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The Guardian
a day ago
- Lifestyle
- The Guardian
‘It's a never-ending holiday!' 17 expert tips to make the most of summer
Whatever the weather, June marks the start of what we consider summer in the northern hemisphere, and many of us are seized with a frenetic desire to make the most of it. We want our homes to be light, airy and inviting and our outside spaces full of colour and scent – but if you're anything like me, that stuff doesn't necessarily come naturally. Instead, I'm chasing bluebottles, sweating into my sofa and staring enviously over the neighbours' wall at their impeccable garden. But in summertime the living really can be easy: I asked home and garden experts for their favourite simple ways to welcome the season. Sensory tweaks that instantly conjure summer are 'so fricking cool', says colour psychologist Tash Bradley, design director of Lick. A gentle hum of jazz in the background, a summery candle burning (basil or tomato leaf scents are instantly evocative), or, best of all, real greenery. You don't need a garden to raid: 'When you're next on a walk, pick foliage or bring branches in – the trees are so luscious – and put them in vases around the house,' Bradley says. (Garden designer Sean Pritchard's book Outside In is full of ravishing inspiration for this.) 'Embrace the spirit of a never-ending holiday by prepping your space for spontaneous gatherings,' says Rebecca Lowrey Boyd, design writer and author of the Wee Birdy newsletter. 'Keep a ready-to-go drinks tray or a basket of picnic essentials on standby, so you're always five minutes from hosting a garden soiree, or at least pretending you are. If you're feeling fancy, throw in a sprig of mint and a set of cocktail napkins.' (Lowrey Boyd likes a 'natty embroidered' Anthropologie set; I've found good ones on eBay.) 'With a few honourable exceptions, once May is out of the way it begins to get a bit late for planting, and certainly for sowing things that will bulk up and present an impressively romantic spectacle for the summer months,' says Andrew Timothy O'Brien, garden writer and host of the Gardens, Weeds & Words podcast. 'That said, some seeds sown in early June will get going remarkably quickly. On the veg front there's French and runner beans, courgettes and pumpkins, lettuce, pak choi, sweetcorn and carrots. Ornamentals that you sow now will extend the season by flowering in later summer and into autumn: try nasturtiums, sunflowers or night-scented stocks. To avoid disappointment, make sure you're using freshly bought seed, not something from a packet you've had sitting in the shed since lockdown.' 'I like things that maybe don't quite go together,' says Allan Jenkins, former Observer gardening columnist and author of Plot 29. 'Happy accidents are more interesting than regimented rows.' This time of year in the garden – or, in Jenkins's case, on the allotment – is for spontaneity and serendipity. 'From May onwards I will have beans, maybe peas. Sunflower seeds might find a home.' In her new book, Dopamine Decor, interior stylist and colour evangelist Kate Morgan recommends taking inspiration from holidays: the places you enjoy spending time in – cafes and bars, hotels, tavernas – and the treats you eat. Morgan is a big fan of fruit motifs. 'When I think of a good holiday, I think of warm places, blue skies and lovely bowls of pineapples, coconuts, mangoes, watermelons, lemons and limes – and a fruity cocktail or two! Delicious zingy flavours and bright colours.' Her home is full of fruity touches, from a blueberry milk jug to a cherry toilet brush. 'A summer simmer pot is simple, quick and cost-effective,' says Lesley Bramwell, sustainable fragrance entrepreneur and author of Fragrance Your Home. 'Add sprigs of summer plants – mint or eucalyptus – a handful of fresh rose petals or lavender buds and a few slices of lemon or orange to a large pan. Cover with water, filling the pot to around two-thirds full. Bring to the boil and then gently simmer. Add a few spices to bring warmth, like fresh ginger or cloves. As the pot simmers away, the steam will gently release summery aromas.' Change your fabrics for lighter, breezier versions. 'As a nation we are not particularly good at seasonal changes but, done well, they can feel like a full redecoration,' says design writer Kate Watson-Smyth, author of multiple books and award-winning interiors blog Mad about the House, and co-host of the The Great Indoors podcast. 'I once met a Danish fashion designer who was baffled by our reluctance to swap things in and out during the year: 'You change your clothes with the seasons, why not your cushions?'' No need to stop at cushions: Morgan recommends swapping 'duvet covers, tablecloths, shower curtains, blankets, rugs and towels' for lighter, brighter summery patterns. 'Make like the Danes and change heavy thermal curtains for linen panels,' suggests Watson-Smyth. Lowrey Boyd agrees: 'Your home will feel airier, brighter and, dare I say, almost continental. Less Victorian parlour, more Mediterranean hideaway.' She has her eye on Ikea's crushed linen curtains for an affordable switch-up. Watson-Smyth gives her coffee table a seasonal facelift. In winter it holds large coffee-table books, dark candles with heavier scents and decorative boxes of matches. 'In summer the books return to the shelves, to be replaced with magazines, bud vases and perhaps a reed diffuser in a pretty glass bottle. Anything that refreshes the room will lift the mood.' 'At this time of year,' says Bradley, 'the best room in the house is the garden.' To connect indoors and out, she suggests repainting a door leading to outside space, or a window overlooking it, in a nature-inspired green or blue. 'It's a really quick win to zhoosh up a room, make it a focal point and draw the eye out into the garden.' Your plants are probably happier in summer, but they still need TLC. 'As the light, temperature and length of the days increase, keeping up with watering is vital so our houseplants don't wilt,' says Sarah Gerrard-Jones, author of The Plant Rescuer: The Book Your Houseplants Want You to Read. 'Plants that may have only needed water every few weeks during winter might now need to be watered more frequently. The easiest way to know is to check the soil for moisture by sticking your finger deep into the pot, or weighing it in your hands. A pot that feels light indicates it's time to water.' Feed plants once a month through the summer growing season. It's also a good time, Gerrard-Jones says, to check which need repotting. 'A clear sign that a bigger pot is needed is roots growing out of the holes in the bottom, or the soil drying out quickly, which suggests there is little potting compost left.' Check for pests, too: 'It's far easier to get rid of one or two before it becomes a full-blown infestation.' 'Fill planters near the back door or window boxes with fresh mint, parsley, chives and rosemary plants,' says O'Brien. 'That way they'll always be on hand to snip for the kitchen, or to wrench off a sprig and stick it straight into a cocktail.' You don't need to make a special garden centre trip – supermarket pots will do. I follow botanist James Wong's advice to keep my supermarket basil alive: split up and thin out the dense tangle of seedlings, keep a few clumps of healthier ones and pot them up in good-quality compost. Tackling garden weeds can feel like a losing battle at this time of year, so how about not bothering? Gardener and landscape designer Jack Wallington specialises in working with, rather than against nature. His newsletter Wild Way is full of prompts and tips to reframe how we think about garden 'pests' and 'weeds'. 'Wildflowers – plants like cow parsley, teasel, tufted vetch, yarrow, Welsh poppy, dandelions, hedge woundwort, ox eye daisies and lawn daisies – often flower longer and are more resilient to extremes in weather than many ornamental plants,' he says. 'If you allow them, these wild plants multiply prolifically and then manage themselves, reducing maintenance; no need to grow from seed or water these sustainable plants.' They also encourage and support other wildlife: 'Many insects evolved to rely on them, and without that rich biodiversity many gardens feel lifeless to me,' Wallington says. Plus, they look great. 'Wildflowers we're told to rip out actually create the most contemporary and chic style. Best yet, of course, they're free.' 'It might sound bonkers,' says O'Brien, 'but consider creating a weedy planter.' Weeds flourish when everything else is struggling. 'These plants are what our soil wants to grow, and sometimes it can make sense to listen to what the garden is trying to tell us. Many weeds are attractive or sculptural. Think of the charming, daisy-like white and pink Mexican fleabane (erigeron karvinskianus); or Lady's mantle (alchemilla mollis) with its chartreuse flowers and pale green leaves, which show off raindrops to such wonderful effect. Elevate your weeds by collecting a selection and sticking them in a pot or a trough, and placing it somewhere where you can regularly take a good long look at them.' There's nothing summer chic about the big fat flies thumping into my windows while a billion tiny ones host some kind of rave on my bananas. 'We don't want to be destroying insects; they're essential for pollination,' says Bake Off legend and eco pioneer Nancy Birtwhistle, author of Clean and Green and the cookbook Nancy's Green and Easy Kitchen. Instead, 'it's about repelling them'. Her strategy: halve a lemon and stud each half with cloves (or juice the lemon and fill the hulls with cloves) then place it in your kitchen or fruit bowl or by your houseplants. 'Insects hate the smell of cloves. If they get a whiff, they're off.' If you're facing invasion from an ant army, Birtwhistle recommends squirting her homemade cleaning spray (160ml water, 60ml vinegar and 40ml surgical spirit) along their pathways. 'Now summer's here, you may not be thinking about your woollen jumpers, but clothes moths very much are,' says Birtwhistle. 'Protect your jumpers by putting them in sealed bags or boxes and by using a natural deterrent. Lavender is a great moth repellent and it's in season now, so collect a few sprigs.' 'Give your dining table (or the rickety one in the garden) a summer makeover with a bold, stripy tablecloth or some clashing printed napkins,' says Lowrey Boyd. No need for a splurge – grab a length of cheerful fabric or even a retro-inspired tea towel.' Add vibrant napkins (Lowrey Boyd fancies some 'jolly ricrac numbers from RE') and mismatched coloured candles. 'Suddenly, every meal feels like a sun-drenched picnic, even if it's beans on toast.' 'Just as summer really starts to get going and the weather is good for relaxing and entertaining in the garden, growth rates slow down and everything begins to look a little thirsty,' says O'Brien. 'The temptation is to dash out and buy things to make the garden look good: replace the patio set, buy a shiny new barbecue and pick up some plants. The problem is, this kind of panic buying rarely hits the spot, and anything you plant now is going to need endless watering and attention to prevent it from looking knackered and carking it within a week of bringing it home.' The secret to happy summer gardening, he says, is doing less (it's the guiding philosophy of O'Brien's book, To Stand and Stare: How to Garden While Doing Next to Nothing). 'Learn to love what you've already got. Lawn looking a bit parched? Let it grow rangy and a bit straggly. Get to know the wildflowers that you'd otherwise spend precious hours decapitating, while bees and butterflies make the most of the nectar resource. You can restore order in autumn; summer is mainly for dossing about.' Amen to that.
Irish Times
24-05-2025
- Lifestyle
- Irish Times
Six easy tips for making your garden planters last all summer in Ireland
Who doesn't, I ask you, love a properly sumptuous, decadently lush display of summer containers, with all its fleeting, peacock-ish beauty and promises of long, lazy, sunny days. Few things we do in the garden can so quickly pack a powerful visual punch, as well as an emotional one, reconnecting us with childhood memories of sun-kissed terracotta pots filled with scarlet geraniums, and trailing lipstick-pink petunias spilling out of hanging baskets. Concocting and then caring for these limelight-hogging creations so that they stay the pace throughout the summer months is, however, an art akin to making the perfect baked Alaska. Get it wrong and you'll end up feeling downcast. But get it right and your summer pots will be the envy of all who see them. 1. Containers Let's start with the containers themselves. The first rule here, for many good reasons, is the bigger, the better. Larger pots not only offer much more room for hungry, thirsty root systems (many summer bedding plants are notorious guzzlers in this regard), but they also provide much more of an opportunity to create a truly eye-catching display. Better again, they're also less likely to dry out or become waterlogged. Zinc is non-porous as well as being versatile and beautiful. Photograph: iStock Also choose carefully when it comes to the type of material. Both natural terracotta and wood, for example, have a timeless elegance but are porous, so be prepared to put in more hours of watering on warm, sunny days. That's not the case with zinc, which is non-porous as well as being both versatile and beautiful, especially if you can get your hands on some vintage planters (stockists include ). READ MORE Plastic, on the other hand, runs the risk of looking cheap and cheerful. Yet it also has the great advantage of being both non-porous and lightweight (important if it's going to be on a balcony or roof garden, where every kilogramme counts), plus you can give containers a clever upgrade by painting them in the colour of your choice. 2. Shape Shape is another consideration. Too shallow, for example, and containers are prone to drying out. Too tall, and they're vulnerable to blowing over. Too much of a mix and it looks restless. 3. Compost Just like choosing good quality ingredients for a recipe, your growing medium of choice is also crucial. Don't, for example, be tempted to reuse old, spent compost from last year's containers, which won't be capable of sustaining strong healthy plant growth. Likewise, beware of cheap, coarse, poor-quality compost that offers little in the way of nutrients. Instead, try your best to source a good-quality multipurpose compost, ideally peat-free for environmental reasons (I like Klasmann's peat-free potting compost, which is available to order online from Cork-based and Sligo-based ). Then add a handful or two of a good quality, slow-release organic fertiliser into it before planting, making sure to incorporate this well to avoid scorching vulnerable root systems. Peat-free compost. Photograph: Alamy/PA 4. Plants As for your choice of plants – the most important ingredients of all – there are a couple of cardinal rules worth bearing in mind. Firstly, if going for a mixed display of different varieties, make sure they all enjoy similar growing conditions. There's not much point, for example, in planting dahlias (a hungry, thirsty, fast-growing, heat- and sun-loving genus of plants) alongside ferns, which typically prefer shade and cooler conditions. Likewise, don't try to kid yourself that a container filled with sun-loving, drought-tolerant bedding plants is going to thrive in a cool, shady corner. Far better to plant appropriately, choosing species that will naturally flourish in the conditions your garden or allotment can offer them. 'Less is more' is another good rule of thumb, especially when it comes to the number of different species or varieties of plant. Choose just one single variety of dahlia, nemesia, pelargonium, ornamental salvia or nicotiana, for example, and it's guaranteed to create a visually powerful, long-lasting display, as well as one whose simplicity makes it easier to tend. 5. Colours The same goes for your chosen colour palette. Restrict it to three or two colours, or even just one, and you automatically up your chances of producing a memorably beautiful display. This could be a combination of scarlet dahlias and petunias, or a massed display of just one single variety of cosmos, calibrachoa, nemesia, diascia, begonia, bedding fuchsia, or pelargonium. What's key is to focus on long-flowering, floriferous, high-octane species like these that earn their keep by performing well over a long period of time. A summer container filled with Nemesia 'Peach' beside containers filled with Coleus 'Campfire' and Aeonium 'Zwartkop'. Photograph: Richard Johnston Don't overlook the all-important power of a few high-value foliage plants in knitting it all together. Coleus, for example, is available in a mouthwatering range of colours, as are varieties of heuchera and heucherella, while the castor oil plant, Ricinus communis, can be used to quickly make a tall, dramatic display of vividly colourful foliage. Other hardworking foliage plants for summer containers include the silver-leaved Helichrysum petiolare, and Plectranthus argentatus. Bear in mind that contrasting forms and different growth habits also make for a more interesting display. Placing, for example, a trailing plant next to one with a strongly vertical habit is always going to be pleasing to the eye. 6. The essentials Last but not least, don't forget the essentials, which are to keep your pots watered (but not sodden); to zealously protect them from slug damage; to faithfully deadhead; and to start liquid feeding them every fortnight from midsummer onwards, ideally using a good-quality liquid seaweed. The rest is in the lap of the gods. This week in the garden Grab the chance to hand-weed and hoe weeds away from paths and beds while they're still young and small and relatively easy to manage. Choose a dry, warm day to help ensure they'll quickly die off, rather than rerooting. Sustained dry weather can cause plant stress due to lack of moisture in the soil, so protect newly planted trees and shrubs by watering generously and then spreading an organic mulch around the surface of the soil to lock in moisture and slow down evaporation. Grass clippings are ideal for this purpose. Dates for your diary May 29th-June 2nd: Ireland's biggest and best-known gardening show, Bord Bia Bloom, returns to the Phoenix Park, Dublin, with 21 show gardens; 11 postcard gardens; a host of floristry and nursery displays, including one from Kells Bay Gardens, which recently exhibited at the RHS Chelsea Flower Show; a new Botanical Hub Demo area; an Ask the Expert Plant Clinic, presented by The Irish Garden magazine; an Ask the Expert Tree Clinic in association with Crann; a Garden Design Clinic in association with the GLDA; plus talks by well-known gardening experts including Adam Frost, Leonie Cornelius, Jimi Blake, Mary Keenan, Diarmuid Gavin, Fiann Ó Nualláin, and Bloom Judges Andrew Wilson, Mark Gregory, Karen Foley, Paul Maher and Feargus McGarvey.
The Sun
08-05-2025
- Business
- The Sun
Major retailer is opening huge new UK store TOMORROW with exclusive garden centre and freebies for shoppers
A MAJOR retailer is set to open a huge new home and garden store tomorrow - and shoppers can nab a handful of freebies. After a large scale takeover which saw parent company CDS Superstores buy out 70 Homebase stores, the popular chain is expanding its reach across the UK. 1 The retailer will wave in customers in Tiverton, Devon from tomorrow. As part of the celebration, goody bags will be given to the first 50 people in the queue, and there are two major prizes up for grabs for the first two customers through the door. Alex Simpkin, CEO of CDS Superstores, trading as The Range, wilko and Homebase, said: "We're fully committed to retaining the best of Homebase's heritage while introducing the broader product range and value that customers expect from us as The Range. 'While those Homebase stores acquired by CDS will continue to trade throughout the transition period, we're focused on ensuring a seamless transfer of these locations into our new store format, with fifteen launches confirmed for this year so far. 'We're also eager to help consumers nationwide by investing in the Homebase brand with the relaunch of offering customers nationwide an upgraded shopping experience via a diverse range of products for all their home and garden projects. "This latest development underscores CDS Superstores' commitment to revitalising the retail landscape by blending trusted brands, preserving jobs and enhancing local economies.' Which stores have already reopened? The Range has opened 33 new format superstores across the UK and Republic of Ireland since January. The full list of locations and their reopening dates are: Pollokshaws, Glasgow - opened January 17 Christchurch, Bournemouth - opened January 17 Kings Heath, Birmingham - opened January 17 Newton Abbot - opened January 24 Felixstowe - opened January 24 Blyth - opened January 24 Stroud - opened January 31 Putney Road, Leicester - opened January 31 Blandford Forum - opened January 31 Penge - opened February 7 Woking opened February 7 Leighton Buzzard - opened February 7 Staines - opened February 14 Ashbourne - opened February 14 East Dereham - opened February 14 Huntingdon opened February 21 Reigate opened February 21 Bicester - opened February 21 Admiral Park, Eastbourne - opened February 28 Morecambe - opened February 28 Oxford - opened February 28 Bodmin - opened March 7 Loudwater - opened March 7 Selby - opened March 7 Craigleith Park, Edinburgh - opened March 21 Horsham - opened March 21 Ruislip - opened March 21 Maidenhead - opened March 28 Harrogate - opened March 28 Sligo, ROI - opened April 4 Drogheda, ROI - opened April 4 Winchester - opened April 4 Balloo Park, Bangor, NI - opened April 4 These stores sell a mixture of The Range and Homebase gardening and homeware products. Several of the new stores also include Garden Centres by Homebase, which sell a range of house and garden plants. They are available in the Sligo, Drogheda and Bangor stores. Selected stores also have Kitchens by Homebase departments, where customers can shop a range of kitchen designs and accessories. Alex Simpkin, CEO of CDS Superstores, said: 'The expansion marks a significant milestone in our journey and allows us to offer an even more exciting shopping experience to our customers, with a wider selection of home improvement, gardening and kitchen products available under one roof at convenient locations across the UK and Republic of Ireland. 'We continue to look forward to welcoming shoppers into our stores and providing them with everything they need for their homes and gardens.' Which other retailers have purchased Homebase stores? A handful of other retailers have stepped in to purchase some Homebase stores that were not included in the chain's rescue deal. Among them is B&Q, which agreed to buy eight of the chain's stores that were put up for sale. Wickes has also acquired five more stores, including a former Homebase location that closed before the chain entered administration. Meanwhile, B&M has confirmed that it has acquired the lease for Homebase's former site at Tweedmouth Retail Park in Berwick.
