How to grow walnuts | Alys Fowler

A small tree, in a warm spot, will shower you with walnuts within five years – if the squirrels don’t get there first

Squirrels are bastards. How else can you explain every single walnut on the tree gnawed through to its bitter green husks, the unripe nut cracked open only for the thief to discover that the flavour is not to his liking. There is not much to salvage from such nibbled nuts in terms of eating, but the fleshy outer husks make an excellent dye that ranges from yellow to pinkish grey to deep brown, depending on the age of the husk and what fixer is used. It is easily extracted in water brought to the boil.

So, to the soundtrack of mocking squirrels, I picked up the spoiled nuts and cooked up a vast vat of dye. We may end up looking like medieval monks by the time I have finished dyeing all our faded white T-shirts, but I feel, at least, that I have honoured the harvest, for it has been a bumper year for walnuts.

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The house that cork built: is this the ultimate eco-friendly material?

Using cork to clad an extension – inside and out – was a speedy, sustainable and affordable choice for this family home

When Dan Barber and Hat Margolies bought a two-bed Victorian terrace house in 2013, the entire building needed an overhaul. It had leaky pipes, asbestos and rattling windows; and it needed rewiring, new radiators and a new boiler. Wind whistled through the front room floorboards. “The light and proportions made it really special but there were no original features – the fireplaces had long gone,” says Margolies, a photographic agent with an eye for vintage furniture.

But the couple saw it as a chance to make their new home, in south London, as eco-friendly as they could: to conserve energy, and recycle and reuse as much as possible. They lived with the house as it was for five years, during which time their second daughter was born, and then employed NimTim architects to transform it on a tight budget.

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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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How first-time buyers are working together to get their deposits

StepLadder is a type of savings club that could speed up your plans to buy a home – but there are risks

Mortgage for average first-time property needs income of £37,096

Mortgages: how to get a loan as lenders pull up the ladder

It can take years for many people to save up enough cash to get on the property ladder – so what if there was a way to dramatically cut the time it takes to raise a deposit, perhaps down to as little as a couple of months?

Such a scheme does exist in the UK. It is called StepLadder and it allows people to team up with other aspiring first-time buyers in a sort of savings club. Everyone regularly pays in the same amount and each month one member is picked at random and receives all of the cash in the pot, which could be the full amount they need for their deposit.

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Mortgage for average first-time property in Great Britain needs income of £37,096

Figures covering England, Scotland and Wales show problems of getting on housing ladder

• How to get a mortgage as lenders pull up the ladder
• First-time buyers work together to get their deposits

At first glance the housing market appears to be thriving: for sale signs are being replaced by sold signs more quickly than ever, estate agents are reporting a surge in the numbers of would-be buyers signing up and the prices properties are being listed at are continuing to climb.

Things may slow down as parts of the country go into lockdown and housing markets are effectively shut but record low interest rates combined with a stamp duty holiday are putting more money into the system.

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Mortgages: how to get a loan as lenders pull up the ladder

First-time buyers face significant hurdles and high interest rates in their search for a home

Mortgage for average first-time property needs income of £37,096

First-time buyers work together to get their deposits

The Bank of England is preparing for another interest rate cut, which would put already historically low rates into negative territory. But for first-time buyers, the reverse is true and mortgage rates are rising. To make matters worse, some lenders have introduced restrictions against mortgages on flats as they worry about price falls.

Before the coronavirus pandemic struck, loans for first-time buyers were plentiful, with many banks willing to advance as much as 95% of the purchase price and the best deals carrying an interest rate of only 2.6% a year.

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The Guardian view on the pleasures of autumn

It will be a difficult winter, but the natural world brings small, precious consolations

As different parts of the UK find themselves under varying degrees of restriction, as indoor pleasures dwindle for many, the outdoors may provide some shred of solace, some healing connection to nature. Impervious to human travails, autumn happens to be putting on a particularly spectacular extended show this year, thanks to a damp August and sunny September. In some parts of the UK acers, or Japanese maples, are now entering the period of their most vivid crimson pomp; Amelanchier lamarckii, or the juneberry, is shedding its delicate apricot autumn foliage to reveal its handsome dark branches; oaks are on the turn towards a warm yellow.

Observing this seasonal drama is called momijigari in Japan – or “leaf-peeping” – and the National Trust notes that the British are becoming more susceptible, at this time of crisis, to its pleasures. It is also a remarkable year for apples and honey-scented quinces – indeed, for fruit and berries of all kinds, from rowan and sloe to spindleberry and holly. For those lucky enough to have a garden, raking is now a seasonal task and ritual, the rich scent of rain on fallen leaves a small pleasure to be savoured. To plant daffodil bulbs and sweet pea seeds is to engage in small acts of optimism and expectation – it is to insist that there is something to look forward to.

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