Plus a great library resource for gardeners
Dutch plantsman Piet Oudolf has popularised burnet, AKA sanguisorba, for its long-lasting drifts of tiny bottlebrush blooms held on wiry stems above feathery foliage. Try deep maroon ‘Red Thunder’, or cerise-flowered ‘Pink Tanna’.
Continue reading...The best time to is summer, but our gardening expert has had good results as late as September
This summer has been kind to cacti and they’ve responded with new growth. My bunny ears cactus, Opuntia microdasys, put out three new pads in a matter of weeks. That is until I decided to clean the window behind it and with one slightly clumsy move all three new pads were stuck to the cleaning cloth instead.
Not such a mishap, though, as cacti are surprisingly easy things to propagate. The best time to take cuttings is summer, but I’ve had good results as late as now, and if life gives you unexpected bunny ears to propagate, or the bottom of your cactus starts to rot, then emergency cuttings are the best way to rescue the plant.
Continue reading...If you want top marks, some parts of the UK – and some schools – do better than others
For those still to sit A-levels or Highers, where you live and which school you go to can profoundly influence results day. Time to tell Mum and Dad to move house.
It’s a contested field, the exams – how they are marked and how results are analysed shifting like quicksand from one year to the next. It takes months for the results to be properly analysed, though we already know Northern Ireland (with 85% A*-C results) beat England and Wales this year, as it did last, when south-east England came second (with 79.1%).
Continue reading...
If you want top marks, some parts of the UK – and some schools – do better than others
For those still to sit A-levels or Highers, where you live and which school you go to can profoundly influence results day. Time to tell Mum and Dad to move house.
It’s a contested field, the exams – how they are marked and how results are analysed shifting like quicksand from one year to the next. It takes months for the results to be properly analysed, though we already know Northern Ireland (with 85% A*-C results) beat England and Wales this year, as it did last, when south-east England came second (with 79.1%).
Continue reading...I’m one of those people who follows the instructions to the letter. It’s like a form of meditation
I built a desk. OK, fine – I assembled one from the carefully measured and cut pieces of cheap, painted MDF that arrived in a slim but sturdy cardboard box. But you simply cannot convince me I did not fell a mighty teak tree, before carving, lacquering and buffing it into a desk at which I can now sit and ruminate on the larger questions of life, all from a corner of my living room. You can’t.
Blame the countless hours I have poured into viewing home-improvement shows over the years (bless Changing Rooms, my first romance in the field), but there’s nothing I love more than interior design. It is easily the thing I am most interested in without having a single thing to qualify me. For years, my sister and I assembled shelves, bookcases, shoe racks and entertainment centres as a necessary hobby (we couldn’t afford one-off or even mildly expensive pre-assembled furniture) and that slowly evolved into flatpack love.
Continue reading...I’m one of those people who follows the instructions to the letter. It’s like a form of meditation
I built a desk. OK, fine – I assembled one from the carefully measured and cut pieces of cheap, painted MDF that arrived in a slim but sturdy cardboard box. But you simply cannot convince me I did not fell a mighty teak tree, before carving, lacquering and buffing it into a desk at which I can now sit and ruminate on the larger questions of life, all from a corner of my living room. You can’t.
Blame the countless hours I have poured into viewing home-improvement shows over the years (bless Changing Rooms, my first romance in the field), but there’s nothing I love more than interior design. It is easily the thing I am most interested in without having a single thing to qualify me. For years, my sister and I assembled shelves, bookcases, shoe racks and entertainment centres as a necessary hobby (we couldn’t afford one-off or even mildly expensive pre-assembled furniture) and that slowly evolved into flatpack love.
Continue reading...