Green-fingered gifts

Give plants and seeds to keep growers happy at Christmas

If you are a gardener, you’ll know the feeling. Come Christmas, the immense pressure to act delighted as you unwrap a boot brush in the shape of a hedgehog, a fibreglass solar light or (yet another) pair of novelty gardening gloves. So, in an effort to break the cycle, here’s a list of my all-time favourite independent suppliers of quirky, fun and interesting gifts for gardeners, all of which are online.

With a name like plants4presents.co.uk, you might be forgiven for thinking that this nursery would just stock the typical supermarket gift options, like poinsettia and hyacinths in festive pots. But think again. I discovered the friendly owners of this small East Sussex supplier about five years ago at the Hampton Court Flower Show and have been hooked ever since. They have a stunning array of weird and wonderful edible indoor plants, some of which are impossible to track down anywhere else. From kaffir limes, right down to the wonderfully fragrant (and surprisingly cold tolerant) Japanese yuzu, their range of unusual citrus is pretty unbeatable.

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December is a chance for wildlife housekeeping | Allan Jenkins

Hang bird balls, clean equipment and ponder the riches in your garden

I am tempted to tell you to do nothing much in December. Except, perhaps, to cloche or cover any vulnerable crops you care about particularly, say, chicories or pigeon-friendly kales; to lift leeks and store your root crops if frost is looking imminent. Dig over empty ground now. It will be harder in the coming months.

Rocket, corn salad, land cress and winter purslane should still do fine under cover outside or on a sunny windowsill. Plant raspberries and blackberries if you haven’t already. It’s time, too, for pruning fruit trees, though best leave cherry or plum until spring.

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December is a chance for wildlife housekeeping | Allan Jenkins https://t.co/Zf6uDGP0dX Solicitors & Estate Agents In One Just £899 + vat .. https://t.co/GmjoJxU3bM

December is a chance for wildlife housekeeping | Allan Jenkins https://t.co/Zf6uDGP0dX Solicitors & Estate Agents In One Just £899 + vat .. https://t.co/GmjoJxU3bM (via Twitter http://twitter.com/conveyandmove/status/1069114525121691649)

December is a chance for wildlife housekeeping | Allan Jenkins

Hang bird balls, clean equipment and ponder the riches in your garden

I am tempted to tell you to do nothing much in December. Except, perhaps, to cloche or cover any vulnerable crops you care about particularly, say, chicories or pigeon-friendly kales; to lift leeks and store your root crops if frost is looking imminent. Dig over empty ground now. It will be harder in the coming months.

Rocket, corn salad, land cress and winter purslane should still do fine under cover outside or on a sunny windowsill. Plant raspberries and blackberries if you haven’t already. It’s time, too, for pruning fruit trees, though best leave cherry or plum until spring.

Continue reading...

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Life in full colour: sharks, soup cans and fried-eggs brighten up this London home https://t.co/1rhvmFWkZT Solicitors & Estate Agents In One Just £899 + vat .. https://t.co/GmjoJxU3bM

Life in full colour: sharks, soup cans and fried-eggs brighten up this London home https://t.co/1rhvmFWkZT Solicitors & Estate Agents In One Just £899 + vat .. https://t.co/GmjoJxU3bM (via Twitter http://twitter.com/conveyandmove/status/1068903390044921856)

Life in full colour: sharks, soup cans and fried-eggs brighten up this London home

An artist couple has filled every floor of their 18th-century Spitalfields home with visual wit and warmth

Pop art pervades the London home of artists Philip and Charlotte Colbert: a chair resembling an open shark’s mouth sits alongside iconic soup can designs and a fried-egg rug that Philip has made. The brightly coloured objects and images make a bold statement against the muted colours of the panelled walls.

This immaculately restored panelling prevails throughout the ground and first floors of this Georgian home, liberally sprinkled with artworks by the likes of Karel Appel and Bob and Roberta Smith whose sign “Venessa Bell is an Idiot” hangs alongside Charlotte’s recent video sculpture with Sue Tilley (the famed subject of Lucian Freud’s Benefits Supervisor Sleeping painting).

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Life in full colour: sharks, soup cans and fried-eggs brighten up this London home

An artist couple has filled every floor of their 18th-century Spitalfields home with visual wit and warmth

Pop art pervades the London home of artists Philip and Charlotte Colbert: a chair resembling an open shark’s mouth sits alongside iconic soup can designs and a fried-egg rug that Philip has made. The brightly coloured objects and images make a bold statement against the muted colours of the panelled walls.

This immaculately restored panelling prevails throughout the ground and first floors of this Georgian home, liberally sprinkled with artworks by the likes of Karel Appel and Bob and Roberta Smith whose sign “Venessa Bell is an Idiot” hangs alongside Charlotte’s recent video sculpture with Sue Tilley (the famed subject of Lucian Freud’s Benefits Supervisor Sleeping painting).

Continue reading...

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