, mostly Victorian affairs Lycra-bombed by cyclists on an average weekend, but jolly spots nonetheless. One can quite imagine Arthur Conan Doyle or Alice‑in-Wonderland Liddell trotting the streets here, under gothic gables. Forest would be a slight overstatement to anyone from Brazil or the Congo, but if I squint a bit and ignore its more suburban edges, concentrating instead on the oaks, ickle ponies, witches and local lore from ye olde Norman times, I can fill up on my bosky romance and be within a short drive of, say, The Pig, when I’m in desperate need of some yuzu juice.

The case against Traffic, especially in summer: gridlock, just to get home for your tea. Verges on the unromantically suburban, for those looking for rural idyll. Expensive: I don’t remember any Maserati showrooms last time I read Little Red Riding Hood.

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Rent-to-buy scheme aims to help breach the ‘deposit barrier’

New homes at reduced rents give first-time buyers a chance to get on the housing ladder

Mental health nurse Nicole Richards had been renting privately for years and had always found it impossible to save anything towards buying her first home, let alone the UK average first-time buyer deposit of £46,000. But she has now moved into a brand-new property, slashed her rent bill by more than £250 a month – with most of that money being channelled into an Isa – and will hopefully be in a position to buy her home in five years’ time.

Richards, 27, is among hundreds of key workers who have taken advantage of an innovative government-supported scheme that is expanding across the country and aims to remove the “deposit barrier” that is probably the biggest obstacle to home ownership for many on low and average incomes.

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City penthouses for sale – in pictures

From a Grade II* Georgian apartment in York to a 1750s apartment on the Circus in Bath

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Top interior design tips for getting that show home finish Nottingham Estate Agents

Those fortunate enough to have bought a new build property have a chance to put their stamp on a house which no one has lived in before. They really are a blank canvas for the interior designer within all of us to get creative and make that house a home. But how do you turn […]

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Nine questions all first-time buyers should ask

Never feel embarrassed about asking these.

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A guide to selling your property Nottingham Estate Agents

There’s no doubt that moving home is up there with life’s most stressful events. Not only is there the emotional and physical upheaval to deal with, there’s the legal complexity, admin marathon and uncertainty around whether you’ll actually cross the finish line that can leave nerves feeling frayed. ‘When you are thinking of placing your […]

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UK house prices rise for first time since July 2018

Optimism returns to housing market, with some crediting ‘Boris bounce’ for revival

House prices rose across the UK for the first time in one and a half years last month as optimism returned among buyers and sellers, according to surveyors and estate agents.

In further evidence that the housing market is picking up, inquiries from would-be buyers, agreed sales and the number of properties coming on to the market all rose in January, according to the latest monthly snapshot from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics).

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Holding out hope for the windy symbol | Brief letters

Mansion tax | Boris Johnson | Nietzsche | Weather | Marmalade

In attributing the £2bn mansion tax to Ed Miliband, and therefore Labour (The Tories say they are for the left-behind: we’ll soon see, 11 February), Polly Toynbee does us Liberal Democrats a disservice. The concept of a special annual tax on expensive houses, dubbed “mansions”, was introduced into UK politics by the Lib Dems in 2009, and is widely associated with our then Treasury spokesperson, Vince Cable.
Peter Wrigley
Birstall, Yorkshire

• Boris Johnson was born in New York and brought to the UK as a child. Is the prime minister at risk of deportation (No 10 dismisses ‘Westminster bubble’ concerns over deportations, 12 February)?
Dr John Doherty
Vienna, Austria

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Country diary: mistletoe's moon pearls are full of marvellous jelly

Marshwood Vale, Dorset: On a sunny day three Februarys ago, I squashed the berries on to an apple branch. That March, crooked shoots emerged

It was a shock to see green where I thought all had failed. There it was – a tiny wishbone with a pair of propeller-shaped leaf blades reaching up and out towards the sun. The first shoot of a new mistletoe plant.

Mistletoe (Viscum album) takes a long time to establish. Four Christmases ago, I saved some berries to ripen, a handful of rubbery moon pearls salvaged from the darkest days of winter. They need light or they die, so I put them in a jam jar next to the spider-webbed window of the garden shed.

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The mattress landfill crisis: how the race to bring us better beds led to a recycling nightmare

As the sleep economy grows, online companies vie to sell us new mattresses, offering 100-day returns. This has helped create an impossible waste mountain – and a wild west of rogue recyclers

Mike Scollick and Richard Allsopp are talking about the worst things they ever found in a mattress. “We had one where I think a dog had been lying on it, and the whole thing was just jumping with fleas,” Allsopp says, shuddering. No one would touch it, so they had to use a cherry picker to move it. But that’s not the worst of it, Scollick says: “I stripped the cover off one once and it looked like somebody …” “Died,” interjects Allsopp.

It’s fair to say you need a strong stomach to be in the mattress recycling game. Which Scollick and Allsopp have, along with several million pounds’ worth of equipment in their Coventry warehouse. I have come to see Circom, their mattress recycling firm, at work. It’s a dirty but noble enterprise: Circom is one of only a handful of recyclers tackling the UK’s ever-growing mattress problem.

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Country diary: mistletoe's moon pearls are full of marvellous jelly

Marshwood Vale, Dorset: On a sunny day three Februarys ago, I squashed the berries on to an apple branch. That March, crooked shoots emerged

It was a shock to see green where I thought all had failed. There it was – a tiny wishbone with a pair of propeller-shaped leaf blades reaching up and out towards the sun. The first shoot of a new mistletoe plant.

Mistletoe (Viscum album) takes a long time to establish. Four Christmases ago, I saved some berries to ripen, a handful of rubbery moon pearls salvaged from the darkest days of winter. They need light or they die, so I put them in a jam jar next to the spider-webbed window of the garden shed.

Continue reading...

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Moving to a new area? Top tips to help ease moving house Nottingham Estate Agents

Moving to a new area? Top tips to help ease moving house  Are you thinking about moving across the country to start again in a new area? Or even to start a new job? The NAEA Propertymark provides five top tips to ensure moving house runs smoothly. Visit the new area It can take six to eight months […]

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