Joining the dots: the tiny Rye cottage with spot-on paintwork

Hand-painted fabrics and bold furnishings give this colourful home a cheerful appeal

‘In the darkness, you move towards the light,” says Catherine Reynolds. We’re eating pastries in her front room and talking about how she came to paint imperfect stripes and dots on vintage furniture and fabric. “When things shine brighter you instinctively move towards them,” she continues. “And because you’re in such a dark place, you don’t really think about what the light is. You just go towards it. That’s how I ended up in Rye and that’s how Polka started: it was a light and I just loved doing it.”

A couple of years ago, Reynolds was not in a good place. Recently divorced, she wound down her successful PR company and moved from a large London flat to a tiny, historic cottage in Rye. She is originally from Merseyside and her accent remains strong. Her friend, Marcus Crane – co-founder of the local art and interior store, McCully & Crane – found her this cottage.

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Gardens: Shropshire’s late bloomer

Wildegoose is a walled nursery, mixing formal and wild planting that’s still bursting with life at the end of summer

Wildegoose Nursery would like you to get lost. Behind its beautiful brick walls, its creators would like you to immerse yourself in the sound of insects, to wander along paths as perennials tower above you, and glimpse, over hedges, other corners that burnish with late-summer colours, or tumble with vegetables. Then there’s a slice of cake and a cup of tea at a table tucked among the flowers.

Laura and Jack Willgoss represent a new breed of growers who are turning their nurseries into destinations, with plot-to‑plate cafes, courses and workshops, inspirational test gardens and a selection of plants to go home with. Twenty minutes outside Ludlow, the nursery is hidden within a beautiful walled garden on the Millichope Park estate. When the couple first arrived, the walled garden hadn’t been in productive use since the 1960s. It was home to the huge Bouts viola collection – hardy and scented violas, many varieties spanning back to Victorian times – which they inherited when they bought the nursery. A 19th-century, curvilinear glasshouse was just a metal framework with trees growing through it; and as for the rest of the garden, there was none of the original layout left, just two acres of wilderness. Laura and Jack, who met as horticultural students at RHS Wisley, had long held a dream of restoring a walled garden, and here it was: a blank canvas.

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How to grow winter radish, turnip and spinach | Alys Fowler

September is a kind month; the soils are warm and moist, and there are enough good days ahead to ensure quick growth

There are always some summer losses that niggle – crops that never got going, or did but instantly got mown down by marauding somebodies. You can’t make up for lost carrots and the time for tomatillos is over, but you can get a few crops in now for last-minute wins.

September is a kind month; the soils are warm and moist and there are enough good days ahead to ensure quick growth for those that are willing to race at life. So, if you’ve spent all summer hunkering after a good radish and instead got something that bolted or went pithy in the middle, try again this week. September often produces a truly fine crop. Choose somewhere sunny, and if you use a pot, make it a big one – radishes hate being overcrowded. Cover thinly with just a little soil, then water. You should have a crop in four weeks. ‘French Breakfast 3’ and the super-fast ‘Sparkler’ are both ideal.

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Gardening tips: plant bee magnet Macedonian scabious

Then pay a visit to Pensthorpe natural park in Norfolk, and divide fading heucheras

Plant this If you are looking for a long-flowering bee magnet, Macedonian scabious (Knautia macedonica) is a canny choice. Flowers the colour of summer pudding on wiry stems come thick and fast into autumn, provided it’s given full sun and well-drained soil. Height and spread: 75cm x 45cm.

Visit this Pensthorpe natural park in Norfolk is home to one of acclaimed plantsman Piet Oudolf’s first designs in the UK, the Millennium Garden, which should be at its peak this month. Visit 8 September and peruse plants for sale from a range of nurseries at its specialist plant day.

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Gardens: Shropshire’s late bloomer

Wildegoose is a walled nursery, mixing formal and wild planting that’s still bursting with life at the end of summer

Wildegoose Nursery would like you to get lost. Behind its beautiful brick walls, its creators would like you to immerse yourself in the sound of insects, to wander along paths as perennials tower above you, and glimpse, over hedges, other corners that burnish with late-summer colours, or tumble with vegetables. Then there’s a slice of cake and a cup of tea at a table tucked among the flowers.

Laura and Jack Willgoss represent a new breed of growers who are turning their nurseries into destinations, with plot-to‑plate cafes, courses and workshops, inspirational test gardens and a selection of plants to go home with. Twenty minutes outside Ludlow, the nursery is hidden within a beautiful walled garden on the Millichope Park estate. When the couple first arrived, the walled garden hadn’t been in productive use since the 1960s. It was home to the huge Bouts viola collection – hardy and scented violas, many varieties spanning back to Victorian times – which they inherited when they bought the nursery. A 19th-century, curvilinear glasshouse was just a metal framework with trees growing through it; and as for the rest of the garden, there was none of the original layout left, just two acres of wilderness. Laura and Jack, who met as horticultural students at RHS Wisley, had long held a dream of restoring a walled garden, and here it was: a blank canvas.

Continue reading...

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How to grow winter radish, turnip and spinach | Alys Fowler

September is a kind month; the soils are warm and moist, and there are enough good days ahead to ensure quick growth

There are always some summer losses that niggle – crops that never got going, or did but instantly got mown down by marauding somebodies. You can’t make up for lost carrots and the time for tomatillos is over, but you can get a few crops in now for last-minute wins.

September is a kind month; the soils are warm and moist and there are enough good days ahead to ensure quick growth for those that are willing to race at life. So, if you’ve spent all summer hunkering after a good radish and instead got something that bolted or went pithy in the middle, try again this week. September often produces a truly fine crop. Choose somewhere sunny, and if you use a pot, make it a big one – radishes hate being overcrowded. Cover thinly with just a little soil, then water. You should have a crop in four weeks. ‘French Breakfast 3’ and the super-fast ‘Sparkler’ are both ideal.

Continue reading...

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

Gardening tips: plant bee magnet Macedonian scabious

Then pay a visit to Pensthorpe natural park in Norfolk, and divide fading heucheras

Plant this If you are looking for a long-flowering bee magnet, Macedonian scabious (Knautia macedonica) is a canny choice. Flowers the colour of summer pudding on wiry stems come thick and fast into autumn, provided it’s given full sun and well-drained soil. Height and spread: 75cm x 45cm.

Visit this Pensthorpe natural park in Norfolk is home to one of acclaimed plantsman Piet Oudolf’s first designs in the UK, the Millennium Garden, which should be at its peak this month. Visit 8 September and peruse plants for sale from a range of nurseries at its specialist plant day.

Continue reading...

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