Gardening tips: plant katsura, the candyfloss tree

Visit Tom Hart Dyke’s World Garden and keep plants moist once the central heating goes on

Plant this A tree that smells like candyfloss? This is the secret superpower of the katsura (Cercidiphyllum japonicum); as well as smelling divine, the leaves flame orange, red and yellow before falling. Stands 20m when mature; for smaller plots, katsura ‘Boyd’s Dwarf’ gets to about 3m each way.

Visit this The World Garden of modern-day plant hunter Tom Hart Dyke, at Lullingstone Castle in Kent, is delightfully eccentric: the plot is laid out like a map, with plants arranged by region. Visit tomorrow for a Halloween event, including tours by Tom himself.

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Hidden treasures: a statue-filled canal garden

Gerry Dalton spent decades creating his extraordinary garden dedicated to folk art. Now he’s gone, can it be saved? Photographs by Jill Mead. Words by Alys Fowler

On a thin strip of bank alongside the Grand Union Canal in west London, under the shadow of Ernö Goldfinger’s Trellick Tower, is a rather unusual garden: a double row of topiary conifers in front of a plastered wall, which is peppered with bright decorative tiles, crystal doorknobs, busts, plaques and odds and ends from nearby Golborne Road market. Standing to attention in front of the wall is a row of stately figures – kings, queens, military heroes, poets and Roman emperors – like three-feet high chess pieces. And if you glimpse behind the wall, you will see a small, paved back garden filled with more statues.

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How to grow onions and shallots | Alys Fowler

Our gardening expert advises on planting for a bumper crop

If it weren’t for that blasted fly, I’d be queen of onions. The allium leaf miner shreds any whiff of the enzyme alliinase – it takes down leeks, bunching onions and garlic, and the only sure way around it is to barricade your crops with the finest of mesh netting or confuse the female so thoroughly with a blanket of other plants that she can’t find her way through to your crop (mint is quite effective as long as you can keep it from taking over). For the last few years I’ve been prepared to battle only on behalf of garlic, but I miss shallots, so I’ll darn all the holes in my mesh and protect those, too.

You have two choices with growing onions and shallots: you can either sow in early spring or plant as sets. The latter are immature onions or shallots that grow into mature bulbs. These are fairly easy to grow; you just nestle them into the soil so only the neck is sticking out.

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How students can buy a £400,000 home with zero deposit

A building society is offering 100% mortgages to 18-year-olds while at university. Spoiler: you’ll need wealthy parents

Fancy literally lording it over your college flatmates? A growing number of building societies are offering deals that let young adults buy their university home and pay the monthly mortgage with the rent they charge other students.

This week the Vernon building society in Stockport, Greater Manchester, launched a range of “buy for uni” mortgages, the third lender to do so. The other two are the Bath and Loughborough building societies, though the property can be purchased at any university town in England and Wales.

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Let’s move to Tavistock, Devon: Dartmoor photobombs every street

Its beautiful architecture is mostly down to a spot of relatively benign dictatorship

What’s going for it? What a joyful town Tavistock is. Is there something in the Tavy? Or maybe it’s the town’s geographical DNA. The up-down topography, perhaps; the rollercoaster hills, Dartmoor photobombing at the end of every street? Its position, on the “other” side of Devon, means it’s rarely rammed with tourists and too far from anywhere much to have succumbed to chainstores and Frankie & Benny’s. Instead its centre is plump with (seemingly) perky shops, pubs, cafes and all manner of enterprises, like Creber’s grocery and Warrens bakery. Every street and alley is a delight, its beautiful architecture mostly down to a spot of relatively benign dictatorship. The Dukes of Bedford dominated the town until the 20th century, and the Bedfords were very partial to a grand design; it was they who commissioned Covent Garden’s piazza in London in the 17th century, bringing classical architecture to barbarous England, and they liberally peppered Tavistock with equally exotic delights. PS: you’re too late to fatten your goose for Christmas; Tavistock’s famous Goose Fair has just finished. What about a turkey crown from Iceland?

The case against Relatively off the beaten track, which has its advantages and its disadvantages. No trains (see below).

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Let’s move to Tavistock, Devon: Dartmoor photobombs every street

Its beautiful architecture is mostly down to a spot of relatively benign dictatorship

What’s going for it? What a joyful town Tavistock is. Is there something in the Tavy? Or maybe it’s the town’s geographical DNA. The up-down topography, perhaps; the rollercoaster hills, Dartmoor photobombing at the end of every street? Its position, on the “other” side of Devon, means it’s rarely rammed with tourists and too far from anywhere much to have succumbed to chainstores and Frankie & Benny’s. Instead its centre is plump with (seemingly) perky shops, pubs, cafes and all manner of enterprises, like Creber’s grocery and Warrens bakery. Every street and alley is a delight, its beautiful architecture mostly down to a spot of relatively benign dictatorship. The Dukes of Bedford dominated the town until the 20th century, and the Bedfords were very partial to a grand design; it was they who commissioned Covent Garden’s piazza in London in the 17th century, bringing classical architecture to barbarous England, and they liberally peppered Tavistock with equally exotic delights. PS: you’re too late to fatten your goose for Christmas; Tavistock’s famous Goose Fair has just finished. What about a turkey crown from Iceland?

The case against Relatively off the beaten track, which has its advantages and its disadvantages. No trains (see below).

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Five of the best island homes – in pictures

These properties all sit on an island – for some you’ll need a ferry, for one you’ll need your own boat

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