A wet autumn day is the perfect time to plan for next year
A wet October afternoon. Too wet for planned seaweed-feeding. Too wet to walk on the soil. A time to stay indoors and to think about spring and seed.
There are bowls and dishes and plates of seed cluttering the bookshelves; a large dish of dried bean pods in the kitchen (not to mention stashes downstairs).
Continue reading...A wet autumn day is the perfect time to plan for next year
A wet October afternoon. Too wet for planned seaweed-feeding. Too wet to walk on the soil. A time to stay indoors and to think about spring and seed.
There are bowls and dishes and plates of seed cluttering the bookshelves; a large dish of dried bean pods in the kitchen (not to mention stashes downstairs).
Continue reading...‘Modest’ decor lets the elegant interior architecture of an 1840 rectory in Cheltenham shine
She is the designer who made bunting, table confetti and cake toppers staples of party decorating. Yet you’re unlikely to have heard of Meredithe Stuart-Smith. The US-born entrepreneur began her business at a glitter-strewn kitchen table in 1985. The luxury department store Bergdorf Goodman, in New York, was her first client and she has been quietly busy ever since. Today, Meri Meri stationery, homewares, toys and reusable party trimmings, in her trademark pastels and neons, line the shelves of stores across the world.
“I’ve always designed for parents like me, who want to add a bit of magic to their children’s lives,” says Stuart-Smith, a mother of two. Many of those designs began here in the Cheltenham home she shares with her husband and grown-up son (her daughter now works in Birmingham). The four-bedroom property is set in a stucco-fronted 1840 rectory, which was sliced into three apartments in the 1950s. “The proportions are grand, but it’s not an overly elaborate house,” says Stuart-Smith, who has kept the decor accordingly “modest”. Walls are washed in a concert of bluey-whites; the original, wonky floorboards painted a shiny cocoa brown. Like her designs, the charm of this house lies in the details: a row of Surrealist plates, the swan-shaped cushion afloat on a petite sofa. “I’m drawn to things that are clean-lined, with a bit of fun thrown in,” she enthuses. “I love wallpaper and colour, but I couldn’t live with that intensity. I like to be able to see the wood through the leaves.”
Continue reading...‘Modest’ decor lets the elegant interior architecture of an 1840 rectory in Cheltenham shine
She is the designer who made bunting, table confetti and cake toppers staples of party decorating. Yet you’re unlikely to have heard of Meredithe Stuart-Smith. The US-born entrepreneur began her business at a glitter-strewn kitchen table in 1985. The luxury department store Bergdorf Goodman, in New York, was her first client and she has been quietly busy ever since. Today, Meri Meri stationery, homewares, toys and reusable party trimmings, in her trademark pastels and neons, line the shelves of stores across the world.
“I’ve always designed for parents like me, who want to add a bit of magic to their children’s lives,” says Stuart-Smith, a mother of two. Many of those designs began here in the Cheltenham home she shares with her husband and grown-up son (her daughter now works in Birmingham). The four-bedroom property is set in a stucco-fronted 1840 rectory, which was sliced into three apartments in the 1950s. “The proportions are grand, but it’s not an overly elaborate house,” says Stuart-Smith, who has kept the decor accordingly “modest”. Walls are washed in a concert of bluey-whites; the original, wonky floorboards painted a shiny cocoa brown. Like her designs, the charm of this house lies in the details: a row of Surrealist plates, the swan-shaped cushion afloat on a petite sofa. “I’m drawn to things that are clean-lined, with a bit of fun thrown in,” she enthuses. “I love wallpaper and colour, but I couldn’t live with that intensity. I like to be able to see the wood through the leaves.”
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...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.
Continue reading...