Life and art in a Victorian worker's house - in pictures

David Parr was a decorator who spent decades transforming his small home in Cambridge into an arts and crafts wonderland. Now it is opening to the public

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Gardeners’ minds are turning to seed – as usual | Allan Jenkins

It’s time to turn out drawers and boxes and bags of seed – and confront my lack of self control

It’s again time to talk about seed. About planning for the year ahead, thinking about the future, about nurturing and growth.

It’s time to turn out your drawers and bags and boxes, wherever you keep seed. Ours are nominally sorted into styles. There is a box for herbs and salads, another for chicories, another for greens you need to cook. There is a box for flowers for my daughter Kala’s garden and the plot, plus multiple bowls of dried heads that still need sorting through.

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Gardeners’ minds are turning to seed – as usual | Allan Jenkins

It’s time to turn out drawers and boxes and bags of seed – and confront my lack of self control

It’s again time to talk about seed. About planning for the year ahead, thinking about the future, about nurturing and growth.

It’s time to turn out your drawers and bags and boxes, wherever you keep seed. Ours are nominally sorted into styles. There is a box for herbs and salads, another for chicories, another for greens you need to cook. There is a box for flowers for my daughter Kala’s garden and the plot, plus multiple bowls of dried heads that still need sorting through.

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The Notting Hill flat that’s now a gallery and bolthole

A graceful London apartment has been converted into an exhibition space – and a place to think – for this creative couple

This Notting Hill apartment is where it all began for designer Anna Burles and her husband Christopher Trotman. It is where they launched their design studio, Run for the Hills, sitting at their dining table in the front room. Over the years, as their company has grown and expanded to include branding, they gradually moved to a workshop nearby and bought a cottage, where they live with their two young children, Margot and Frank. But they have always had a soft spot for the apartment, even after renting it out for many years, and recently decided to redesign it as a showcase and gallery.

“I lived here for 10 years, even before we started Run for the Hills together, so it is an important part of my life,” says Burles. “We thought it was looking rather tired, so we decided to refurbish and update – and then decided what we were going to do with it next. Since then we have been using it for friends, family, occasional rental, but it’s also a gallery for our furniture and a place where we can invite people round, host events and talk about new plans. So, like the studio itself, it’s multi-purpose.”

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The Notting Hill flat that’s now a gallery and bolthole

A graceful London apartment has been converted into an exhibition space – and a place to think – for this creative couple

This Notting Hill apartment is where it all began for designer Anna Burles and her husband Christopher Trotman. It is where they launched their design studio, Run for the Hills, sitting at their dining table in the front room. Over the years, as their company has grown and expanded to include branding, they gradually moved to a workshop nearby and bought a cottage, where they live with their two young children, Margot and Frank. But they have always had a soft spot for the apartment, even after renting it out for many years, and recently decided to redesign it as a showcase and gallery.

“I lived here for 10 years, even before we started Run for the Hills together, so it is an important part of my life,” says Burles. “We thought it was looking rather tired, so we decided to refurbish and update – and then decided what we were going to do with it next. Since then we have been using it for friends, family, occasional rental, but it’s also a gallery for our furniture and a place where we can invite people round, host events and talk about new plans. So, like the studio itself, it’s multi-purpose.”

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How to buy and set up a tall cold frame

It’s a big investment, but you’ll reap the rewards if you sow and grow under glass, says our gardening expert

Every gardener dreams of one day owning a greenhouse. It is an inevitable path that starts with a bit of fleece and the miracles of growth that happen with just a few extra degrees of heat, and ends in lusting after luxury bespoke greenhouses online and fantasising about pineapples. Growing under protection changes the game: seedlings grow strong and robust in a way that never happens on a windowsill. You can extend the season and ensure heat-loving plants still bake in less-than-perfect weather.

For me, this has been a fantasy for years. I have built lean-to structures, fashioned from skip finds, old windows and used fish tanks, but they have all fallen apart. This year, as I trawled through online sales of fancy glasshouses, I did a cost-per-wear analysis. I realise that such metrics are usually reserved for handbags and expensive jackets, but my world is floated by happy green things and my windowsills are starting to buckle and warp from years of seedlings grown on them. If I bought this handsome, tall cold frame, it would cost just under £20 a week. Put another way, every tomato I eat this year will cost me a pound – but oh, how wonderful they will taste. A single plant can produce up to 200 fruits, so from five plants I could harvest 1,000 tomatoes.

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Gardening tips: plant elephant’s ears

Then sow poached egg plants and join a plant society to meet likeminded gardeners

Plant this Bergenias, or elephant’s ears, can tolerate shade, especially in tricky places such as under trees. ‘Overture’ has magenta flowers in spring and burnished red leaves in autumn and winter; or try ‘Bressingham White’. Pair with pulmonarias and hellebores under bright dogwood stems.

Join this There’s no better way to learn about plants than meeting other growers. Whether you’re into alpines, cottage garden plants or cacti, there’s a society for you to expand your knowledge, buy seeds and plants, and meet people. Check out this list and join one today.

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