Transforming underutilised urban spaces into productive or beautiful gardens has a host of benefits
Kate Nightingale wields a pair of secateurs in her footpath garden in Camp Hill in Brisbane’s east, and passersby keep stopping to chat.
Related: It’s official: allotments are good for you – and for your mental health
Continue reading...They’ve kept us warm for thousands of years, but a new study says open fires may cause more pollution than the traffic on a busy road
Name: Open fires.
Age: As old as mankind.
Continue reading...As you might expect from someone who has spent months in lockdown, the objects the writer has come to rely on are unashamedly pragmatic
Slowly emerging from months of lockdown in Melbourne, the writer and beauty entrepreneur Zoë Foster Blake has had plenty to occupy her time.
She’s released a new children’s book, Back to Sleep, illustrated by Mike Jacobsen, which is a role reversal of the typical bedtime story. And she’s been making playlists. A lot of playlists.
Continue reading...We may be confined to home as the days draw in, but here’s an expert guide to maximising the winter light inside
Things are looking gloomy – seasonally speaking, if not also metaphorically. It was one thing to be locked down when the days were long and the heatwave heavy, but we’re facing a run of dark months, mostly indoors. Here are some expert tips on staying on the bright side, and maximising winter light.
Continue reading...Allendale, Northumberland: Fang-like modified legs near its front contain poison with which to inject prey such as slugs
Marigolds are still flowering in our veg garden, glowing bright orange against a dark mulch of new-laid compost. Between rows of carrots, beetroot and coriander in seed is a wooden board for walking on. I lift it carefully to see what’s underneath. Clods of compost stick to its underside along with worms, slugs and a centipede, chestnut brown, fast-moving and scuttling away to hide.
I often find centipedes when working in the garden: among crocks in the bottom of terracotta pots, in rotting leaf mould, when moving stones or dead wood. I pick this one up and it runs from one gloved hand to another in a fluid movement, repeating this over and over as I keep swapping hands. I drop it into an observation pot to count its legs: there are 15 pairs, one to each segment of its flat body. Fine antennae explore the pot and coil like some waving sea creature. Living in dark places and feeding by night, centipedes rely on antennae rather than eyesight.
Continue reading...Restored original features rub shoulders with design classics in this glorious Parisian home
Just a stone’s throw from the Bois de Boulogne, in the chic 16th arrondissement of Paris famed for its art nouveau flourishes, is the striking five-storey mansion that is home to Suzanne Tise-Isoré. Designed in the 1880s by architect Gustave Brière, it mixes elements of gothic and Second Empire style, and with its eccentric brick facade is a far cry from the nearby uniform Haussmann buildings.
“My husband Jean-Claude, who works in real estate, first saw the house in the 1980s, and later when it came up for sale we both viewed it, and despite the wildly painted green and purple interior, we just fell in love with all of the original decorative features,” says Suzanne.
Continue reading...Social media has led to an expensive new houseplant mania
In the 1600s, “tulip mania” gripped the Dutch republic. These exotic new bulbs from Turkey quickly became key status symbols among the highest echelons of society. Prices soon reached eye-watering levels, with single bulbs being sold for 10 times the equivalent of the annual wage for a skilled craftsperson. And we all know what happened next… Now, 400 years later, I wonder if we are seeing the beginnings of a bubble in the world of houseplants. Is this necessarily a bad thing? Here are my thoughts.
As recently as 10 years ago, houseplant availability in Britain was pretty awful, but then Instagram got in on the game with users posting images of some of the amazing and unusual options available, and increasingly stressed-out, nature-starved millennials loved it. Then cool indie start-up stores began popping up in city centres, beating the big out-of-town DIY chains for their sheer selection of plants, and a feverish trend was born.
Continue reading...Robbie Lawrence’s poignant portrait of botanist Jim Taggart captures a man whose life was devoted to an alternative paradise
This portrait of Dr Jim Taggart, a renowned botanist and climate activist, was taken not long before he died last year, aged 84. Over 50 years, Taggart created one of Scotland’s most magical gardens on the Rosneath peninsula in Argyll and Bute. With his son, Jamie, Taggart had collected around 4,000 plant species from across the world, including rare magnolias and acers, 40 kinds of bamboo, and 300 different rhododendrons. Right up until his death, visitors were welcomed to the three rocky acres of Linn Botanic Gardens with soup and sandwiches, and given a philosophical guided tour of the rarities that thrived in its curious subtropical microclimate.
Among those visitors to Linn in 2016 was photographer Robbie Lawrence, who returned to capture the garden in all of its misty seasons, and struck up a friendship with Taggart. A book of Lawrence’s photographs, A Voice Above the Linn, is published this month, with poems by John Burnside. The book stands as a celebration of a singular life. Above the Italianate villa at the centre of his private jungle, Taggart had hoisted the red flag. He was a stalwart of anti-nuclear protests at the Trident base at nearby Faslane on the far bank of Gare Loch.
Continue reading...Returning to the plot after a two-week isolation, it’s hard to tell who has missed who the most
My first morning out of quarantine. The end of 2020’s second long absence from the plot. But this time it is deep autumn. I am at the allotment gate at 6.30am. The mornings were lighter when I was last here. It is still dark, mid-October before the clocks fall back. But I cannot wait any longer. I have been like a dog at the door, desperate for release.
There is an occasional pre-dawn chorus. The ground is wet and slippery. I use the torch from my phone. A first, I think. Raggedy cardoons leer at me on the path. I spot a cat’s eyes. It all feels a little unfamiliar. Until I turn the corner and catch the plot’s harlequin sunflower skeletons in the beam. Home.
Continue reading...New products from companies and creatives who want to change design, manufacture and consumption for the better
Continue reading...There’s a reason I don’t have more things: I think most objects are ugly
The process of moving flat has got me thinking in cumulative numbers. “12,045 days” I mutter to myself while lying on a mattress in a shop (the amount of time we spend in bed during our lives), or “£16,000” as I peruse the steam cleaners (the money I would save over my lifetime if I cut out the dry cleaners).
And now I have another: two (the amount of large laundry bags needed to contain every single thing I own).
Continue reading...There are huge benefits to be gained from spending time in and around plants. Here are four rules to make the most of it
With a growing body of scientific research consistently suggesting a huge range of health benefits associated with spending time in green spaces, I am often asked which plants people should grow to boost their wellbeing. It’s a big question, but here is what I would advise…
Go for evergreens One of the most surprising findings is that you don’t need to physically be in nature to benefit. Simply looking at images of nature projected on screens has been shown to improve exercise performance, while a view of trees from a window improved healing times and reduced pain medication in hospital patients. It would be fair to postulate, therefore, that the visual stimulation of greenery alone may be one of the biggest factors at play here. Working on this assumption, I’d include a significant proportion of evergreen species to provide a permanent green backdrop. Also, as I often say, perhaps an even more effective way to do this is with houseplants, which give you year-round green that you are likely to physically be around for greater periods of time.
Continue reading...Winter brings with it a new to-do list in the garden
So here we are: November, the month for pruning and soil care. Time now to clear any nets from fruit cages but to keep them over brassicas to continue to deter marauding pigeons. We’ve given up on caging kales, though I admit to occasional envy when I see our neighbours’ extravagant cavolo nero thriving under cover.
Keep nets over brassicas to continue to deter marauding pigeons
Continue reading...Inspired by her native Sierra Leone, this designer’s Victorian home is full of vibrant fabrics and West African touches
Isata Funma sees me eyeing up the beaded West African throne in the double living room of her north London home and I hesitate. The upright armchair is not only decorated with colourful beads, it also looks backbreakingly uncomfortable.
“Try it!” she laughs. “You’ll be surprised.”
Continue reading...Sales of medicinal plants such as echinacea have risen by almost 3,000% at some outlets
As winter approaches, the pandemic continues and spending time outdoors seems less appealing, how can you still get your fix of nature? By bringing the outdoors inside, or at least that’s what soaring plant sales seem to suggest.
Latest figures show there has been a huge increase in the number of people buying plants and bulbs during lockdown, and medicinal plants have proven particularly popular.
Continue reading...Nurseries say doubling up of regulations will mean a rise in costs and EU suppliers going elsewhere
The UK’s love of horticulture has grown during the coronavirus pandemic, but avid gardeners are being warned of a Brexit shock, with rising prices, potential plant shortages and even the need for plant inspectors at nurseries.
Every year 55,000 trucks loaded with plants arrive in the UK from the Netherlands alone. Each individual pot or hessian root wrap bears an EU “plant passport”, which allows frictionless cross border trade.
Continue reading...News and design stories from around the world, including kids’ creative take on Boris Johnson and the plywood renaissance
As lockdown confusion reigns and rules about where you can go and at what time change every day, there’s one thing that has become clear. The creative community are rising to the challenges of the Covid crisis. In the US, new initiatives have turned the plywood boards nailed to shopfronts during lockdown into creative opportunities for artists and local communities. One architecture firm is using discarded plywood to make street furniture for restaurants. In the UK, designer Jonny Banger has joined with artist Jeremy Deller to let children vent their feelings about lockdown and create a unique exhibition. Creative spirit and inspirational design live on.
Continue reading...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
Why are flowerpots traditionally round? it make more sense to have square ones – they make it easier to sort out spacing once planted, there’s less wasted space between pots, and they are easier to store.
Paul Cooper
Continue reading...If you live in an area where you aren’t allowed to mix with other people indoors (or just don’t want to), here is an ethical, expert guide to keeping toasty
Indoor socialising is off. Even if it is not specifically proscribed where you live, a once innocuous cup of tea with friends now carries an unappetising tang of risk. The answer is to socialise outside – but how do you do that in a cold climate? No wonder that sales of patio heaters in the UK are rising: Homebase has nearly sold out, and sales on eBay have soared. Mensa Heating UK recently sold 750 infrared heaters in one day. But what about the environmental impact of patio heaters? In Germany, the federal government is offering subsidies to hospitality businesses wishing to buy them, even though they had been banned in some cities, while the French ecology minister has called them an “ecological aberration” and announced a ban from next year. So what is the best way to socialise outside and stay warm?
No need to listen to too much good advice – just get stuck in and have some fun
To the uninitiated, the world of horticulture can seem like a daunting place, full of unpronounceable Latin names, unfathomably complex pruning rules and the constant fear of killing everything in your care if you deviate even slightly from them. These doubts can serve as a really effective barrier to would-be newbies from experiencing one of the most rewarding, uplifting and therapeutic of arts. But trust me as a botanist when I tell you it simply doesn’t have to be this way.
Religiously adding a layer of crocks to the bottom of pots actually impedes drainage
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