The English are obsessed with our boring, suburban lawns. It’s time to let them go

Lawns are just nature smothered by class aspirations, a constant chase for control

Across the suburbs today, the low scratching buzz of a hundred lawn mowers. This afternoon the smell of cut grass and premature sun lotion will rise in clouds of wet nostalgia and suffocate us, as is its right. Down the road a golf course vibrates in the heat, empty but for three men in the distance plodding importantly between holes. And here at my desk, looking down at our lawn, I seethe.

Each year my hatred of lawns increases by a centigrade. But discussing it with a partner, parent or friend is trickier than it might seem – a conversation about the problem with lawns often lands as comfortably as one about their drinking habits or how often they look at Instagram. The UK is obsessed with lawns, addicted, the UK is in a problematic two-century long relationship with the garden lawn. It is the most enduring fetish of our time. So to criticise lawns, which cover an estimated 23% of the entire urban land area on the planet, feels to many like a criticism of the very structures of their lives. It is to point out that they are naked.

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Nantucket

Hello everyone, I hope my Canadian friends are enjoying this long Canada Day weekend, and to my American friends happy Independence Day weekend. Today, I am finally getting back to sharing some of our trip to Nantucket photos. We took the ferry to Nantucket early in the morning and came back later that evening. It was a beautiful day and we enjoyed  both Nantucket town and the village of

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Chaotic gardens are a delight to behold | Letters

Gordon Hetherington says his life was changed by Amy-Jane Beer’s Country Diary column about her overflowing garden

As a sporadic reader of the Country Diary, I do not know what led me to Amy-Jane Beer’s contribution on Wednesday, but it has changed my life in ways far beyond the surrounding contributions on politics and the world. We are now deep in “open garden” season and it has been, until now, a chastening experience to return from the proudly controlled and immaculate versions on offer to the chaos of our own small plot, where multitudes of plants grow into and around each other with no apparent self-control or sense of order. I have tried to impose some discipline, but have been defeated by my inability to decide which should be rooted out and why. As Amy-Jane says, it is best to just watch and learn, and, so long as space remains for a garden lounger, that is what I intend to do.
Gordon Hetherington
Great Ayton, North Yorkshire

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Grass is a water hog. Here’s how to create a drought-tolerant yard.

Eleven steps to transition your yard (or portions of it) to a drought-friendlier — but still inviting — space.

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What a knob! Beautiful handles for your home – in pictures

Recycled fire-hose handles, sustainable brass pulls and reclaimed fittings can update your kitchens, doors and drawers

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Balmy Britain: why you should visit Ventnor Botanic Garden

Tucked away on the Isle of Wight’s south coast, this haven really can boast a balmy UK microclimate – and has the lizards to prove it

I feel like I’ve been to a lot of places in Britain that have boasted of a microclimate. And, as any self-respecting pedant will tell you, they are probably correct: “There is a distinctive microclimate for every type of environment on the Earth’s surface,” says the Met Office. But while we all love a windy upland, the areas that really get the juices going are those pockets of Britain where it feels unnaturally balmy.

It was when my daughter was so shocked by a wall lizard darting out from a rock that she stumbled backwards and sat on a cactus that I knew that Ventnor Botanic Garden (VBG) was the real deal.

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Hidden gems bring a palace in Palermo back to life

Dazzling frescoes and ornate floors are set off by modern pieces in a restored Sicilian palazzo

When Dario Longo, a lawyer based in Milan, wanted to return to his hometown of Palermo he spent a long time searching for the right place. “I wanted to make peace with this beautiful, but hectic city with its hidden treasures,” he says.

“I bought this house in 2013, after a long search,” he explains. “I was looking for an authentic historical building, but most of the old palaces I visited had been heavily refurbished so had lost most of their soul. When I saw this place I realised it was exactly what I was looking for.”

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* This article was originally published here