Outside the box: a ‘room within a room’

An east London apartment has been turned into a family home by reconfiguring its compartmentalised floor plan

When Belgian architect Ewald Van Der Straeten discovered a flat for sale in east London’s Trevelyan House in 2012, he jumped at the chance to view it, and then put in an offer the very next day. “My big dream would have been to live in a Barbican apartment. I love the robust beauty of the concrete and the well-proportioned interiors,” he says. “It was pure luck that I found a flat in this building; it has many of the qualities I was seeking, which you just don’t find in the majority of new builds.”

Trevelyan House was built in 1958 by Sir Denys Lasdun, the British architect behind the National Theatre’s boldly Brutalist design. Lasdun devised the then radical idea of a butterfly plan, which saw the rear unit on each floor of this block of flats set at right angles to the other two, with a central core containing the stairs and lift. Not only did this improve the aspect of each apartment, it also negated the need for long access corridors and gave residents more privacy while maintaining a neighbourly atmosphere. Its “cluster block” design allowed for 24 new residences to be created on a relatively small Second World War bomb site in Bethnal Green, without disturbing the existing character of the street.

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Create a buzz: how to help save wild bees – even if you don’t have a garden

Balconies, doorsteps and window boxes can all be turned into wildlife havens. Kate Bradbury picks the plants and places to attract key species

Last year’s extreme weather meant a tough year for many of the UK’s bees, and conservationists are concerned that could have a knock-on effect this year and beyond. According to a report from the Bumblebee Conservation Trust, they could face long-term problems from future heatwaves. But we can give them a helping hand.

You don’t need to keep honeybees to help bees – in fact, a 2018 study commissioned by Cambridge University suggests that this can harm wild bees. It’s thought that the more bees there are in an area, the more competition there is for nectar and pollen; if every shopping centre has three or four hives on the roof, what does that mean for the wild bees?

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How to grow dianthus | Alys Fowler

Our gardening expert on pinks – the carnation’s heavenly scented cousin

I recently attempted to explain to my friend Lucy just how lovely dianthus can be, but her response was to remove them from her online shopping basket and go back to looking at alliums. I pleaded: “They smell heavenly. You will be picking them all summer long, little posies of ruffled blossoms all over your kitchen.” But that failed to move her.

I should have qualified the difference between a carnation – the unscented, unloved flower of forecourts, top heavy and not great for the garden (and a species of dianthus) – and a pink, which is a darling, compact, scented variety that is easy to grow. (The name comes not from the colour, but the frilly edges, as in pinking shears.)

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Gardening tips: plant tufted hairgrass

Plus: it’s time to thin out any hardy self-seeded annuals – then relax with a visit to the Great Dorset Plant Fair

Plant this Deschampsia cespitosa ‘Goldtau’, or tufted hairgrass, is a blond, airy perennial that stays helpfully compact, at about 80cm tall, and is evergreen to boot. It looks great with agastaches, rudbeckias and echinaceas, and will do well in full sun or partial shade.

Visit this Abbotsbury Subtropical Gardens in Dorset hosts the Great Dorset Plant Fair tomorrow: a chance to source rare and exotic plants. Enjoy the garden’s many treasures, including stunning coastal views and some seriously huge gunneras. Plus, you can bring your dog.

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Echiums: these sun-lovers make the perfect plant for warm climates

Dramatic and hardy, with sensational floral spikes, they deliver when the weather heats up

Britain’s deep-rooted love of gardening withered somewhat under last summer’s prolonged and record-breaking heatwave. Few could forget those six long weeks of absent rainfall, when gardeners nationwide rallied around gasping plants while everyone else headed for the beach. At the Garden Museum in London, where I’m head gardener, I despaired as hedges browned, ferns scorched and even our toughest perennials wilted. Thankfully, a wet winter had bolstered Thames Water’s reserves. A hosepipe ban would have been fatal for many plants. With the exception, that is, of one stalwart: tree echiums (Echium pininana), whose cheerful revelry amid such arid conditions lifted my spirits.

For more than a decade, nestled against a west-facing wall and baked in afternoon sunshine, tree echiums have regularly flowered and set seed in a quiet corner of the museum gardens. I’ve always been fond of their towering blue flower spikes, which lift magnificently from crowns of bristly, lanceolate leaves, but only last year came to appreciate their suitability for Britain’s warming climate. I believe their popularity will increase significantly in coming years. These plants deliver, both for the gardener – in ease of cultivation and floral splendour – and for struggling pollinators, too, more of which later.

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Create a buzz: how to help save wild bees – even if you don’t have a garden

Balconies, doorsteps and window boxes can all be turned into wildlife havens. Kate Bradbury picks the plants and places to attract key species

Last year’s extreme weather meant a tough year for many of the UK’s bees, and conservationists are concerned that could have a knock-on effect this year and beyond. According to a report from the Bumblebee Conservation Trust, they could face long-term problems from future heatwaves. But we can give them a helping hand.

You don’t need to keep honeybees to help bees – in fact, a 2018 study commissioned by Cambridge University suggests that this can harm wild bees. It’s thought that the more bees there are in an area, the more competition there is for nectar and pollen; if every shopping centre has three or four hives on the roof, what does that mean for the wild bees?

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How to grow dianthus | Alys Fowler

Our gardening expert on pinks – the carnation’s heavenly scented cousin

I recently attempted to explain to my friend Lucy just how lovely dianthus can be, but her response was to remove them from her online shopping basket and go back to looking at alliums. I pleaded: “They smell heavenly. You will be picking them all summer long, little posies of ruffled blossoms all over your kitchen.” But that failed to move her.

I should have qualified the difference between a carnation – the unscented, unloved flower of forecourts, top heavy and not great for the garden (and a species of dianthus) – and a pink, which is a darling, compact, scented variety that is easy to grow. (The name comes not from the colour, but the frilly edges, as in pinking shears.)

Continue reading...

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