The plastic plant boom: here’s how to grow the real thing – for beauty, better air and biodiversity

Sales of plastic hedges, shrubs and lawns are rising rapidly, but they are bad for the environment and not necessarily low-maintenance or low-cost

Low-maintenance, evergreen lushness and an instant garden – it is easy to see why the sale of plastic plants is bursting into life. According to trend forecasters, sales of artificial plants are booming, with hedges, shrubs and lawns leading the trend.

Some are better than others, says the gardening writer Jane Perrone. The cheaper ones “haven’t been particularly well-made with plastic that is UV-stable, so within a short amount of time they are going to look quite miserable. There is work starting in terms of these companies trying to ensure these products are recycled at the end of their lives, but ultimately you’re going to end up with this thing that is probably going to end up in landfill, and has been manufactured with petrochemicals. But I can see why people would want them – not everyone wants to garden or feel they have the skills to maintain plants.”

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Home ownership among people aged 35-44 has plunged – ONS

Adults in their mid-30s to mid-40s are three times more likely to rent than 20 years ago

Home ownership has collapsed for prime working age adults, according to official figures that show those in their mid-30s to mid-40s are three times more likely to rent than 20 years ago.

In a reflection of surging house prices and a lost decade for wage growth since the financial crisis, the Office for National Statistics found that a third of 35- to 44-year-olds in England were renting from a private landlord in 2017, compared with fewer than one in 10 in 1997.

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Should I sign over inherited property to my daughters?

I’m in doubt because one of them has a help to buy Isa and this may disqualify her as a first-time buyer

Q I am in a dilemma as to what to do with an inherited property. My first thoughts were to sign the property jointly over to my two daughters. However, one of them has a help to buy Isa and has been told that if she already owns property (albeit gifted to her), she would not be eligible as a first time buyer. Is this correct?
DS

A Yes that is correct. And no longer counting as a first-time buyer would mean that she was no longer eligible to claim the help to buy Isa* bonus paid on the completion on the purchase of a first-time home. More expensively, transferring inherited property to your daughter would mean that she (and possibly her sister if she is also a potential first-time buyer) would no longer qualify for zero stamp duty land tax on the first £300,000 of a first-time home costing up to £500,000; the amount over £300,000 and up to £500,000 would be charged at 5%.

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Will you be renting for life? Nottingham Estate Agents

Chances are you’re going to be in rented accommodation if you were born between 1980 and 1996. Those branded as ‘generation rent’ or ‘millennials’, are four times more likely to be renting at 30 than the previous ‘generation X’ – those born between 1965 and 1980, according to a new report from Resolution Foundation. Around […]

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Amaranth tastes as good as it looks | James Wong

Sow this beautiful and fast-growing plant for your own plentiful supply of ‘Indonesian spinach’

We all have little quirks that drive the people around us crazy. And I think it’s fair to say, if you ask anyone around me, that I have more than most. One of my many “things” is the compulsion to visit a supermarket (or even better, an allotment) whenever I am in a new country. I find the whole experience fascinating. Far more than any museum, tour of monuments or obligatory selfie spot, these teach you about the real day-to-day lives of the people who live there. It might exasperate my friends and family, but I am always picking up ideas to bring home too. So here is my latest find, picked up during a trip to Indonesia…

Driving past paddy fields and coconut palms, one of the other key plants that really stood out to me was one that is far less iconic but equally common: amaranth. Reaching up to 6ft high in big, green clumps, fountains of these leaves grow everywhere. A quick look at any local market will show you why, too – it’s the “Indonesian spinach” that’s on every menu.

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Amaranth tastes as good as it looks | James Wong

Sow this beautiful and fast-growing plant for your own plentiful supply of ‘Indonesian spinach’

We all have little quirks that drive the people around us crazy. And I think it’s fair to say, if you ask anyone around me, that I have more than most. One of my many “things” is the compulsion to visit a supermarket (or even better, an allotment) whenever I am in a new country. I find the whole experience fascinating. Far more than any museum, tour of monuments or obligatory selfie spot, these teach you about the real day-to-day lives of the people who live there. It might exasperate my friends and family, but I am always picking up ideas to bring home too. So here is my latest find, picked up during a trip to Indonesia…

Driving past paddy fields and coconut palms, one of the other key plants that really stood out to me was one that is far less iconic but equally common: amaranth. Reaching up to 6ft high in big, green clumps, fountains of these leaves grow everywhere. A quick look at any local market will show you why, too – it’s the “Indonesian spinach” that’s on every menu.

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Why love and gardening always grow together | Allan Jenkins

When it comes to showing you care, there are so many more ways to let them know than with a bunch of roses

Valentine’s week. Red roses incoming, but what to talk about when we talk about love? I am not here to tell you not to buy roses (well I am, but in bushes in season please). I thought instead to explore my love for gardening, how it happened. How, although I am attracted to its essential solitary nature, it can be enhanced when I am sharing its pleasure with someone.

With Mary, who lets us grow on part of Plot 29. For my simple joy of working alongside her, without much time for chat, though humping manure helps, a little heavy lifting. And her quiet companionship.

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