Companion gardening: edibles are all the rage, but they're not the only useful plants

From pest control to aromatherapy, a garden has so much more to offer than a dinner-time fix

Plants, like most things, go in and out of fashion.

There is a tradition of English cottage gardening in my neighbourhood, where orchards grew a century ago. But with the climate arching towards the sub-tropical, rather than the temperate, the dainty English roses drooped from the heat. Then, local gardeners realised the value of hardier native species.

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Companion gardening: edibles are all the rage, but they're not the only useful plants

From pest control to aromatherapy, a garden has so much more to offer than a dinner-time fix

Plants, like most things, go in and out of fashion.

There is a tradition of English cottage gardening in my neighbourhood, where orchards grew a century ago. But with the climate arching towards the sub-tropical, rather than the temperate, the dainty English roses drooped from the heat. Then, local gardeners realised the value of hardier native species.

Continue reading...

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This New York house has its own indoor basketball court

We spotlight 16 of our favourite overseas listings from this year.

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Stuck at home, I've found it's never too late to learn about wildlife

I grew up in the gritty city with no experience of the natural world other than urban foxes and pigeons. At last, I can find joy in nature – in my own back garden

I have a memory that I cannot clearly place. It was six or seven years ago and I was watching a segment on breakfast television about how many urban children cannot recognise well-known British wildlife by sight or sound.

I was one of those children. My summer holidays were spent at home, bored, under east London’s concrete canopy. Wildlife highlights were foxes and the odd rat, creatures to be feared because nature was unpredictable, and sometimes even perverse (viz, the common city pigeon, cannibalistically picking at discarded fried chicken bones).

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Stuck at home, I've found it's never too late to learn about wildlife

I grew up in the gritty city with no experience of the natural world other than urban foxes and pigeons. At last, I can find joy in nature – in my own back garden

I have a memory that I cannot clearly place. It was six or seven years ago and I was watching a segment on breakfast television about how many urban children cannot recognise well-known British wildlife by sight or sound.

I was one of those children. My summer holidays were spent at home, bored, under east London’s concrete canopy. Wildlife highlights were foxes and the odd rat, creatures to be feared because nature was unpredictable, and sometimes even perverse (viz, the common city pigeon, cannibalistically picking at discarded fried chicken bones).

Continue reading...

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Real estate for the apocalypse: my journey into a survival bunker – podcast

Doomsday luxury accommodation is a booming business, offering customers a chance to sit out global pandemics and nuclear wars in comfort – as long as they have the money to pay for it. By Mark O’Connell

• Read the text version here

Adapted from Notes from an Apocalypse: A Personal Journey to the End of the World and Back by Mark O’Connell, which is published by Granta and is available for order here

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Home review – designs take on a grander purpose without Kevin McCloud

From a balmy Mediterranean greenhouse in snowy Sweden to an incredible transforming Hong Kong apartment – this series celebrates visionary home-building

Let us deal with the most immediate and valid concern when presented with a new series entitled Home (Apple+ TV) that promises an in-depth look at the different and architecturally interesting ways various people of vision have chosen to build and live in theirs. Namely: is it Grand Designs with knobs on?

The answer, I am very happy to tell you, is no. Or at least, just a tiny, tiny bit, just occasionally. A forgivable amount, I would say, and my tolerance threshold is low. People do, every now and then, say things such as “Life itself should colonise the space”, but the saving grace of Home is that a) there is no Kevin McCloud and b) unlike most of the genre, it looks outward rather than in.

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