Lessons to learn about growing ferns | James Wong

To stop them drying out, choose wax-coated ferns and use big pots – then strap them to driftwood

When you learn a new word, you suddenly seem to hear it everywhere. It’s the same with gardening queries. I overheard a couple of hipsters in an east London plant shop bemoaning how despite their love of ferns they find them impossible to grow. The next thing I know I am hearing the same claim on podcasts, getting asked about it on Twitter and overhearing it on trains. So, before I get asked about it again, here is all you need to know to grow ferns like a pro.

To make them even quirkier looking, I hang them as wall decorations

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Our roof terrace garden is a calm, healing space | Allan Jenkins

We wrap up, sip tea – or wine – and wait for brighter days

The plot is close to hibernation, hunkered like a hedgehog, though not yet as sleepy. I am about to sow broad beans. I have moved the kales from their nursery beds. I stand and watch the amaranth fall. I pick kale and chard for midweek suppers, a couple of autumn carrots. I guard the puntarelle. But there is no denying winter now, so this week a few more thoughts on caring for flowers in pots.

When we first came to our home, the roof terrace was an abandoned bike yard – old cycles for almost every age, bits of retired furniture, its floor tiled in asbestos. No grass, no soil, but our own outside space.

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Our roof terrace garden is a calm, healing space | Allan Jenkins

We wrap up, sip tea – or wine – and wait for brighter days

The plot is close to hibernation, hunkered like a hedgehog, though not yet as sleepy. I am about to sow broad beans. I have moved the kales from their nursery beds. I stand and watch the amaranth fall. I pick kale and chard for midweek suppers, a couple of autumn carrots. I guard the puntarelle. But there is no denying winter now, so this week a few more thoughts on caring for flowers in pots.

When we first came to our home, the roof terrace was an abandoned bike yard – old cycles for almost every age, bits of retired furniture, its floor tiled in asbestos. No grass, no soil, but our own outside space.

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Gazundering: A guide to what it means and how to avoid it Nottingham Estate Agents

The term gazundering can often send a shiver down the spine of any seller looking to complete the sale of their new home. Jonathan Detheridge, Head of Granger & Oaks, Nottingham, explains what this term means and its potential impact on the selling process Gazundering is a term for a modern phenomenon that refers to […]

The post Gazundering: A guide to what it means and how to avoid it appeared first on OnTheMarket.com blog.

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Spring-clean your cleaners: many surface cleaning products don't actually work

Choice finds many household surface cleaners work no better than water – and some are worse

It’s a habitual thing. When you want to clean a surface, you spritz on a cleaning product, grab your scrub and get to work. But a recent test by the consumer advocacy group Choice has found that many surface cleaning products work no better than water. And some, in fact, are worse.

Choice’s Ashley Iredale told Guardian Australia: “About 50% of the ones on our test weren’t noticeably different from plain water. It’s pretty scary. You’re essentially just tipping money down the drain.”

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Spring-clean your cleaners: many surface cleaning products don't actually work

Choice finds many household surface cleaners work no better than water – and some are worse

It’s a habitual thing. When you want to clean a surface, you spritz on a cleaning product, grab your scrub and get to work. But a recent test by the consumer advocacy group Choice has found that many surface cleaning products work no better than water. And some, in fact, are worse.

Choice’s Ashley Iredale told Guardian Australia: “About 50% of the ones on our test weren’t noticeably different from plain water. It’s pretty scary. You’re essentially just tipping money down the drain.”

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Bored with white? Use paint with personality in your home

A dash of rhubarb, a bright yellow wall or a whole room painted orange? Swap safe neutrals for bold hues and feel your mood lift

The feature wall – that seemingly bold decorative decision to paint one wall in the room a stand-out colour – is dead. Colour is now spreading through our homes, up staircases, across woodwork and ceilings, filling in neutral spaces with rhubarb, verdigris green, aubergine and orange. Is it a terrifying trend we’ll all pay for in gallons of undercoat, or does this colour craving signify something else?

“There’s been a seismic shift in how we’re thinking about colour,” says Farrow & Ball’s long-standing colour curator, Joa Studholme. “I am convinced the rise of bold colour comes down to the fact that the world is in such a mess. We want to go home and have colours that nourish us, that give us a hug. Pure white walls simply don’t do that. They don’t look after you.”

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