Gardens: a riot of colour on the Emerald Isle

There’s an spot in Ireland’s Wicklow Mountains where reds, oranges, yellows and pinks reign supreme

Nestled in the mountains in West Wicklow, Ireland, sits a remarkable modernist garden. By high summer, it is a riot of reds, oranges, yellows and pinks: the intense red of Crocosmia ‘Lucifer’ goes off like a firecracker between waves of Leontodon ringens, a sort of aristocratic hawkbit that has golden heads of flowers above deeply toothed, leathery leaves; in the background, the smoke bushes smoulder and path edges are lined with Fuchsia ‘Corallina’, blazing like embers.

But these are more than just splashes of colour: this is a garden that unfolds its melody in great gestures and allows you to peer up close at its drama. This is painting with broad brushstrokes; vast numbers of plants are used, with hundreds of dahlias grown from seed flowering in their first year, often earlier than those grown from tubers. This allows owner June Blake to experiment with colour. “I’ve grown 400 to 500 dahlias to get the colours I like,” she says. “You collect the seed at the end of the season and sow the following spring, editing out the colours you don’t like.”

Continue reading...

from Home And Garden | The Guardian https://ift.tt/2GKovh3
via IFTTT

Gardening tips: plant Russian sage

Then visit a soundscape in a walled garden and irrigate your crops evenly

Plant this Russian sage, or Perovskia atriplicifolia, comes into its own as midsummer tips over into late-summer lassitude: its aromatic, silvery foliage and spires of lilac flowers look good with grasses in a sunny border. Height and spread around 1m x 1m – choose cultivar ‘Little Spire’ if you lack room.

Visit this The walled garden at Harewood House near Leeds has been transformed into a musical art installation this summer. More than 30 “audio interventions” by Australian musician Genevieve Lacey have been hidden around the space for visitors to explore. Until 29 September, visit harewood.org.

Continue reading...

from Home And Garden | The Guardian https://ift.tt/2T8TIPW
via IFTTT

How to revive tired plants | Alys Fowler

Decisive pruning is often the kindest cut, says our gardening expert

Too much rain, too much sun, too much rain again and everything flops. Lank growth is not good at standing upright – petals turn into dirty hankies and everything rots. This results in all sorts of leaning on neighbours or just plain flouncing on the floor, which in turn makes for a perfect hiding place for slugs.

The truth is, once something has flopped, the best option is often some careful pruning and accepting that there is little else to be done. Retroactive staking rarely works; it looks forced and too much string is involved. Sometimes you can belt a plant together rather than stake it – tying string around its middle to hold it in – but often cutting back is the best option.

Continue reading...

from Home And Garden | The Guardian https://ift.tt/2GEQgrd
via IFTTT

Five easy ways to make your rental feel like a home

They'll hopefully make the world of difference.

from Property blog https://ift.tt/2YoAdse
via IFTTT

Kim Wilde: ‘I get pretty panicky when I have to do anything that requires logical thinking’

The singer on Greta Thunberg and wanting to visit Nevada to meet the aliens

Born in London, Wilde, 58, is the daughter of singers Marty Wilde and Joyce Baker. In 1981 her debut single, Kids In America, was a global hit and she went on to sell 30m records. She continues to record and perform music, and is also an award-winning gardener (and former Weekend columnist). Aliens Live, her first live album, is out on 16 August. She is married with two children and lives in Hertfordshire.

When were you happiest?
These are the happiest days. I love the process of getting older and, sometimes, wiser.

Continue reading...

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

Kim Wilde: ‘I get pretty panicky when I have to do anything that requires logical thinking’

The singer on Greta Thunberg and wanting to visit Nevada to meet the aliens

Born in London, Wilde, 58, is the daughter of singers Marty Wilde and Joyce Baker. In 1981 her debut single, Kids In America, was a global hit and she went on to sell 30m records. She continues to record and perform music, and is also an award-winning gardener (and former Weekend columnist). Aliens Live, her first live album, is out on 16 August. She is married with two children and lives in Hertfordshire.

When were you happiest?
These are the happiest days. I love the process of getting older and, sometimes, wiser.

Continue reading...

from Home And Garden | The Guardian https://ift.tt/2YEClLW
via IFTTT

What does your garden say about you? My ugly, scrappy plot smacks of personal failure | Grace Dent

Presently, nothing is growing in my garden, but on the upside nothing can die, which suits my fragile heart

As I stare at my garden, or, more accurately, the ugly, fly-strewn dustbowl just north of my kitchen, I feel that once again I have failed in being a proper, upstanding adult. I’m not the type, say, that one sees on an ITV1 drama talking to a detective at her suburban kitchen sink, the camera panning to a neat lawn, some roses, possibly a koi carp pond and a Swingball set; all things that signify a household under control.

My garden, utterly devoid of grass (the lawn died) or any blooming flora, does not suggest domestic bliss. My garden hints at me having a heroin problem, which is untrue, although I will require some sort of opiate sedative this weekend in order to face my spider-infested shed. Only then will I be able to retrieve my loppers and hack a rudimentary path back through the out-of-control bindweed that is plotting to strangle me in my bed. After this, I shall lie on the sofa, exhausted, mewling, full of self-pity, certain that this is not the kind of August that Jools Oliver is experiencing. I cannot forget the Olivers’ outdoors wood-fired pizza oven from the original Jamie At Home series. Or the surrounding horticultural splendour.

Continue reading...

from Home And Garden | The Guardian https://ift.tt/2LYY4rU
via IFTTT