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How to Build a Safe Pallet Sandpit with Bench Lid
Oliver Grant
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Wooden sandpits can look beautiful, until the price makes your heart sink. On a peaceful street, young mum Hannah found...
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How Clover Can Improve Your Lawn
Oliver Grant
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Neighbours may grumble about weeds, you may glance at the mower with a weary sigh, and the internet insists that...
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How to Prune Lavender in March to Stop It Going Leggy
Oliver Grant
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Your lavender has become leggy, grey around the base and, frankly, rather forlorn. March is the moment to restore it...
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Rice Water for Houseplants: The No-Fertilizer Pantry Hack
Oliver Grant
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Influencers present it as simple, economical and chemical-free. Scientists tend to wince, pointing instead to microbes, nutrients and gnats. Between...
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How to feed robins in your garden with moistened cat or dog kibble
Oliver Grant
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A bright ball of russet feathers perches on a cane, its head slightly tilted as though it is kindly passing...
News
Is Mowing Between Noon and 4pm Illegal?
Oliver Grant
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No yelling, no confrontation. Only a lifted eyebrow, a finger aimed at the clock and a curt “Not between noon...
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Rare Balcony Vines That Turn a Balcony into a Secret Garden
Oliver Grant
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I only wanted to cover the unattractive concrete rim of my balcony with “something green”. The garden centre was about...
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Vegetable bed: plant pairings that inhibit growth
Oliver Grant
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In the vegetable bed, some plants take off while others stop growing. It can seem random – but it rarely...
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Easy-Care Succulents for a Calmer Office Desk
Oliver Grant
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Emails were piled up like masonry, while the overhead strip lights gave off their steady hum. I wanted something living...
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How Moss Walls Are Helping UK Councils Clean the Air
Oliver Grant
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Councils from Glasgow to London are turning to a quiet, green intervention: moss walls. They do not make noise or...
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How Japanese Gardeners Prune Hydrangeas in Autumn
Oliver Grant
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Do you give your hydrangeas a severe tidy before winter, or prefer to leave them untouched? Japanese gardens offer a...
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How to Build a Thirty-Seven Euro Untreated Wood Raised Garden Bed
Oliver Grant
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Last weekend, I saw my neighbour Marie looking down at her drooping tomato plants, which had collapsed across the soil....
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Overgrown boundary hedges: the legal steps for resolving neighbour disputes
Oliver Grant
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The atmosphere can shift quickly. Throughout the UK and Europe, neglected boundary hedges are quietly sparking long-running disputes between neighbours....
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Poor Drainage Is the Silent Killer of Houseplants
Oliver Grant
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The leaves were looking healthy on Monday. Glossy, upright and almost self-satisfied on the windowsill. By Friday, that very same...
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Why Birds Keep Returning to Your Garden When There Is No Food
Oliver Grant
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No feeder is hanging up. No seed has been thrown down. There is only a wet, unremarkable lawn and the...
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Heart-shaped plants for Valentine’s Day
Oliver Grant
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This elegant, delicate perennial, known as Lamprocapnos spectabilis (formerly classified as dicentra), bears arching stems laden with heart-shaped blooms in...
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Kathy Slack: How Gardening Boosts Wellbeing
Oliver Grant
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Kathy Slack once worked as a high-flying advertising executive, living a jet-set life. However, by her mid-30s she was suffering...
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How to Protect Plants From Frost Before the First Snow
Oliver Grant
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Leaves turn crisp around their edges, terracotta pots suddenly seem vulnerable, and you begin measuring time in nights rather than...
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Estate Rules Demand a “Uniform Green” Lawn
Oliver Grant
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The demand has sparked a wider dispute: are we enforcing colour standards or safeguarding property values? And when the rules...
News
Can a Raw Potato Revive a Dying Houseplant?
Oliver Grant
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Social media insists that a raw potato can revive a dying houseplant. Garden centres may dismiss the idea, but plenty...
News
Buddleia: The Drought-Wise Butterfly Bush for Water-Smart Gardens
Oliver Grant
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A resilient, scented shrub is discreetly becoming one of summer’s stand-out plants. On sun-baked patios and dry borders, one plant...
