Fallen out with the neighbours? Time to build a ‘spite house’

Paint it in red and white stripes and your unhappy neighbours will soon get the message

Until the age of 16 I went to school in a suburb of extreme good taste, where locals were required to maintain their properties according to an ancient and densely illustrated binder of rules about gate heights and hedges. Walking back to the bus stop, through a small stretch of woodland planted with the most polite of flashers, then along slim clean roads, my friends and I would often be moved to scream. Perhaps this experience, of moving in uniform among enforced lawns, contributes to my glee, my utter dripping glee, at the existence of “spite houses”.

The latest example is in a ritzy neighbourhood in Manhattan Beach, California, where a woman called Kathryn Kidd was reported to the city by neighbours for listing her home on Airbnb. Her response was to paint the house fuchsia and cover it with 3ft tall emojis, including one with its mouth zipped shut. Kidd insisted she’d chosen this design a) because she is an art collector, b) as a message to young women to cover up their bodies and c) because she loves emojis. Neighbours instead read them as a sign to “zip their lip”.

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Fallen out with the neighbours? Time to build a ‘spite house’

Paint it in red and white stripes and your unhappy neighbours will soon get the message

Until the age of 16 I went to school in a suburb of extreme good taste, where locals were required to maintain their properties according to an ancient and densely illustrated binder of rules about gate heights and hedges. Walking back to the bus stop, through a small stretch of woodland planted with the most polite of flashers, then along slim clean roads, my friends and I would often be moved to scream. Perhaps this experience, of moving in uniform among enforced lawns, contributes to my glee, my utter dripping glee, at the existence of “spite houses”.

The latest example is in a ritzy neighbourhood in Manhattan Beach, California, where a woman called Kathryn Kidd was reported to the city by neighbours for listing her home on Airbnb. Her response was to paint the house fuchsia and cover it with 3ft tall emojis, including one with its mouth zipped shut. Kidd insisted she’d chosen this design a) because she is an art collector, b) as a message to young women to cover up their bodies and c) because she loves emojis. Neighbours instead read them as a sign to “zip their lip”.

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Making friends with ferns | James Wong

An evergreen solution to dark problems

I am a terrible horticultural voyeur, forever peering over fences as I wander round my patch of central London. I find it fascinating what people can achieve in such small spaces, what plants they can get away with and the atmosphere they can create against all adversity.

However, there is one horticultural conundrum that even the most successful urban gardeners often find hard to crack: what to grow as ground cover in small, dark, urban spaces. You see an awful lot of white pebbles stained black by the city air, sun-loving summer bedding sulking in deep shade and (my nemesis) threadbare patches of artificial turf. But a group of plants will thrive in these dark, dingy conditions and provide perpetual clothing of green, even in the darkest depths of winter: evergreen ferns.

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Save seed, plan and share – it’s as good as growing | Allan Jenkins

The best small companies, the legume holy grail and how keep them dry – top tips from a seed hoarder

I am a spender not a saver. I was never much good with money. I enjoy the ability to be able to buy things. With seeds I am a hoarder. Except for the guilt that comes now, sputtering to the end of the growing season, when I have somehow failed to sow in time, to let my seed live a fuller life. To express itself, to grow, become an adult plant, a root crop, a flower. Though I guess there is always next year.

I trawl seed businesses like other addicts collect drug dealers. I favour small companies – the specialist suppliers, the monomaniacs where my money can make a difference: Roger Parsons for sweet peas, Ben Ranyard at Higgledy Garden for (mostly) annual flowers, Mads McKeever at Brown Envelope Seeds for open-pollenated organic vegetables, Jekka McVicar for herbs, Franchi for (mostly) Italian vegetables, Adaptive Seeds for kales, and many, many others.

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Making friends with ferns | James Wong

An evergreen solution to dark problems

I am a terrible horticultural voyeur, forever peering over fences as I wander round my patch of central London. I find it fascinating what people can achieve in such small spaces, what plants they can get away with and the atmosphere they can create against all adversity.

However, there is one horticultural conundrum that even the most successful urban gardeners often find hard to crack: what to grow as ground cover in small, dark, urban spaces. You see an awful lot of white pebbles stained black by the city air, sun-loving summer bedding sulking in deep shade and (my nemesis) threadbare patches of artificial turf. But a group of plants will thrive in these dark, dingy conditions and provide perpetual clothing of green, even in the darkest depths of winter: evergreen ferns.

Continue reading...

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Save seed, plan and share – it’s as good as growing | Allan Jenkins

The best small companies, the legume holy grail and how keep them dry – top tips from a seed hoarder

I am a spender not a saver. I was never much good with money. I enjoy the ability to be able to buy things. With seeds I am a hoarder. Except for the guilt that comes now, sputtering to the end of the growing season, when I have somehow failed to sow in time, to let my seed live a fuller life. To express itself, to grow, become an adult plant, a root crop, a flower. Though I guess there is always next year.

I trawl seed businesses like other addicts collect drug dealers. I favour small companies – the specialist suppliers, the monomaniacs where my money can make a difference: Roger Parsons for sweet peas, Ben Ranyard at Higgledy Garden for (mostly) annual flowers, Mads McKeever at Brown Envelope Seeds for open-pollenated organic vegetables, Jekka McVicar for herbs, Franchi for (mostly) Italian vegetables, Adaptive Seeds for kales, and many, many others.

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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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