RHS asks for gardeners’ successes and failures to plan for changing climate

Charity wants to know how climate crisis is affecting plants and what UK gardeners are doing to mitigate effects

Most gardeners love nothing more than the chance to chat about what has worked and what hasn’t in their flowerbeds this year.

So the latest callout from the Royal Horticultural Society will be music to their ears; the RHS is asking for information about what flowered for ages, what loved being waterlogged and how plants did on the occasional hot day, so that they can draw up a plan for how to keep gardening alive during the climate crisis.

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Life in the fast lane for snails this year | Brief letters

Year of the snail | Poetic pylons | Hilary Mantel | Poo bag premium | Difficult decisions

While it’s so sad to hear about the decline in the number of butterflies, partly due to the wet spring weather (‘Warning sign to us all’ as UK butterfly numbers hit record low, 29 July), I have declared it “the year of the snail”, as the population of these creatures seems to have exploded this year, with no birds such as the song thrush around to eat them.
Sheila Preston
Shoreham-by-Sea, West Sussex

• Sue Moser’s letter (Pylons can be pretty if you use your imagination, 29 July) made me recall Stephen Spender’s poem The Pylons. In it, Spender refers to pylons as being symbolic of the impact of change and industrialisation, and describes them as being “like nude giant girls that have no secret”.
Norma Postin
Rugby, Warwickshire

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Blackcurrant jam, a sharply sweet reminder of a life well lived

The summerhouse is bursting with fruit – and much of it has made it into jars, a preserve made to preserve a memory

There are 15 jars of jam from the summerhouse blackcurrant bushes. Half a day’s work. There has never been so much fruit here. A large bowl of redcurrants waits on Henri’s decision on what best to do with them. More jam most likely.

Henri’s mother, Ina, was the queen of blackcurrant jam, sharp and just sweet enough – the preserve not her. We bought another bush in her memory. How to mark the passing of a mother. Jam-making as meditation.

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In the picture: a vibrant art-filled home in Chicago

Blue walls, green ceilings… Inside the colourful home of a creative couple

Danielle Taylor, an Illinois native, moved into her top-floor Chicago apartment in 2020. When she and her then boyfriend, writer-director Curtis Taylor Jr, saw the building, it reminded them of something out of a Harry Potter film. Period features recalled Old Chicago with crown mouldings, hardwood doors and a quaint foyer exuding charm. “The apartment has beautiful bay windows, a spacious floor plan and plenty of natural light,” explains Danielle, a sustainability marketing executive. “There were built-in bookshelves and an archway separating the small galley kitchen and the dining area.” A combination of interesting elements made it feel magical, propelling the couple to secure the lease.

The building is in Hyde Park, which is a historically black neighbourhood in Chicago that’s become increasingly diverse. Despite being only an hour away from where Danielle was raised, it was a world apart. “I grew up in a predominantly white neighbourhood and when I moved here, I wanted to immerse myself in black culture.” It’s where Curtis co-owned a concept store called The Greens, which Danielle managed. It also doubled up as an art curation space, where they hosted exhibitions and talks and built up relationships with artists.

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How do I clean a flat-screen TV covered with fingerprints?

Microfiber cloths, distilled water, a light touch and other keys to cleaning screens without damaging them.

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The lawyer who fights for people’s right to grow ‘weeds’

She used to enforce local weed ordinances. Now she helps native plant enthusiasts combat them.

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The cardboard Olympic beds aren’t ‘anti-sex.’ But are they comfy?

The cardboard beds in the Paris Olympic Village are touted as both sustainable and recyclable. But do athletes like them?

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BEFORE AND AFTER LAKE HOUSE

I have no idea where I left off.....it has certainly been a while :) But let us not harp on my faults and get going on what I have been up to! I think I have another post on the lake house to show you.....as I have said these clients downsized and then bought a lake house so much of the furniture that did not fit in the smaller home came with them. My job was to blend it and give it a

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What a display: a floral designer’s home in Copenhagen

A Danish family home that uses colour in dramatic and inspiring ways

The first thing you notice in the Copenhagen home of designer Thilde Maria Haukohl Kristensen are flowers. They are everywhere, sometimes emerging from corners, sometimes dominating a room, but always present.

Thilde’s passion for flowers came from her grandmother, who introduced her to the world of flora. Now it is her job as well as her passion. “Flowers create joy,” she says. “They connect us to the nature we are a part of and which you can often forget about when you live in the middle of a city. At home, I use flowers to enhance the atmosphere in each room. They are small emotional enhancers that add their own magic.”

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* This article was originally published here

* This article was originally published here

What a display: a floral designer’s home in Copenhagen

A Danish family home that uses colour in dramatic and inspiring ways

The first thing you notice in the Copenhagen home of designer Thilde Maria Haukohl Kristensen are flowers. They are everywhere, sometimes emerging from corners, sometimes dominating a room, but always present.

Thilde’s passion for flowers came from her grandmother, who introduced her to the world of flora. Now it is her job as well as her passion. “Flowers create joy,” she says. “They connect us to the nature we are a part of and which you can often forget about when you live in the middle of a city. At home, I use flowers to enhance the atmosphere in each room. They are small emotional enhancers that add their own magic.”

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* This article was originally published here

‘They’ve been something else this year’: slugs wreak havoc on UK gardens

Mild and moist spring and cool start to summer have created ideal conditions for the molluscs to thrive

There are about 150 species of slimy molluscs in the UK and while not all of them have a taste for plants, the wet weather conditions in spring and summer has led to slugs causing havoc in gardens, balconies and fields across Britain.

Social media has been inundated with people complaining about the amount of slugs cropping up in their green spaces, and desperate for tips on how to get rid of them.

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How to filter microplastics from tap water

How renters can filter their water for microplastics.

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Black flowers, sad statues: Gardens are going goth

Some gardeners are embracing a gloomier vibe in their outdoor spaces.

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How to (gently) talk to aging parents about downsizing and decluttering

It can feel insensitive — and even morbid — but there are tactful ways to start the process.

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‘You travel five million years a metre’: inside the Natural History Museum’s mind-boggling new garden

It has giddying cliffs, three-billion-year-old rocks, a prehistoric forest – and a giant bronze dinosaur called Fern. Our writer hurtles back through millennia as the beloved museum’s five-year revamp comes to fruition

Queueing for three billion years might sound like an ordeal, but the Natural History Museum has made it a thrill. When the daily stampede of visitors in their thousands now exits the pedestrian tunnel connecting South Kensington station to the grand London institution, they will embark on a journey of several aeons.

“We want to get people to walk through geological time,” says Dr Paul Kenrick, lead scientist for the museum’s new evolution garden. He is standing at the tunnel exit, where two cliff faces of rock sheer up on either side of a ramp, forming a rugged canyon of stacked strata. It looks like the result of a violent tectonic rupture: the rocky walls shoot forcefully outwards, as if fissured from the depths of the Earth, framing views of a prehistoric forest of ferns beyond.

The journey begins with Lewisian gneiss, the oldest, hardest rock in the country. Formed around three billion years ago, it was hauled here from the Outer Hebrides, where the blocks had been lying as leftovers from building a causeway. Next come hefty slabs of pink Torridonian sandstone, then greenish Cambrian quartzite and purple Welsh heather slate, as visitors progress up through the sloping gulley of geological history. “You travel five million years every metre,” adds Kenrick. “Although, to be true to scale, the Precambrian period should start half a mile down the road.”

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7 green paint colors that pro designers love

These handsome hues bring a whiff of nature indoors.

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‘A home should be a living composition, like a garden or painting’: an artist’s home in Antwerp

An unappreciated ‘hodgepodge’ of a building in Belgium has been opened up into a spacious and unusual home

For Belgian painter Nils Verkaeren, a home of his own wasn’t strictly necessary. He could just as easily live as a nomad. “In 2002, I didn’t have an official address. I traded two landscape paintings for a Renault Twingo and set off into the wild. I found it quite easy to have nothing. But owning a home also has its charm.”

But his partner, Eva Wuytjens, needed a place where she felt at home. At first, somewhere in the countryside was their instinct: a logical decision, given that Eva grew up in the country and Nils creates vibrant landscape paintings, preferably in the open air. But also illogical, given their hunger for urban stimuli. “So we decided to search for a home in Antwerp instead,” says Eva. “When we visited this house, right in the city centre, we spontaneously began renovating it in our minds. I understand why many potential buyers backed out: it was a bit of an odd thing. You had to be able to see through the hodgepodge of extensions. The house was divided into numerous small rooms. Additionally, its circulation was not logical at all. You had to walk through various dark spaces before reaching the living areas.”

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Is your lamp the right size? There’s an equation for that.

You don’t need to be a math whiz to choose a lamp. You just need to consider function and know a bit about proportion.

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How can I clean flat paint without damaging the finish?

Flat paint is cheaper and better at hiding uneven surfaces than its glossier counterparts. But it can be a bear to clean.

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She manages the opera’s costumes — and has excellent laundry tips

After 36 years at the Washington National Opera, almost no one knows how to handle delicates like Marsha LeBoeuf.

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Do landlords have to provide AC? Here’s what renters should know.

If you’re sweating it out sans air conditioning, your landlord may be required to help.

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What to do if your landlord raises your rent

Amid housing shortages and soaring rents, it can feel like you have zero leverage. But that may not be true, especially if you’ve been a model tenant so far.

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Sustainability and green spaces should be housing priorities | Letters

Neil Blackshaw on the importance of infrastructure, Kate Ashbrook on how to secure green space, and Debbie Cameron on her treasured family garden

Even with a sophisticated planning system, we have never been able to reconcile a natural desire for green space and the reality of urban living (Editorial, 4 July). Development and construction drive carbon production. The last 14 years have seen the development of car-dependent housing estates euphemistically called “garden communities”, which will create unsustainability for years. Garden cities didn’t achieve the balance demanded now by the climate crisis and neither did new towns. We need a reimagined paradigm to meet demand for homes.

Fifty years ago, Leslie Martin and Lionel March published research showing how low-rise, medium densities could accommodate houses along with land for schools and open space. These models have never been absorbed into planning policy or architectural practice.

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Harvest gold and a chance to mooch on the plot

July brings some high summer crops to savour

Here we are, the halfway point, the warmest months of the year. Time to harvest, to water, to even – whisper it – begin to think about autumn. This is the month, though, to bring home food and flowers you’ve grown.

You can start to harvest carrots (one of the great gardener treats), salad and other leaves, the beets and beans. You should have time, too, to resow some of these, though not in the same place, please.

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House of curiosities: at home with Ron Arad

Inside the north London house of the man who transformed British design

I had an idea of London inside my head from English films. Every film made in London was art, but from Hollywood it was junk. I was an arrogant teen!” says a smiling Ron Arad of his decision to leave Tel Aviv and move to London in 1973, at the age of 22.

Arad, who studied architecture, under pressure from his mother, at the Architectural Association school in London, is sporting his trademark round felt hat. He is sitting on a curvaceous Victoria & Albert crimson sofa, one of his own pieces, created for the Italian furniture brand Moroso, in the conservatory of his north London home. Along with his wife, Alma, who works as a psychologist, they have lived here for more than 30 years, raising their daughters, Lail and Dara, who both live nearby.

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Don’t wash your brushes in the sink and other painting cleanup tips

Latex paint contains plastics that could clog sewer systems and pollute waterways. Here’s how to safely clean your equipment.

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The Guardian view on gardens: needed for council homes, not just stately homes | Editorial

Previous generations built substantial amounts of local authority housing with gardens. We should learn from their example

To see one of the greatest challenges facing the next prime minister, head down the A13 to Dagenham. Just off the dual carriageway lies something remarkable: the world’s first and arguably still largest public housing estate. Spanning 4 sq miles, Becontree comprised 24,000 homes and housed 120,000 people. Begun just over a century ago as part of Lloyd George’s homes for heroes, it is proof of what a battered, heavily indebted government can do – if it has the drive.

The 1920s and 30s saw one of the greatest building booms in British history. This was the era of train stations advancing over Metroland, of the giant Wythenshawe development in Manchester. Cottage estates such as Becontree are now dismissed as humdrum, but to families escaping the poverty-stricken East End, these modest homes would have marked a golden opportunity. And they came with gardens. As the outgoing local MP, Jon Cruddas, observes, if the Americans had built something as grand in scope and scale as Becontree, “you’d never hear the end of it”.

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Wimbledon gardeners reuse coffee grounds in sustainability bid

More plans afoot for compostable food use, says head gardener, as tournament commits to wildlife ‘net gain’ by 2030

Rain or shine – usually more of the former – Wimbledon’s stunning floral displays always manage to dazzle.

For those hoping to give their gardens an SW19-inspired transformation, the tournament’s secret has finally been revealed: coffee grounds from the staff room.

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10 DIY Corner Desks You Can Make Yourself

A corner desk is a great addition to any home or office, providing a functional workspace without taking up too much floor space. However, store-bought corner desks can often be expensive and lack the personal touch that comes with a DIY project. That’s why we’ve gathered a roundup of 10 DIY corner desk ideas that you can make yourself with just a few basic tools and some creativity.

Making your own corner desk is a great way to save money and create a custom piece of furniture that perfectly fits your space and style. With the right tools and materials, you can create a desk that’s both functional and beautiful.

To start your DIY corner desk project, you’ll need a few basic tools including a saw, drill, screws, wood glue, sandpaper, and a measuring tape. Depending on the design of your desk, you may also need additional tools such as a jigsaw, router, or circular saw.

Before you begin, it’s important to measure the space where you’ll be placing your corner desk to ensure that it fits properly. You’ll also want to consider the style and design of the desk, as well as any additional features such as shelves or drawers.

One popular DIY corner desk design is the L-shaped desk, which provides ample workspace and can be made with just a few pieces of wood and some screws. To make an L-shaped desk, you’ll need two pieces of wood, one for each side of the L, as well as a smaller piece of wood to connect the two sides. You’ll also need screws and wood glue to hold the pieces together.

Another popular DIY corner desk design is the floating desk, which provides a sleek and modern look without taking up any floor space. To make a floating desk, you’ll need a piece of wood or plywood, brackets, screws, and a drill.

Other DIY corner desk designs include a sawhorse desk, a pipe desk, and a pallet desk, each with its own unique style and features. No matter which design you choose, making your own corner desk is a fun and rewarding DIY project that can save you money and provide you with a custom piece of furniture that you’ll be proud to use.

When it comes to choosing materials for your DIY corner desk, there are a few options to consider. You can use solid wood for a traditional look, plywood for a more affordable option, or reclaimed wood for a rustic and eco-friendly choice.

If you’re working with reclaimed wood, it’s important to inspect the wood for any damage or defects before using it in your project. You’ll also need to clean and sand the wood to remove any dirt or debris.

In addition to the type of wood, you’ll also want to consider the finish of your desk. You can choose from a variety of finishes including paint, stain, or a clear coat to enhance the natural beauty of the

Office Corner Desktop Plans | Ana White

DIY Corner Desk – Shanty 2 Chic 

 DIY Farmhouse Corner Desk 

Herringbone L-Shaped Corner Desk Tutorial | Honey Built Home

Free Plans Build a Corner Desk

DIY Farmhouse Desk — Ashley Diann Designs

DIY Farmhouse Computer desk for under $100

Space-Enhancing Office Desk – Buy or DIY

How to Build a DIY L Shaped Desk–{With Shelves!} 

Using salvaged wood for DIY projects such as making a desk is a great way to give new life to old materials and reduce waste. However, before you can start working with salvaged wood, it’s important to clean and prepare it properly to ensure a successful and safe project.

The first step in cleaning salvaged wood is to remove any nails, screws, or other hardware that may be embedded in the wood. You can do this using a hammer and pry bar, or a pair of pliers if the hardware is small. Be sure to wear gloves and eye protection to protect yourself from any flying debris.

Once you’ve removed any hardware, you’ll want to inspect the wood for any signs of damage, such as rot, cracks, or insect infestation. If the wood is severely damaged, it may not be suitable for use in your project. If you’re unsure about the quality of the wood, consult with a professional or experienced woodworker.

Next, you’ll want to remove any dirt, grime, or other debris from the salvaged wood. You can do this using a stiff-bristled brush or a pressure washer, depending on the size and condition of the wood. Be sure to work in a well-ventilated area and wear a mask to protect yourself from any dust or debris.

After removing any dirt or debris, you’ll want to sand the salvaged wood to smooth out any rough spots or splinters. Start with a coarse-grit sandpaper and work your way up to a finer grit for a smooth finish. Be sure to sand with the grain of the wood to avoid any scratches or marks.

Once the salvaged wood is clean and smooth, you can apply a finish to protect and enhance the natural beauty of the wood. Depending on your preference and the intended use of your salvaged wood desk, you can choose from a variety of finishes including paint, stain, or a clear coat.

It’s important to note that salvaged wood may contain lead paint or other hazardous materials, especially if it was salvaged from an older building. If you suspect that your salvaged wood may contain hazardous materials, it’s best to consult with a professional or experienced woodworker before working with it.

Make Your Own Wooden Lap Desks

How to upcycle a flat table in to a Plank Table

Lemonade Stand from an Old Desk

* This article was originally published here