Buy perennials for summer colour now

It’s a rare horticultural win-win: the best time to plant and the best time to buy

In January, frequently the coldest month of the year, planting up swathes of summer flowers can seem like a very distant dream. However, as they lie deep in their dormancy, now is (perhaps counterintuitively) the best time to plant garden perennials. Add to that the amazing coincidence that most garden centres are slashing their prices in the post-Christmas lull, and you have a rare horticultural win-win of plants at their most affordable just at the perfect time to plant them. Here are a few favourites for the longest season of colour.

Seek out more costly species that might normally be out of your range

Continue reading...

from Property | The Guardian http://bit.ly/2CBsvgD
via IFTTT

Buy perennials for summer colour now https://t.co/rLZaV4ybGt Solicitors & Estate Agents In One Just £899 + vat .. https://t.co/eLmKfiYyW9

Buy perennials for summer colour now https://t.co/rLZaV4ybGt Solicitors & Estate Agents In One Just £899 + vat .. https://t.co/eLmKfiYyW9 (via Twitter http://twitter.com/conveyandmove/status/1086946018057433093)

Buy perennials for summer colour now

It’s a rare horticultural win-win: the best time to plant and the best time to buy

In January, frequently the coldest month of the year, planting up swathes of summer flowers can seem like a very distant dream. However, as they lie deep in their dormancy, now is (perhaps counterintuitively) the best time to plant garden perennials. Add to that the amazing coincidence that most garden centres are slashing their prices in the post-Christmas lull, and you have a rare horticultural win-win of plants at their most affordable just at the perfect time to plant them. Here are a few favourites for the longest season of colour.

Seek out more costly species that might normally be out of your range

Continue reading...

from Home And Garden | The Guardian http://bit.ly/2CBsvgD
via IFTTT

Lenders cut mortgage rates to give a kick-start to 2019 https://t.co/P8950wrd89 Solicitors & Estate Agents In One Just £899 + vat .. https://t.co/eLmKfiYyW9

Lenders cut mortgage rates to give a kick-start to 2019 https://t.co/P8950wrd89 Solicitors & Estate Agents In One Just £899 + vat .. https://t.co/eLmKfiYyW9 (via Twitter http://twitter.com/conveyandmove/status/1086898189427458048)

Lenders cut mortgage rates to give a kick-start to 2019

As Brexit takes its toll on the property market, there is some good news for borrowers

First-time buyers and homeowners remortgaging their properties have been given some good news at the start of the year as a number of lenders have cut their rates in an increasingly competitive market.

Last week HSBC dropped rates on 31 different mortgages while the market-leading product for a 10-year fixed-rate loan also went down.

Continue reading...

from Property | The Guardian http://bit.ly/2B4KV9Z
via IFTTT

Council houses were once a glory of the public realm. Let’s return to those days | Rowan Moore https://t.co/crXguo7Og5 Solicitors & Estate Agents In One Just £899 + vat .. https://t.co/eLmKfiYyW9

Council houses were once a glory of the public realm. Let’s return to those days | Rowan Moore https://t.co/crXguo7Og5 Solicitors & Estate Agents In One Just £899 + vat .. https://t.co/eLmKfiYyW9 (via Twitter http://twitter.com/conveyandmove/status/1086886931152207878)

Council houses were once a glory of the public realm. Let’s return to those days | Rowan Moore

It’s scandalous that local authorities are being forced to rent from private landlords the same properties they once owned… before right to buy

Build more council homes. Not so long ago, this idea was, although not new, radical. So thoroughly had Margaret Thatcher schooled the nation in the virtues of private property that, decades after her departure, it still seemed outlandish to mainstream politicians to go back to what had been the main way of addressing housing need. Now, as it has finally sunk in that the private sector cannot, will not and should not be expected to fill all the gaps in the supply of homes, even Conservative politicians are calling for local authorities to be given the powers to do so instead.

However, whenever the case is made, it raises the obvious question, which is where to find the money. Everyone knows that housing is expensive. Everyone knows – or did, before it was found that national wealth can be frittered and forsworn in the great Brexit adventure – that the government has been in the grip of austerity for all of this decade. It’s a reasonable point.

Continue reading...

from Property | The Guardian http://bit.ly/2U3kQ1M
via IFTTT