Author: The Guardian

Developers and landlords should give tenants a “right to garden”, a leading horticulturist has said as he campaigns for more green spaces in new-build homes.To inspire those who live in homes without gardens, Jason Williams worked with students to create balcony gardens for the Royal Horticultural Society urban show, held this month in Manchester, to demonstrate what can be done in a small space. Each garden cost £500 to create. He also created an example allotment with easy-to-tend plants, which a developer could easily put into a new-build block of flats.Williams, who calls himself the cloud gardener, has become known…

Somewhere along the line we have lost sight of the humble shrub. Its downfall could be in part attributed to our continuing love for prairie planting, which subverted the quaint cottage garden with its weighty perennials, swaying grasses, and broad brushstrokes of ribboned colour. Against such seasonal vibrancy – purple salvia, beaming echinacea and tall persicaria – stiff and woody viburnums, weigelas and hydrangeas came to feel decidedly pedestrian, the stuff of municipal car parks and stale suburbia.In appealing to this shift in tastes, many contemporary garden designers doubled down on herbaceous planting schemes, and our confidence in – and,…

The prosecution: Martin I’m happy that Rob will get a hand, but it’s a lot more than I had from Mum, which I don’t think is fair I’m 36 and I got on the property ladder by myself when I was 31. I scrimped and saved but was also on a very good wage in my job as a marketing executive. My mum, Patricia, also gave me a bit of help: £10,000 to be exact, for which I was very grateful. I also used the government lifetime ISA scheme, which I saw as a great way to get free money.…

It was a grim night for the Conservatives and the pain seems likely to extend over the weekend, even if there may be moments of consolation from some mayoral elections.The Blackpool South byelection was not a routine mid-term setback for the party of government. For a start, it comes well into the fifth year of the parliament and is therefore late-term. The swing is also much higher than normal for mid-terms. We have become used to swings of more than 20 percentage points and Blackpool South is the fifth Conservative seat to fall to Labour on such a large movement…

Donald Trump’s Manhattan criminal trial enters its 11th day following raucous testimony about his increasingly unhinged underling and the tawdry business of celebrity sex scandals.Keith Davidson, the attorney representing Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal, returned to the witness stand on Thursday. Davidson was grilled on his communications with former National Enquirer editor Dylan Howard around the 2016 election and Michael Cohen, Trump’s then fixer.As it grew more and more apparent on election night 2016 that Trump would become the president, Davidson texted Howard: “What have we done?”“Oh my God,” Howard replied, with Davidson walking jurors’ through the texts as they…

The prosecution: Jana “It’s like I’m the sole carer on a personal and emotional level, as well as financial I recently had a baby with my long-term partner, Mikey. We have been together for five years and our relationship – save for the odd disagreement about the washing or his pants on the floor – is generally harmonious. Our baby, Kitty, is a year old and I am planning to go back to work part-time in three months, while juggling nursery and childcare. That’s something we agreed and I’m happy with it because I need to work to feel alive.The…

The coroner has urged the NRL to review its heat policy after a Manly Sea Eagles player suffered a “devastating” death from heatstroke after an “inappropriate” pre-season training.On November 23, 2020, 20-year-old Keith Titmuss suffered a seizure after a grueling indoor workout at the Sydney club’s northern beaches base.Titmus was taken to Royal North Shore Hospital but died five hours later from cardiac arrest.Deputy State Coroner Derek Lee found that the budding NFL player’s cause of death was exertional heatstroke and that pre-existing heart disease was unlikely to be one of the factors.Lee released his findings on Friday, urging the…

Ruins of a centuries-old town have emerged at a dam parched by drought in the northern Philippines.After a prolonged spell of intense heat and little rain, water levels in the dam have fallen to reveal parts of a sunken church, tombstones and the foundations of structures from the 300-year-old town in Nueva Ecija province.“When I heard about the sunken church of old Pantabangan town resurfacing, I got excited and wanted to see it,” said 61-year-old retired nurse Aurea Delos Santos.Water levels at the Pantabangan dam have fallen by 26 metres so far this year, with its current level seven metres…

The president of the Ukrainian Olympic Games has urged Ukrainian athletes not to have any contact with Russian and Belarusian athletes at the Paris Games in July and August.Ukraine threatened to boycott the Olympics after the International Olympic Committee decided that Russians and Belarusians who did not openly support the invasion of Ukraine and had no military ties could compete as neutral nations.Kyiv has now reluctantly chosen to participate.But any contact with “representatives of the aggressor country” inside or outside Olympic venues is discouraged, according to advice issued on Thursday. According to the “Kyiv Independent” report, this is to avoid…

A pocket-sized city terrace extension and a multigenerational riverside property inspired by a country shed are among the innovative dwellings shortlisted in the sustainability category of the Houses awards, Australia’s premier residential design prize. This year’s five-panel jury noted a number of new sustainable design trends, including a move towards net-zero housing, abodes that accommodate adult children, innovative multi-use spaces for working from home, a growing appreciation for restoring dated dwellings and inspired designs for downsizers and elderly occupants. Source link