'Imagine using liquid water': why people water their house plants with ice cubes

Often touted as an easy solution to overwatering, the practice of placing ice cubes in orchids has become a ‘comedy horticultural moment’

One piece of houseplant folklore resurfaces from time to time: that we should water our plants with ice cubes.

For years everything from Reader’s Digest to Reddit offered up ice cubes as the trick to keeping potted friends alive. Recently the theory has returned thanks to a pair of meme pages.

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Truly, madly, deeply: meet the people turning their basements into secret fantasy worlds

It’s one thing turning your basement into a wine cellar, but some people are building replica streets, theme parks and even trains beneath their homes

When Jason Shron and his wife, Sidura, were house hunting in 2007, the Canadian model-train-seller would always head to the basement before viewing any other room. In fact, Shron had only viewed the basement of his current family home when he told his estate agent he’d purchase the property: provided Sidura liked the upstairs, he was ready to go. Shron needed the perfect basement because, for nearly 30 years, he had dreamed of building a life-size replica of a 1970s Canadian VIA Rail railway carriage inside his house, the exact train that took him from Toronto to Montreal to visit his grandmother when he was a little boy.

Step inside Shron’s basement today and you will be greeted by a 200lb blue-and-yellow train door. As you pass through it, an MP3 player will hiss the sounds of air circulation accompanied by the squeaking of gangway connections. Inside the carriage there are rows of vintage reclinable red-and-orange-striped seats, luggage racks, a real VIA garbage can removed from a scrapped train and a metal sign instructing passengers that smoking is indeed permitted. What Shron couldn’t find on the scrap heap, he made. He printed out orange litter bags, custom-printed napkins and engraved wine glasses.

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Three easy ways to ripen your tomatoes

They think they are still in the tropical Andean highlands, you have to talk them out of it

Ever since I can remember, I have had a passion for growing tomatoes. The diversity of colours and flavours of their fruit, the delicate ferny foliage of the young plants, even the resinous, green smell of the leaves, all bring me joy. However, there is one thing about these plants that is a constant source of frustration, particularly at this time of year: their infuriatingly slow ripening. As we edge towards the end of the growing season, here are a few tips and tricks to speed up their maturity.

Gardeners need to step in and stage a horticultural intervention to stop the self-destructive behaviour

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Three easy ways to ripen your tomatoes

They think they are still in the tropical Andean highlands, you have to talk them out of it

Ever since I can remember, I have had a passion for growing tomatoes. The diversity of colours and flavours of their fruit, the delicate ferny foliage of the young plants, even the resinous, green smell of the leaves, all bring me joy. However, there is one thing about these plants that is a constant source of frustration, particularly at this time of year: their infuriatingly slow ripening. As we edge towards the end of the growing season, here are a few tips and tricks to speed up their maturity.

Gardeners need to step in and stage a horticultural intervention to stop the self-destructive behaviour

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Truly, madly, deeply: meet the people turning their basements into secret fantasy worlds

It’s one thing turning your basement into a wine cellar, but some people are building replica streets, theme parks and even trains beneath their homes

When Jason Shron and his wife, Sidura, were house hunting in 2007, the Canadian model-train-seller would always head to the basement before viewing any other room. In fact, Shron had only viewed the basement of his current family home when he told his estate agent he’d purchase the property: provided Sidura liked the upstairs, he was ready to go. Shron needed the perfect basement because, for nearly 30 years, he had dreamed of building a life-size replica of a 1970s Canadian VIA Rail railway carriage inside his house, the exact train that took him from Toronto to Montreal to visit his grandmother when he was a little boy.

Step inside Shron’s basement today and you will be greeted by a 200lb blue-and-yellow train door. As you pass through it, an MP3 player will hiss the sounds of air circulation accompanied by the squeaking of gangway connections. Inside the carriage there are rows of vintage reclinable red-and-orange-striped seats, luggage racks, a real VIA garbage can removed from a scrapped train and a metal sign instructing passengers that smoking is indeed permitted. What Shron couldn’t find on the scrap heap, he made. He printed out orange litter bags, custom-printed napkins and engraved wine glasses.

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Nine top tips for renting a property Nottingham Estate Agents

The private rented sector of the UK property market has grown dramatically since the late 1990s and the growth is predicted to continue. OnTheMarket’s renting guide Private rentals accounted for 4.7 million or 20% of households in England in 2016/17, more than doubling in number since 2002 (Ministry of Housing, Communities & Local Government, July 2018). […]

The post Nine top tips for renting a property appeared first on OnTheMarket.com blog.

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A last-minute planting spree to hold back the tide of autumn

There’s still time to make things grow! Just not very much of it

So, the plot is finally cleared and ready-ish for autumn. I resisted as long as I could – for which read the fag-end of July. I had become obsessed with summer’s almost feral growth. Left to its devices while I was away, it had a sprawling, falling beauty. But I needed room for two trays of Italian chicories (many more than 60 plants, ie, more than anyone would eat). Without action, the sprawl would soon die off and summer’s end would also mean the end of our growing year.

I restocked one set of the pea poles with beans and peas (hedging my bets). The other I trained with climbing nasturtium. I let the orache spike though and topped it with a giant bunch of cut coriander for the seeds to dry. We planted late corn. I went around on early mornings obsessively filling in the gaps in my new, more ordered, more elegant space. I ordered new seed: ‘Fordhook Giant’, a heritage, thick-stemmed Swiss chard, adding ruby chard and a red pak choi (there wasn’t room, but I find it hard to break bad habits), land cress, more chicory, corn salad. I sowed more calendula and nasturtium, telling myself they would get ahead for spring if they didn’t flower now (nonsensical, of course). I scattered more red burgundy amaranth seed, because why not? I knew I was likely too late. The light was already weaker in my early mornings. Dew and an occasional coolness spurred me ever on. I was a King Canute of growing, holding back the autumn tide.

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