JK Rowling: her old home is where her heart is | Rebecca Nicholson

The author has snapped up the house she grew up in… complete with youthful graffiti she left behind

Last week, I found myself looking at the house I spent most of my teenage years in, through Google Street View on my laptop screen. I had spoken to someone on the phone for work and during the conversation I discovered that they had grown up in the same small village as I did, at roughly the same time.

I rarely meet anyone who knows the place I’m from, never mind grew up there, so the coincidence floored me. I typed in my old postcode and dragged the cursor down the lane until it landed in front of the house. I could still see a garden ornament that we had left there and the garage my dad had built for himself.

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New to gardening? Here’s where to start

Has lockdown given you horticultural aspirations? Our gardening expert has some suggestions

I think some of you might be new round here. Until now, for those fortunate enough to have a garden, it has probably been used mostly on the warmest days: hanging out washing, a ballgame, perhaps an Easter egg hunt, and maybe not much more. But now it is your vital playground: it allows you to breathe, to look up and out, in these confined times.

What should you be doing with this space? The answer is gardening gently. Messy gardens are rich in habitats; all those rotting leaves and old twigs are someone else’s home. So rather than sweep it clean, it is more of a case of ordering it so that it’s a space for you and all the others.

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New to gardening? Here’s where to start

Has lockdown given you horticultural aspirations? Our gardening expert has some suggestions

I think some of you might be new round here. Until now, for those fortunate enough to have a garden, it has probably been used mostly on the warmest days: hanging out washing, a ballgame, perhaps an Easter egg hunt, and maybe not much more. But now it is your vital playground: it allows you to breathe, to look up and out, in these confined times.

What should you be doing with this space? The answer is gardening gently. Messy gardens are rich in habitats; all those rotting leaves and old twigs are someone else’s home. So rather than sweep it clean, it is more of a case of ordering it so that it’s a space for you and all the others.

Continue reading...

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Coronavirus: What the lockdown extension means for the property market Nottingham Estate Agents

The announcement that the coronavirus lockdown is to be extended means there is no immediate end in sight to the issues with which the property industry is currently wrestling. During the Government’s daily press conference on 16 April, Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab confirmed what had been widely expected – stringent social distancing measures in the […]

The post Coronavirus: What the lockdown extension means for the property market appeared first on OnTheMarket.com blog.

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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.

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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.

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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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