Good gardening is also about good eating | Allan Jenkins

It’s time to grill sausages and talk about hopes and plans for the plot

Spring barbecue, the tribal gathering. The collecting together of the allotment community after winter. Much strimming and sweeping of sheds and paths, cutting back overgrown spillage, sorting through the compost bays. With sausages, spicy chicken, vegetarian options.

It is the busiest day of the year so far. Tables are laid with an oilskin cloth. Chairs are cleaned, early summer flowers gathered for a jug: borage, dandelion, bluebells and forget-me-nots. There is a carpet of them, the beauty of benign neglect from a neighbour no longer with us. This was a favourite plot, a couple of fruit trees, a few cardoons, a quiet sitting space against a warming wall. It is more productive now, feeding a family, vines and yellow marigolds, a different beauty.

Continue reading...

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

Good gardening is also about good eating | Allan Jenkins

It’s time to grill sausages and talk about hopes and plans for the plot

Spring barbecue, the tribal gathering. The collecting together of the allotment community after winter. Much strimming and sweeping of sheds and paths, cutting back overgrown spillage, sorting through the compost bays. With sausages, spicy chicken, vegetarian options.

It is the busiest day of the year so far. Tables are laid with an oilskin cloth. Chairs are cleaned, early summer flowers gathered for a jug: borage, dandelion, bluebells and forget-me-nots. There is a carpet of them, the beauty of benign neglect from a neighbour no longer with us. This was a favourite plot, a couple of fruit trees, a few cardoons, a quiet sitting space against a warming wall. It is more productive now, feeding a family, vines and yellow marigolds, a different beauty.

Continue reading...

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

The artist’s mews: small and perfect in Devon

A considered layout and bold use of colour elevate this studio apartment in Devon above its humble proportions. Rachel Ward gets the grand tour

As an artist and interior designer, Gemma Dudgeon is used to transforming spaces on behalf of clients up and down the country. This studio apartment, however, proved a different challenge – one that involved designing for herself, and from scratch. “My work is very client-led,” she says. “Deciding for myself was much harder. I had a blank canvas, which was a privilege, but also quite daunting, as I understood the sheer magnitude of choice and looks I could go for.”

Dudgeon moved to south Devon with her husband Alastair, a chef, in pursuit of a better quality of life. “I wanted my kids to grow up climbing trees and playing on the beach – to be in touch with the environment in which they live,” she says. In 2017, they bought a house in the market town of Totnes, which they share with their two young daughters, Olive and Frances, and their whippet, Skye. At the same time, the couple also purchased Mount Plym mews, an 1830s coach house located 100 yards away, for far more prosaic reasons: parking. “It’s a real issue in Totnes,” says Dudgeon.

Continue reading...

from Property | The Guardian http://bit.ly/2VzRgS7
via IFTTT

The artist’s mews: small and perfect in Devon

A considered layout and bold use of colour elevate this studio apartment in Devon above its humble proportions. Rachel Ward gets the grand tour

As an artist and interior designer, Gemma Dudgeon is used to transforming spaces on behalf of clients up and down the country. This studio apartment, however, proved a different challenge – one that involved designing for herself, and from scratch. “My work is very client-led,” she says. “Deciding for myself was much harder. I had a blank canvas, which was a privilege, but also quite daunting, as I understood the sheer magnitude of choice and looks I could go for.”

Dudgeon moved to south Devon with her husband Alastair, a chef, in pursuit of a better quality of life. “I wanted my kids to grow up climbing trees and playing on the beach – to be in touch with the environment in which they live,” she says. In 2017, they bought a house in the market town of Totnes, which they share with their two young daughters, Olive and Frances, and their whippet, Skye. At the same time, the couple also purchased Mount Plym mews, an 1830s coach house located 100 yards away, for far more prosaic reasons: parking. “It’s a real issue in Totnes,” says Dudgeon.

Continue reading...

from Home And Garden | The Guardian http://bit.ly/2VzRgS7
via IFTTT

Gardening tips: plant sun-loving ceanothus

Then visit a new children’s garden at Kew and harden off bedding plants

Plant this Blue doesn’t come more dazzling than the Californian lilac (ceanothus). Spring-flowering members of this clan of sun-loving shrubs flourish when trained against a sheltered wall: try the evergreen C. ‘Concha’ or ‘Puget Blue’. The more compact ‘Skylark’ will do well in a mixed border.

Visit this A new garden designed for children opens today at Kew Gardens, London. The space covers the equivalent of 40 tennis courts and includes an aerial walkway around an ancient oak, splash pools fed by water pumps children can control, a giant log scramble and more than 100 mature trees.

Continue reading...

from Home And Garden | The Guardian http://bit.ly/2WKSDi9
via IFTTT

Scented pelargoniums – blooming perfect for patios

These delicate plants can smell of rose, coconut, cedar and more. One head gardener shares tips from her 25-year-old collection

On open days at Offham House in Lewes, East Sussex, the greenhouse is a sea of competing scents: mint, rose, citrus and spice. “Most of the time it smells perfectly lovely,” says head gardener Jo Crispin. “And on open days we encourage visitors to rub the leaves of the scented pelargoniums, to find their favourites so they can buy cuttings to take home. They are constantly brushing past them as they walk around, too.” Crushing and brushing releases the essential oils that are held in these plants’ leaves and allows clouds of scent to rise.

Scented pelargoniums (often known as scented geraniums) are distinct from bedding pelargoniums, their gaudier, bolder relatives, commonly seen flowering from hanging baskets and window boxes all summer long. The scented types are descended from species that use strong scent to see off grazing animals and draw in pollinating insects. Those descended from Pelargonium cordifolium give off a scent of apple; those from P. crispum smell citrussy; and there are species with cinnamon, coconut, hazelnut, ginger, camphor, balsam, peach, pineapple, myrrh and rose scents. All can be used to flavour food. Eighteenth‑century breeders crossed these plants and selected the most interesting and clearest scents that arose – hence the great number of varieties and scents now available.

Continue reading...

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

How to reuse old compost | Alys Fowler

If you can happily dig around in it, go ahead and recycle it for another planting

It’s time to attend to the pots in your life, particularly those that contain half-dead (or completely dead) remains.

It is entirely possible to reuse old compost: the books tell you not to, but they are assuming you have money to spare/a car/easy access to a garden centre. Certainly, if the plant died from disease or soil pests such as vine weevil, then the compost is best sent elsewhere. But if it just looks very tired, use it as mulch. Bang out the compost from around the roots and use this on top of other pots or plants in the garden. It’s not going to have a great nutrient content, but it will suppress a few weeds and lock in moisture.

Continue reading...

from Home And Garden | The Guardian http://bit.ly/2Ebwpi7
via IFTTT