Broad view: at home on the water’s edge in Norfolk

Built on the site of a sinking bungalow, this contemporary home has incredible vistas across the Broads

As a child, architect Patrick Michell loved messing around on the water. His grandfather, who had served in the navy, retired to Old Hunstanton in north Norfolk, so Patrick’s family would come up and visit, spending time by the coast. Such fond memories played a part when Patrick and his wife Claire, also an architect, started to think about building a holiday and weekend house for themselves and their own young children, Rae and Margo.

“The water and the idea of messing around with a dinghy were a massive draw,” says Patrick, founder and principal of Platform 5 Architects. “There was a bit of Swallows & Amazons to my childhood and we always used to go sailing when we were on holiday. So when we started looking for a site and we found this I could instantly see all these possibilities for that kind of fun, family holiday lifestyle, and building something new that fitted in with that.”

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from Home And Garden | The Guardian http://bit.ly/2Gvu7we
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Blight fight: the story of America’s chestnuts offers hope for British trees

An inspiring US campaign to restore the mighty chestnut to its eastern forests points the way to saving at-risk species in the UK

If you move south through the US Appalachian region, between New York and Georgia, you get a feel for what Bill Bryson described in A Walk In The Woods as “mile after endless mile of dark, deep, silent woods”. Chestnut country once occupied some of the most spectacular wooded landscapes in the world, from the Shenandoah valley and the Catskills to Tennessee’s Smoky mountains. It is deep-gorge and clear-river country, where an understory of vibrant dogwood gives way to an imposing hemlock, a tulip tree or an exhilarating view. But something is amiss. When I visited last autumn, these woods would have been littered with fallen nuts from the magnificent American chestnut (Castanea dentata) – but for the blight that erased 4 billion trees from the landscape.

Just under a century ago, the American chestnut disappeared from the vast eastern forests of the US. A broadleaf of immense size and distribution, the chestnut suffered catastrophic decimation by the inadvertent introduction of an Asian blight, Cryphonectria parasitica. The blight arrived in 1904, on ornamental Japanese chestnut trees imported to furnish New York’s expanding Bronx zoo. Infection swept north and south, and by the 1950s the great “redwood of the east” – whose fruit was relied upon by herbivores such as the wild turkey, bluejay and red squirrel – all but vanished, a tragedy considered one of the greatest ecological disasters to hit the world’s forests. Thankfully, however, the story did not end there: following a monumental conservational effort, the chestnut now stands on the brink of return.

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from Home And Garden | The Guardian http://bit.ly/2Snnq6C
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Gardening tips: plant heavenly bamboo

Then cut back your deciduous grasses and check out the new winter garden at Wakehurst

Plant this If you like the look of bamboo but don’t fancy it taking over your garden, try heavenly bamboo (Nandina domestica), which isn’t a bamboo at all, but a well-behaved compact evergreen shrub for full sun. Its foliage emerges purple-red in spring, turns green in summer then reverts to red in autumn, and there are small white flowers and red berries to enjoy, too. Height and spread: 1m x 1m.

Cut this One of the most satisfying jobs this month is cutting back tall deciduous grasses such as alamagrostis and deschampsia. It’s important to do this before the plants start producing new growth, but don’t let the trimmings go to waste: chop them up and spread as a weed-suppressing mulch.

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from Home And Garden | The Guardian http://bit.ly/2DkHs7k
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Worm composting: a beginner's guide | Alys Fowler

A wormery can provide nutrients for your plants throughout the growing season

I took my love to a fishing tackle shop to buy a squirm of worms. We went home, dumped them ceremoniously into a bin and she declared it a dream date. I felt blessed, in no minor part because, now she has a worm bin, composting can ensue in earnest at her place.

Worm bins come into their own in limited spaces (balconies and courtyards, say), because they are contained and efficient even on a reduced scale. Small bins don’t produce a huge amount of worm compost, but you don’t need a great deal because it is so concentrated in nutrients and minerals. Just one tablespoon provides enough nutrients for a plant to grow through the season, and it is the only fresh manure that can be used directly and won’t scorch plants.

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Worm composting: a beginner's guide | Alys Fowler https://t.co/IUoPwbeDVr Solicitors & Estate Agents In One Just £899 + vat .. https://t.co/eLmKfiYyW9 (via Twitter http://twitter.com/conveyandmove/status/1094191243117187072)