Recovered beauty: bold prints and second-hand treasure

The owners’ love of vintage shopping and revitalising furniture with bold prints gives this house its character

In theory, I like the idea of living in a sleek minimalist box,” says Ruthie Hudson. “But in reality, I’m too sentimental. I like collecting ‘stuff’, especially things that feel as if they have a back story.” With second-hand furniture, artists’ prints and end-of-line fabrics, her 1930s house in Stamford, Lincolnshire, might be short on echoey white spaces, but it’s got plenty of personality.

Ruthie, her husband Michael and their sons Jasper, seven, and Felix, five, live in a house that was originally built as accommodation for a police officer. It hadn’t been lived in for many years, but instead had been used as an overflow storage space for the police station a few doors down. “The rooms were full of recovered stolen bikes,” Ruthie says. “And I don’t mean just one or two – there were about 50, all in different shapes and sizes.”

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Recovered beauty: bold prints and second-hand treasure

The owners’ love of vintage shopping and revitalising furniture with bold prints gives this house its character

In theory, I like the idea of living in a sleek minimalist box,” says Ruthie Hudson. “But in reality, I’m too sentimental. I like collecting ‘stuff’, especially things that feel as if they have a back story.” With second-hand furniture, artists’ prints and end-of-line fabrics, her 1930s house in Stamford, Lincolnshire, might be short on echoey white spaces, but it’s got plenty of personality.

Ruthie, her husband Michael and their sons Jasper, seven, and Felix, five, live in a house that was originally built as accommodation for a police officer. It hadn’t been lived in for many years, but instead had been used as an overflow storage space for the police station a few doors down. “The rooms were full of recovered stolen bikes,” Ruthie says. “And I don’t mean just one or two – there were about 50, all in different shapes and sizes.”

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How to grow beetroot | Alys Fowler

Treat these earthy roots well and they will thrive, says our gardening expert

To taste the rich, mineral flavours of beetroot is to sample the true essence of your garden, for no other vegetable comes so close to tasting as your soil might. To say little of how pleasing beetroot look when in fine fettle, with the back-lit sun on their leaves. On the allotment I have patches of them to eat, small and sweet, throughout the summer, but in my garden at home I dot them along the bed edges where they will sit all winter offering structure and verdant leaves until I pluck them one by one to eat in early spring.

It’s a little too late to sow for overwintering, but it’s always worth a gamble because if they don’t fatten up you can eat them in early autumn as small and perfectly sweet.

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Gardening tips: plant the peanut butter plant

Then check out the National Garden Scheme and think about getting a mulching lawn mower

Plant this One of the weirder common names for Melianthus major is the peanut butter plant, so if you get one, give it a sniff. Other selling points of this architectural shrub for sunny, well-drained spots are its large, saw-toothed leaves. Although evergreen in its native South Africa, it may die back in winter – mulch it with bark and it should pop up in spring. Height and spread 2m x 2m.

Visit this The National Garden Scheme isn’t just about frothy cottage gardens in the countryside: this weekend you could visit a contemporary botanic garden at the University of Bristol or a five-acre garden at Wadham College in Oxford. See ngs.org.uk for details.

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How to grow beetroot | Alys Fowler

Treat these earthy roots well and they will thrive, says our gardening expert

To taste the rich, mineral flavours of beetroot is to sample the true essence of your garden, for no other vegetable comes so close to tasting as your soil might. To say little of how pleasing beetroot look when in fine fettle, with the back-lit sun on their leaves. On the allotment I have patches of them to eat, small and sweet, throughout the summer, but in my garden at home I dot them along the bed edges where they will sit all winter offering structure and verdant leaves until I pluck them one by one to eat in early spring.

It’s a little too late to sow for overwintering, but it’s always worth a gamble because if they don’t fatten up you can eat them in early autumn as small and perfectly sweet.

Continue reading...

from Property | The Guardian https://ift.tt/2G6IMwT
via IFTTT

Gardening tips: plant the peanut butter plant

Then check out the National Garden Scheme and think about getting a mulching lawn mower

Plant this One of the weirder common names for Melianthus major is the peanut butter plant, so if you get one, give it a sniff. Other selling points of this architectural shrub for sunny, well-drained spots are its large, saw-toothed leaves. Although evergreen in its native South Africa, it may die back in winter – mulch it with bark and it should pop up in spring. Height and spread 2m x 2m.

Visit this The National Garden Scheme isn’t just about frothy cottage gardens in the countryside: this weekend you could visit a contemporary botanic garden at the University of Bristol or a five-acre garden at Wadham College in Oxford. See ngs.org.uk for details.

Continue reading...

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Explore the London chalet with its own indoor beach

This is the ultimate party pad.

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