When you buy your childhood home, history conveys. Drama might, too.

Drawn by family lore (or a family discount), these people reclaimed the houses they grew up in.

* This article was originally published here

Say hello to spring! 22 simple ways to refresh your home, wardrobe and routine

From new season scents to cleaning hacks, we’ve picked our top spring essentials to blow away the cobwebs

• Cappuccino nails, boho blouses and pilates pumps: Jess Cartner-Morley’s March style essentials

Can you feel it? A warmth to the air, brighter days, and smiles on people’s faces. Spring is almost upon us: toes that haven’t seen the light of day for months need a polish, seeds need to be sown, and there’s an urge to spring clean (windows look particularly filthy when sunlight pours through them).

Emerging from winter is the perfect time for a reboot. So from signing up for a marathon to splashing out on a new perfume, revamping your bedding to vowing to do more hiking, here’s our guide to celebrating the arrival of spring.

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* This article was originally published here

Better to work with a garden than against it | Letters

Readers offer advice after Adrian Chiles shared his frustrations about getting his garden ready for spring

I sympathise with Adrian Chiles’s struggles in the garden (What I have learned in my filthy, bloody, sisyphean quest to tame my garden, 26 February). The basic problem is that the classic English garden was designed to be labour-intensive and for show. A different approach, working with nature rather than against it, gives a happier result.

Two (slim) friendly books, The Minimalist Gardener by Patrick Whitefield and Leisurely Gardening by Nigel Colborn, or better still a permaculture guru found locally, could lighten the load and lead to a more comfortable garden that is better for nature.

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* This article was originally published here

* This article was originally published here

Better to work with a garden than against it | Letters

Readers offer advice after Adrian Chiles shared his frustrations about getting his garden ready for spring

I sympathise with Adrian Chiles’s struggles in the garden (What I have learned in my filthy, bloody, sisyphean quest to tame my garden, 26 February). The basic problem is that the classic English garden was designed to be labour-intensive and for show. A different approach, working with nature rather than against it, gives a happier result.

Two (slim) friendly books, The Minimalist Gardener by Patrick Whitefield and Leisurely Gardening by Nigel Colborn, or better still a permaculture guru found locally, could lighten the load and lead to a more comfortable garden that is better for nature.

Continue reading...

* This article was originally published here

Spring is here! It’s time to sow vegetable seeds in your garden

We can now start sowing lettuce, radishes, chard, spring onions, beetroot, kale and more, for summer harvest

There are two dates that herald the beginning of spring. The one determined by astronomy is the vernal equinox, when the sun is exactly over the Equator and day and night are of equal length – that falls on 20 March this year. But I’m more of a fan of the meteorological calendar, which marks spring’s return sooner, on 1 March – today. As auspicious as the equinox can feel, I’ll always opt for calling in spring as early as reasonably possible.

No matter when you mark the return of spring, the long, dark months of winter will soon be behind us and sunlight hours will increase day by day. With the light comes more warmth, signalling to dormant trees, bushes and seeds that it’s time to consider waking from their winter slumber. It’s the arrival of these optimal conditions that means many seeds can be sown around now – lettuce, radishes, chard, spring onions, beetroot, kale and more – to be harvested come summer.

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* This article was originally published here

What are the black stains in my toilet, and how can I remove them?

The best approach depends on whether the stains are organic material or mineral deposits.

* This article was originally published here

We tested 18 gardening apps. Here are the ones worth trying.

These five apps can take the heavy lifting out of planning your garden.

* This article was originally published here