Gardening through lockdown? Go online and support our small growers | James Wong

Help keep independent plant suppliers afloat – and enjoy the therapeutic benefits of gardening in these uncertain times

In uncertain times, gardening can be a powerful therapeutic tool. When distracted by fresh air and new growth – and with your hands and mind busy – it is so much easier to live in the here and now, focussing less on the things beyond your control. Yet, like many industries, the current situation is hitting small, independent growers hard. Coinciding with the crucial spring season, this period could really mean make or break for the many tiny, family-run nurseries that underpin UK horticulture. However, British mail-order plant suppliers will be able to reward your support now with plants to boost your spirits. All without you having to pass your front door.

D’Arcy and Everest has been producing some of the finest alpine plants in the world from their Cambridgeshire nursery since 1992, including some species I’ve never seen anywhere else. These are perfect if you have a bright spot with well-drained soil. This doesn’t have to be a traditional rock garden or alpine bed, as their tolerance for searing sun, poor soil and drought also makes these plants perfect for windswept roof terraces, or brightening up gravel driveways.

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Gardening through lockdown? Go online and support our small growers | James Wong

Help keep independent plant suppliers afloat – and enjoy the therapeutic benefits of gardening in these uncertain times

In uncertain times, gardening can be a powerful therapeutic tool. When distracted by fresh air and new growth – and with your hands and mind busy – it is so much easier to live in the here and now, focussing less on the things beyond your control. Yet, like many industries, the current situation is hitting small, independent growers hard. Coinciding with the crucial spring season, this period could really mean make or break for the many tiny, family-run nurseries that underpin UK horticulture. However, British mail-order plant suppliers will be able to reward your support now with plants to boost your spirits. All without you having to pass your front door.

D’Arcy and Everest has been producing some of the finest alpine plants in the world from their Cambridgeshire nursery since 1992, including some species I’ve never seen anywhere else. These are perfect if you have a bright spot with well-drained soil. This doesn’t have to be a traditional rock garden or alpine bed, as their tolerance for searing sun, poor soil and drought also makes these plants perfect for windswept roof terraces, or brightening up gravel driveways.

Continue reading...

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In worrying times, there is nurture to be found in nature | Allan Jenkins

From tending seedlings to digging potatoes, gardening brings comfort and healing

My column for the first Sunday in any month usually focuses on the jobs to do, the seeds to sow, depending on where we are in the growing season. But these are unusual times. So April’s column will be published next week.

I thought, instead, to explore the comfort and healing I find in gardening, whether it is digging a trench for potatoes on the plot or tending a rose in a pot on the terrace.

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In worrying times, there is nurture to be found in nature | Allan Jenkins

From tending seedlings to digging potatoes, gardening brings comfort and healing

My column for the first Sunday in any month usually focuses on the jobs to do, the seeds to sow, depending on where we are in the growing season. But these are unusual times. So April’s column will be published next week.

I thought, instead, to explore the comfort and healing I find in gardening, whether it is digging a trench for potatoes on the plot or tending a rose in a pot on the terrace.

Continue reading...

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How to deal with noisy neighbours Nottingham Estate Agents

It might be a yapping dog, loud music or an all-night party. Whatever the origin of the noise, the decibel level can be both disturbing and distressing. But what can you do about it? OnTheMarket offers tips for dealing with noisy neighbours. Most homeowners and tenants are confronted with the dilemma of noisy neighbours at […]

The post How to deal with noisy neighbours appeared first on OnTheMarket.com blog.

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'If you've no room for sheep, get yourself some hens.' And other useful virus tips

Wealthy self-isolators have little to say to the millions who fear for their very lives

With classic plague literature now fairly thoroughly mined for instructive similarities with our current predicament – official cover-ups, forced isolation, mad clerics, makeshift burials, heavy-handed policing etc – perhaps it is time to turn to some of the differences. One of the major ones being, of course, the earlier absence of influencers.

As terrifying as it would have been for anyone stuck in the London described by Defoe or inside Camus’s Oran, these imprisoned citizens were, at least, spared survival tips dreamed up in the remote homes and gardens of fund managers, celebrity chefs, professional tidier-uppers, titled brand ambassadors, “tablescaping” experts. You might be banged up, scared and brooding on things left undone and unsaid, in 1665, but at least nobody thought this was the perfect time to inform you that “this period of self-isolation is a good chance to experiment with more decadent table settings”. Yes, even if you are alone, mid-virus. “At a moment like this,” the same connoisseur continues, “quirky tableware is particularly uplifting.”

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The deco is in the detail in this photographer's home

Vintage chic, iconic designs and mirrors on every wall give this flat its seductive party feel

I fully encourage people to dance on the furniture in my home and have a good time,” says graphic artist and photographer Zoe Zimmer of her Victorian terrace ground-floor garden flat in Notting Hill, London.

“I really love cooking for friends and having parties,” she says, “and, although I want the place to be beautiful and well presented, it’s important to enjoy it, too, and not be precious about it.”

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