Spray with a taste deterrent to keep the animals away.
* This article was originally published here
Tuesday, May 31, 2022
Monday, May 30, 2022
‘File fashion’: how to organise your wardrobe to make getting dressed easier
A well-organised wardrobe saves time and stress when getting dressed, and can help cut down on dry-cleaning bills and time spent ironing too
- Check the closet clinic for more help caring for your clothes
- Get our weekend culture and lifestyle email and listen to our podcast
The fantasy of opening your wardrobe to find neat rows of colour-coded shirts, jackets and pants is pretty universal. In fact, in two separate, strange fashion jobs I’ve been paid by a superior to organise theirs.
The process usually starts with a cleanout, as any kind of organisation is aided by space. What follows can be more complicated.
Continue reading...* This article was originally published here
Sunday, May 29, 2022
How hybrid plants can be the best of both worlds | James Wong on gardens
Their vigour can give brighter, tougher bulbs
* This article was originally published here
Watching the last of the spring-flowering bulbs just start to slip away is always a moment slightly tinged with sadness for me. Yet, as with most things in gardening, their departure is also a reminder of the ideal time to get planting the next wave of bulbs, so you can keep the party going until the late autumn. And the best thing is that, in recent years, there have been a whole new group of varieties made available thanks to clever breeding, which have given us even more to play with: the amarines.
There’s a curious phenomenon in biology called “hybrid vigour”, where the offspring from the crossing of two different species are often larger, faster-growing and more resistant than either of their parents. This is particularly the case when the marriage is between two comparatively distantly related plants, belonging not just to different species, but totally different genera. So when I read that ingenious plant breeders had managed to cross the two autumn bulbs nerine and amaryllis to create a previously impossible intergeneric hybrid called “amarine” I knew we were likely on to a good thing – and after testing a few out I was simply blown away.
Continue reading...* This article was originally published here
Saturday, May 28, 2022
‘Outside space? That’s the beach’: restoring a 300-year-old fishing cottage
A once-neglected Georgian property in Deal, Kent, has been brought back to life with care, colour and modern design touches
It wasn’t Deal’s beach or pretty back streets that made Miria and Tom Harris want to buy a home there, but the Kent town’s butcher, fishmonger and deli.
“We’d been looking for ages, mostly around Whitstable, but nothing felt right,” says Miria, a garden designer. But she knew the specialist food shops would be important to her chef-restaurateur husband. A bunch of virtual viewings later, they came upon a tiny, Georgian fisherman’s cottage in Deal’s old town, between the beach and the high street with its independent shops.
Continue reading...* This article was originally published here
Friday, May 27, 2022
Coming soon.....!
Hello everyone,
I hope you are all doing well.
There is lots going on here this
summer but one of the biggest
changes is that a blog friend from
California is living in our house for
the summer. I met Barbara and her
family a couple of times as they came
to tour our garden. It seems Barbara
and I are kindred spirits as we both
love gardening, pretty china,tea times,
and of course Prince
* This article was originally published here
* This article was originally published here
Thursday, May 26, 2022
Choosing new lighting? Expert Asher Kohring offered readers advice
Asher Kohring of Shades of Light joined Jura Koncius to take questions about choosing the right lighting for your home.
* This article was originally published here
* This article was originally published here
Wednesday, May 25, 2022
Two years after my mum’s death, flowers have become a portal to her | Chitra Ramaswamy
In my childhood memories my mum is hitching up her sari to snip a cutting from a stranger’s garden, or watching Gardeners World. Now crocuses, tulips and daisies are my portal to her
It was springtime, two years ago, and my mum was dying. The crocuses bordering the paths of my local park were in full bloom and every day the plucky sprays of purple, yellow and white seemed to inch further skywards. How thoughtless their ascent looked. How perilously close spring suddenly seemed to winter.
I had just rushed back to Edinburgh as the country was going into lockdown, and by country I mean the nation, not its leaders. In London, my mum lay in the hospital where she once worked as a cytology screener, assisted by machines and some mighty inner force that for a few hallucinatory weeks seemed to rise up in her. My mum, who in my childhood memories was usually found hitching up her sari to snip a cutting from a stranger’s garden. My mum, who was finally dying of the breast cancer she had been so valiantly facing for years.
Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a letter of up to 300 words to be considered for publication, email it to us at guardian.letters@theguardian.com
* This article was originally published here
Tuesday, May 24, 2022
Beaver-themed rewilding garden wins Chelsea flower show top prize
Unconventional garden by Lulu Urquhart and Adam Hunt features a dam and sticks pre-gnawed by beavers
A garden with hardly a bloom in sight and inspired by the dramatic transformation of land through the reintroduction of beavers to the UK has won best in show at the Chelsea flower show.
The garden – A Rewilding Britain Landscape by first-time Chelsea designers Lulu Urquhart and Adam Hunt – may lack eye-catching flowers but features a beaver dam, a pool with a lodge behind it, a shabby shed with corrugated iron roof and UK native plants.
Continue reading...* This article was originally published here
Monday, May 23, 2022
Sunday, May 22, 2022
Outside the box: creative solutions in a London flat
Resin tables, chip shop counters, a bathtub in the office… Meet the architect whose flat is a laboratory of bright ideas
When Alex Holloway first watched the Verve’s music video for their 1997 Lucky Man single, he found his attention wandering from the guitar-strumming, Mod-mopped lead singer to the interior. The location was a quintessentially 90s industrial-style apartment designed by Richard Rogers. But it was not the floating staircase or steel-framed windows that piqued the future interior architect’s imagination. It was the kitchen. The surfaces were made from that dimpled stainless steel you usually find in your local chippy. To the sci-fi-loving teenager Holloway, who also spent a lot of time “hanging around fast food outlets”, it was just the thing: futuristic, urban and cool.
“It proved you can elevate the most basic material if you design it well,” says Holloway, who co-founded his architecture and interiors practice, Holloway Li, with architect Na Li in 2015. “I decided that if I could ever afford my own flat, I’d use it for my kitchen.”
Continue reading...* This article was originally published here
Saturday, May 21, 2022
Spring Around our Pond
Hello everyone,
We have had some beautiful sunny
days here on the Island so nature
is putting on a good show.
I love all the fresh green colors
of the new growth.
It was a beautiful calm sunny evening
so I love the reflection in the pond.
Our little Boathouse is a
sweet little escape .
The serviceberry trees are in full
bloom now.They grow wild around
the pond,ditches etc.
Relax
* This article was originally published here
* This article was originally published here
Friday, May 20, 2022
Wellbeing secrets from the Chelsea flower show
Some of the biggest gardens at this year’s show explore the theme of mental health. From tactile walls to busy bees, here’s how they are creating green sanctuaries
As one of the biggest and most influential garden shows on the planet, the RHS Chelsea flower show is a barometer of shifting trends within horticulture. It is no surprise, then, that many gardens at next week’s show – the first spring Chelsea since Covid – explores the theme of mental health. The positive effects of gardening on our wellbeing have long been recognised – as early as the sixth century, Benedictine monks viewed horticulture as grounding the mind – but in the past few years, this connection has come into sharper focus.
Across the anxious lockdown months of 2020, it is estimated that three million new gardeners took to the trowel; healthcare-associated gardens like Maggie’s and Horatio’s are multiplying, while the NHS has recognised the restorative power of “green social prescribing” initiatives, connecting patients with hands-on gardening opportunities.
Continue reading...* This article was originally published here
Thursday, May 19, 2022
SOUTHEASTERN SHOWHOUSE 2022
Well it appears that I am a liar. I did say that I would post sooner but then all kinds of stuff happened and well.....my brain got tired.
Stuff like Social Security, mortgages, medicare, Homestead exemptions.....and the list goes on. Every phone call to handle that kind of stuff takes about 2-3 hours and Lord....it's exhausting.
You need a glass of wine after each one...:)
Anyway....
* This article was originally published here
* This article was originally published here
Wednesday, May 18, 2022
Hello everyone,
I hope you are doing well.
Spring is marching right along
here so it is now cottage season
as well as garden season.
We made a few small changes in
the cottage this year and we
have hosted a family gathering
here on the weekend.
I bought a new rug at Homesense
for the cottage and
* This article was originally published here
* This article was originally published here
Tuesday, May 17, 2022
10 DIY Sharpie Crafts For The Kitchen
These Sharpie pen crafts are perfect for the kitchen from crockery mugs to kitchen decor. All of these handmade crafts use Sharpie pens to create inexpensive DIY decor for your kitchen. Use store-bought plates and bowls to create hand-designed crockery. white plates and mugs can be bought in any discount store or online. Add a sharpie and add some style to your kitchen decor.
So which sharpie pen should you use for which surface and how do you make it stick to that surface? Here are my top tips for using Sharpie pens in DIY Crafts.
Fabric
Sharpies require heat to set them into the fabric. Either place the item in the dryer for 15 – 20 minutes on high heat or use an iron. The iron should be on the highest setting; iron for five minutes on both sides with the steam turned off. The key is heat. I always use some baking paper or freezer paper between the design and my iron to protect my iron.
Sharpie does make fade-resistant fabric markers 
Ceramic
I 100% prefer an oil-based sharpie
Metal and Glass
Use a can of clear acrylic sealer
Plastic
Plastic is shiny and hard for a pen to grab onto it. You can make the surface more “grabbable” by Sanding it with 120-grit sandpaper
Sharpie Pen Project – Coffee Cup Love — CraftBits.com
return on creativity: sharpie bag
Sharpie Valentine’s Day Mug — CraftBits.com
Easy DIY Coasters with Sharpies and Alcohol! – Jessica Welling Interiors
DIY Sharpie French Label Towel – Great Gift Idea! – Setting for Four
DIY Sharpie Dinnerware – The Sweetest Occasion
Sharpie® Your Season: Permanent Marker Embellished Dishes –
* This article was originally published here
Monday, May 16, 2022
How to get rid of drain flies
To get rid of the larvae, either clean the drain out or use a product designed to control drain flies — multiple times.
* This article was originally published here
* This article was originally published here
Sunday, May 15, 2022
Factory settings: how an old steel plant was polished up
A dilapidated steel faactory in Holland is working again – this time as a glorious family home
Morning is Yasmina van den Oetelaar’s favourite time of day. It is when she sits in her garden, reads a book and breathes in the calm of her courtyard oasis while taking in the sweep of her industrial-style home. There is little inkling that on the other side of the front door, you step straight into the thrum of the city centre of Tilburg, in the south of the Netherlands. It’s an unlikely oasis, yet moving to the heart of the city where her husband, Maicol, spent his childhood was exactly where they sought to embrace urban life after their daughter, Vivian, had grown up.
Not that their home was easy to find – or in its current incarnation, even existed. When they started their search, they mostly found houses that were either too expensive, too tall, too narrow or spread over too many floors.
Continue reading...* This article was originally published here
Saturday, May 14, 2022
Leaf or romaine: how to make your salad days last all year long
With careful sowing and picking, your salad can last through the winter
The humble lettuce, stalwart of sandwiches, side salads and much more, is easily overlooked as a serious ingredient, but there is a gulf of difference between a buttery, sweet, tender leaf and one that is bitter from poor growing. Timing is important: if you hit the sowing windows at the right point, you don’t need to sow a great amount. For my household of two, both of whom love lettuce, we need 10 full-grown plants to pick from at any given time of year. For a family of four, where salads are serious business, I would grow between 15 and 20 plants.
Rather than harvesting a whole head of lettuce, though, you should remove only the lower, mature leaves, taking up to only three leaves per plant in any one picking. If you grow them in this way, it is possible to start picking once the plants are six weeks old and continue for about 14 weeks before the plant is exhausted. To pick whole heads, it’s best to wait until the 10-week mark, so you’d need to sow roughly double the amount of seed to get the same harvest as from picking individual leaves.
Continue reading...* This article was originally published here
Friday, May 13, 2022
‘Pee for the peonies’: researchers say urine fertilizers encourage blooms – and there’s never a shortage
But environmental engineering professors Nancy Love and Krista Wigginton ask garden visitors not to drop their drawers
A pair of University of Michigan researchers are putting the “pee” in peony. Rather, they’re putting pee on the vivid spring blooms.
Environmental engineering professors Nancy Love and Krista Wigginton are regular visitors to the Ann Arbor school’s Nichols arboretum, where they have been applying urine-based fertilizer to the heirloom peony beds ahead of the flowers’ annual spring bloom.
Continue reading...* This article was originally published here
Thursday, May 12, 2022
Houzz’s Mitchell Parker answered questions on bathroom makeovers
Mitchell Parker, senior editor at Houzz, and Jura Koncius took questions about bathrooms, including how to get that spa feeling at home.
* This article was originally published here
* This article was originally published here
Tuesday, May 10, 2022
7 tricks to update an unfinished basement on a budget
Tips for painting the floors, covering the walls and other budget-friendly updates you can make to an unfinished basement.
* This article was originally published here
* This article was originally published here
Monday, May 9, 2022
How to remove gummy buildup from wood furniture
Paint thinner or oil soap might do the job — or you might have to use something stronger.
* This article was originally published here
* This article was originally published here
Sunday, May 8, 2022
Greenhouse effect: Palms and lavender replace hollyhocks in British gardens
As the climate warms, gardeners are opting for non-native, drought-resistant plants that like it hot
Roses, hollyhocks and an immaculate green lawn have always exemplified a typical British garden in summer. But now, as gardeners look forward to a mini-heatwave this month, demand for heat-loving and drought-resistant plants has never been higher in the UK.
From grapevines and tropical banana plants to exotic palm trees, hibiscus, lavender and hardy succulents, gardeners are snapping up non-native flora that can survive – and even thrive – in Britain’s warming climate.
Continue reading...* This article was originally published here
Saturday, May 7, 2022
Garden tools: the essentials you need to get growing
Smart ways to ditch specialist gadgets and replace them with more economical gear
There are as many tools filling garden centre aisles as there are jobs to do on your plot. But just as in the kitchen you could ditch a dozen specialist slicing-and-dicing gadgets and replace them with one decent knife, so, too, in the garden you can get by with a minimal amount of versatile gear. And while it is generally sensible to buy the best tools that you can afford, preparing to grow your own need not be costly.
Continue reading...* This article was originally published here
Friday, May 6, 2022
The Guardian view on guerrilla gardening: go forth and grow | Editorial
Requiring councils to list neglected public land on which to plant fruit and vegetables would be a good thing
The weakening of the human connection to nature might be good for economic growth but is bad for people. A tipping point was reached in 2020 when human-made materials – such as steel, concrete and plastic – were found to weigh more than all life on Earth. Continuing to grow concrete forests rather than real ones is shortsighted. Simply being in the nearest wood, with attention and sensory intent, has such health benefits that the Woodland Trust successfully lobbied for it to be prescribed by doctors.
Yet slipping from popular culture is the wonder and beauty of the natural world. For every three nature-related words in hit songs of the 1950s, researchers found, there was only slightly more than one 50 years later. It is not a moment too soon that teenagers will be able to take a natural history GCSE, given that for decades children have been able to name more video game characters than wildlife species. In 2017, polls suggested that a third of young children thought cheese came from plants.
Continue reading...* This article was originally published here
Thursday, May 5, 2022
Muck in to help nesting birds during UK heatwave, says RSPB
People urged to leave out mud pies and dishes of fresh water for migrating birds as temperatures rise
The RSPB is urging the public to get their hands dirty this weekend and create mud pies to help endangered birds such as house martins, swifts and swallows get enough sludge to build their nests.
A nine-day mini-heatwave is hitting the UK, which coincides with the return of migratory birds here to breed. Many of these birds have flown thousands of miles on their journey. But conservationists are concerned that the ground is getting so hard it could stop them from being able to make their nests.
Continue reading...* This article was originally published here
Tuesday, May 3, 2022
20+ Last Minute Cricut Milestone Crafts For A Baby Gift
This roundup of craft projects is for making your own Milestone baby Gifts using a Cricut or similar cutting machine and Iron on Heat Transfer vinyl. These 20 Cricut craft tutorials all show you different styles and techniques for creating keepsake memory gifts to gift to loved ones and family who may be expecting a baby.
I have included some video tutorials also for those of you who prefer an audio guide to assist you in using the Cricut maker. Don’t have a Cricut machine? You can buy Milestone blankets ready made here.
DIY Milestone Blanket for Baby (& How to Layer Iron-On Vinyl) – Jennifer Maker
DIY Baby Milestone Blanket Tutorial – Clarks Condensed
DIY Monthly Milestone Baby Blanket using Iron On Vinyl – seeLINDSAY
Milestone Blanket tutorial plus FREE CUT FILES | Cricut Vinyl Tutorial
Free SVG: Baby Milestone Acrylic Rounds
Wooden Baby Milestone Discs using Cricut and Iron On/HTV (Australian Suppliers)
Hand Lettered Baby Monthly Milestones
Print and Cut your Own Baby Milestone and Month Stickers with picmonkey
ACRYLIC MONTHLY MILESTONE DISCS CRICUT
How To Make Acrylic Month Milestones with Vinyl and Cricut
DIY Month by Month Baby Onesies – Cricut
Milestone Baby Blanket with Sublimation
Milestone Blocks for Babies: EASY DIY * Moms and Crafters
Cricut: How to Make a Baby Milestone Banner | Hobbycraft
How to make a Peter Rabbit Baby Milestone Card with Cricut
How to Make Wood Blocks with a Cricut | Cricut Nursery Decor
DIY Baby age blocks / Baby shower gift idea
DIY First Birthday Milestone Board using Cricut | Tutorial for BEGINNERS
Looking for HTV or Heat transfer vinyl? Check out HTVront our favorite supplier with quick shipping for those urgent projects
* This article was originally published here
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)