DIY urban gardening hacks for small spaces

Go bold on scent and add drama with glossy-leaved plants to create a cosy urban oasis

Small gardens are often seen as having little or no scope for design. This couldn’t be further from the truth. You can squeeze a lot into a small plot: be bold, be strong, ensure a lavish backbone of evergreens with spring colour to enliven spirits after the long winter gloom – and don’t forget to incorporate scent. But remember, in small gardens, less is often more: it’s better to do one thing well rather than a lot in a muddled fashion.

Large gardens have an element of safety, deploying swathes of green lawn which is economical to install and covers large areas of ground. A small garden has to work much harder and, per sq metre, can cost more. But it’s worth it: with thought and care, your little patch can be a true extension of your home and provide a haven for you, as well as the wildlife we share our urban spaces with.

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Gardening tips: plant a dwarf crab apple tree

Then pick up tips at a tulip festival on how to deter squirrels and invest in a weeder

Plant this Dwarf crab apples are brilliant trees for smaller gardens as they stay compact: right now they are festooned with pink or white blossom, a valuable early source of pollen for insects. The fruit that follows will be welcomed by the birds even if you don’t turn it into jelly.

Visit this If squirrels are destroying your tulips, take a trip to Hever Castle in Kent, where its tulip festival is in full swing this weekend. Examine its trial of 10 methods for deterring squirrels from munching bulbs, and follow a self-guided trail of 21,000 tulips around the grounds.

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How to grow asparagus | Alys Fowler

Once you establish an asparagus bed, you’ll be gorging yourself silly on the stuff for 20 years or more, says our gardening expert

When I first left home, my mother would send bundles of asparagus and six carefully wrapped, freshly laid eggs in the post throughout the brief season. (Only rarely did they break. She is the queen of mail.) She had rescued two overgrown and much neglected asparagus beds when we moved and poured in so much love in the form of muck, weeding and asparagus-beetle-squishing that we all gorged ourselves silly on the stuff. For years, I willed a package to appear every April, but those beds belong to someone else now and I have my own.

There are many lessons from this, but the first is it is entirely possible to revitalise a tired patch with a mulch of good compost and some weeding. Asparagus truly likes only its own company and wants its roots in cool, deep, well-drained soil. This is best done by adding as much organic matter as you can every year in the form of mulch. Repeat this in autumn and again after harvesting in early summer.

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April’s quirky properties include a flat with rotating walls

It's like something out of a Bond film!

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Protect your property from severe weather Nottingham Estate Agents

According to climate experts Britain is facing the most savage winter freeze for over a decade. Direct Line for Business highlights the importance for landlords of protecting a property against harsh winter weather. Each year thousands of landlords across the country are caught out by a sudden cold snap. Winter weather, which brings freezing temperatures […]

The post Protect your property from severe weather appeared first on OnTheMarket.com blog.

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Let’s move to Ripon, North Yorkshire: where all seems right in the world

There’s a flawless cityscape, damn fine tearooms and even an ancient hornblower

What’s going for it? One can snigger at local customs – you know, the Ye Olde Knee-Painting Ceremony of Nuneaton, that kind of thing. But I think there’s something just fabulous about Ripon’s ancient hornblower, who blows his horn (stop sniggering at the back) at the four corners of the obelisk in the Market Square, every night at 9pm. First of all, someone still bothers to blow a horn four times every night, even when it’s throwing it down, even when there’s something good on the telly. Second, I do love a custom that takes us back to a distant past, when much of the country was ruled by Vikings and Danes. Alfred the Great is said to have given the horn to the people of Ripon to be blown for reassurance that no pesky Vikings were lurking, poised to pillage. These days the horn has its own website, YouTube videos and everything. It says much about this handsome, independent city of ancient history, modern twists, a flawless cityscape and damn fine tearooms. All seems right in the world here under the bunting on Kirkgate, which, considering all is very much not right in the world, is quite an achievement. One thing’s for sure: when the hornblower stops blowing, the end is nigh.

The case against Some might find it a bit dull. There’s local culture aplenty, but not enough to keep the cool cats among you satisfied. Where do you think this is, Halifax?

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Let’s move to Ripon, North Yorkshire: where all seems right in the world

There’s a flawless cityscape, damn fine tearooms and even an ancient hornblower

What’s going for it? One can snigger at local customs – you know, the Ye Olde Knee-Painting Ceremony of Nuneaton, that kind of thing. But I think there’s something just fabulous about Ripon’s ancient hornblower, who blows his horn (stop sniggering at the back) at the four corners of the obelisk in the Market Square, every night at 9pm. First of all, someone still bothers to blow a horn four times every night, even when it’s throwing it down, even when there’s something good on the telly. Second, I do love a custom that takes us back to a distant past, when much of the country was ruled by Vikings and Danes. Alfred the Great is said to have given the horn to the people of Ripon to be blown for reassurance that no pesky Vikings were lurking, poised to pillage. These days the horn has its own website, YouTube videos and everything. It says much about this handsome, independent city of ancient history, modern twists, a flawless cityscape and damn fine tearooms. All seems right in the world here under the bunting on Kirkgate, which, considering all is very much not right in the world, is quite an achievement. One thing’s for sure: when the hornblower stops blowing, the end is nigh.

The case against Some might find it a bit dull. There’s local culture aplenty, but not enough to keep the cool cats among you satisfied. Where do you think this is, Halifax?

Continue reading...

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