A return to Plot 29 | Allan Jenkins

It’s dirty work, but the manure – and granddaughter – gives spring a helping hand

I rushed the rehab. Regretting it now. It was the enforced helplessness I was fighting. Snowdrops are out. Crocuses, too. Jeffrey’s daylilies are a half a foot tall. His daffodils are in flower. Spring’s call is insistent. My exile is over.

Baby steps were needed. The first couple of times I just sat and stood at the plot, soaking it all up. The third, I took out the hoe. A little light strimming of the bittercress and tufted grass. Fifteen minutes or so, resting in between. The next day I lifted the tired chard. It felt healing to connect with the land in a more intimate way. To be more useful.

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How to keep a property transaction on course Nottingham Estate Agents

The collapse of a property sale can have a far greater effect than just disappointment or irritation – it can cost sellers thousands. OnTheMarket offers the following tips to keep your transaction steady. The numbers According to YouGov, a staggering 300,000 transactions collapse each year. The average cost of each case is £2,727, and 12 […]

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New lease of life: how to redecorate a rental property

You don’t have to be a home owner or have lots of money to create a ‘natural and nourishing home’, says Africa Daley-Clarke

In the middle of the wall in Africa Daley-Clarke’s living room is a print illustrating the passengers disembarking from the Empire Windrush. Before moving into her flat last June, she sold all of the art on her gallery wall to fund the purchase of this new print. Three of Daley-Clarke’s grandparents took a similar journey from the West Indies in the early 1960s: it’s a journey she is reminded of every time she sees the print, and an image she hopes her daughters will remember growing up with.

Daley-Clarke, 29, lives with her husband, Jermel, 33, and two young daughters – Israel, 4, and Ezra, 2 – in a social housing flat in Islington, north London. The street they live on comprises mostly detached Victorian villas. The property they live in has been split into three apartments. Here, on the first floor, in a two-bedroom flat with a front room, kitchen, bathroom and small balcony, Daley-Carke has created what she describes as a “natural, nourishing home” for her young family. “I never want my family to go without because we can’t afford to live in a bigger home,” she says. “But really, we don’t need any more.”

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New lease of life: how to redecorate a rental property

You don’t have to be a home owner or have lots of money to create a ‘natural and nourishing home’, says Africa Daley-Clarke

In the middle of the wall in Africa Daley-Clarke’s living room is a print illustrating the passengers disembarking from the Empire Windrush. Before moving into her flat last June, she sold all of the art on her gallery wall to fund the purchase of this new print. Three of Daley-Clarke’s grandparents took a similar journey from the West Indies in the early 1960s: it’s a journey she is reminded of every time she sees the print, and an image she hopes her daughters will remember growing up with.

Daley-Clarke, 29, lives with her husband, Jermel, 33, and two young daughters – Israel, 4, and Ezra, 2 – in a social housing flat in Islington, north London. The street they live on comprises mostly detached Victorian villas. The property they live in has been split into three apartments. Here, on the first floor, in a two-bedroom flat with a front room, kitchen, bathroom and small balcony, Daley-Carke has created what she describes as a “natural, nourishing home” for her young family. “I never want my family to go without because we can’t afford to live in a bigger home,” she says. “But really, we don’t need any more.”

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How to grow Vietnamese herbs | Alys Fowler

Culantro and kinh gioi freshen up summer salads and rolls, with a coriander kick or lemon zest

It was late and there were still further trains to catch, so it was supper at the station: steaming bowls of pho and, to my joy, big fat leaves of culantro (Eryngium foetidum), floating in the broth. Culantro looks a bit like a dandelion in leaf, and has a powerful coriander kick. It’s much loved in many cuisines, hence its many names: Mexican coriander, chadon beni, long coriander, recao, Thai parsley and sawtooth herb. A few years ago, you’d have to hunt high and low to get the seeds, but not today – there are numerous online offers.

Related: How to grow crab apple trees | Alys Fowler

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Gardening tips: plant a mock orange

Then visit a Victorian glasshouse and make a trellis

Plant this As winter draws to a close, now is the time to invest in something gorgeous for your borders. Mock orange (philadelphus) is a hardy shrub that produces scented white flowers in early summer, if planted in a sunny spot. Choose ‘Manteau d’Hermine’ if space is limited.

Visit this If you are looking for glasshouse growing at its finest (and somewhere to escape on a chilly day), West Dean gardens near Chichester, West Sussex has 13 impeccably maintained Victorian glasshouses. See how they grow everything from ferns and exotics to nectarines.

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Home grown: how exotic blooms can be guilt-free

You don’t have to import cut flowers – one grower’s blooms are sustainable as well as beautiful

An overflowing vase of unseasonably fiery flowers is the perfect antidote to winter. But if you worry about how far imported blooms have travelled, and at what cost to the environment, brightening up your room needn’t be a guilty pleasure: a cut flower producer on the south coast may have the answer.

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