Animal magic: garden tips from pet owners

It’s amazing what gardeners can learn from keepers of exotic species

As someone who has spent a lifetime fixated on horticulture (as a kid I used to stay up late reading the RHS Encyclopaedia under my covers with a torch), I thought I had a pretty good grip on how to grow plants. But there is always a surprise in store.

Two years ago, I wandered into an exotic pet exhibition while on holiday in the Netherlands. I was blown away by the spectacular horticultural installations being made by collectors of poison dart frogs, praying mantises and colourful land crabs. I couldn’t fathom how they managed to create thriving colonies of velvety moss or immaculate living walls dripping in orchids. And, quite frankly, I felt frustrated that I only recognised about half the plants.

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Animal magic: garden tips from pet owners

It’s amazing what gardeners can learn from keepers of exotic species

As someone who has spent a lifetime fixated on horticulture (as a kid I used to stay up late reading the RHS Encyclopaedia under my covers with a torch), I thought I had a pretty good grip on how to grow plants. But there is always a surprise in store.

Two years ago, I wandered into an exotic pet exhibition while on holiday in the Netherlands. I was blown away by the spectacular horticultural installations being made by collectors of poison dart frogs, praying mantises and colourful land crabs. I couldn’t fathom how they managed to create thriving colonies of velvety moss or immaculate living walls dripping in orchids. And, quite frankly, I felt frustrated that I only recognised about half the plants.

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Five quirky homes including where Steven Spielberg made film history

Feast your eyes on these beauties.

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Summer’s lofty sunflowers bring colour and joy | Allan Jenkins

Sunflowers can charm as swiftly as they grow, and are especially loved by kids, bees and birds

I came late to sunflowers. I didn’t love them much as a child. Too big, maybe too one-note. And at first I was concerned they might be too dominant for the allotment, leech necessary nutrients from food plants, block much-needed light. But that was then.

The shift was swift. There is a photo of the early plot with Howard and his young daughters where the girls look like something from Rousseau, as though lost in a sunflower forest. And it was through them and other children I discovered my own late love. We worked for a time with a school gardening club, encouraging primary-age kids to grow together. It was the wonder on their faces at how fast their flowers thrust that made sunflowers irresistible.

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Top tips for selling your home if you have a pet Nottingham Estate Agents

Not every buyer will feel the same as you do about your beloved pet. OnTheMarket.com agent Aberdein Considine offers top tips on how to ensure potential buyers are not put off by the negatives which sometimes come with owning a pet Minimise the negatives – Remember to repair any damage caused by pets, including carpets, […]

The post Top tips for selling your home if you have a pet appeared first on OnTheMarket.com blog.

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Summer’s lofty sunflowers bring colour and joy | Allan Jenkins

Sunflowers can charm as swiftly as they grow, and are especially loved by kids, bees and birds

I came late to sunflowers. I didn’t love them much as a child. Too big, maybe too one-note. And at first I was concerned they might be too dominant for the allotment, leech necessary nutrients from food plants, block much-needed light. But that was then.

The shift was swift. There is a photo of the early plot with Howard and his young daughters where the girls look like something from Rousseau, as though lost in a sunflower forest. And it was through them and other children I discovered my own late love. We worked for a time with a school gardening club, encouraging primary-age kids to grow together. It was the wonder on their faces at how fast their flowers thrust that made sunflowers irresistible.

Continue reading...

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My concrete jungle home in London | Eva Wiseman

A rundown old school has become a grand home to plants, birds, two dogs – and one artist

When photographer Steph Wilson first stepped into the south London school that was to become her home, it was a sometime squat, dark and rundown, the walls black with mould. She shudders at the memory. Three years later she has turned it into a grand church to plantlife, an urban conservatory that appears illuminated by stage lights.

Last year, sales of succulents rose by 34% as young people leaned into the fashion for houseplants, a trend explained both by itinerant living and the long quest for wellness. But here in south London their primary effect is drama: a giant cactus stands among hundreds of little sisters, the ceiling strung with succulents that fall in theatrical curtains from dainty chains.

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