GARDENING

The gold-medal winning Yeo Valley Garden at RHS Chelsea Flower Show in autumn 2021 proves organic principles don't have to come at the expense of style and design

Green up your garden

Our gardens not only provide us with joyful moments away from the modern world, but offer a space for plants and wildlife to grow and thrive. As we enter a new year, keep the environment in mind, says Elly West, and everyone can benefit

There is something about the start of another new year that gets us thinking about what we can do better and the goals we may want to achieve. Looking outside at our gardens, we may have plans to make some changes, whether it's a border that isn't quite working, empty containers that need planting up or a whole redesign –complete with a garden office.

Our gardens are our sanctuaries, a break from the modern world where we can switch off and feel at one with nature. An early foraging bumblebee, a robin hopping about in freshly dug soil – these are the joyful moments to be found in the garden right now, all the more precious for their scarcity.

Gardening is inherently considered a 'green' activity but with the reality of climate change hitting home, we need to consider making changes in all areas of our lives, and the outdoor space that we take for granted is a great place to start. British gardens cover an area bigger than all the country's nature reserves combined, an estimated 10 million acres plus, and they provide vital wildlife corridors. Our trees and greenery help combat air pollution, and soft landscaping (lawns and borders) help to manage water runoff, reducing pressure on urban drainage systems.

Small changes really can make a big difference. So, at the risk of sounding 'worthy', if you are considering making new year resolutions that involve improving your garden, keep the environment in mind and everyone can potentially benefit. Having said that, it's worth remembering that primarily we want our gardens to suit us and our lifestyle, and to look nice. A 'green' garden doesn't have to be overflowing with nettles, brambles and log piles. Gardens can be neat and tidy, formal or informal, and still be doing their bit. Insects, birds and small mammals don't care if your edges are tidy, or what shape the lawn is.

If your new prize rose has blackspot and greenfly, it's not a failure to reach for a spray. Or to scatter slug pellets if your hostas are nibbled to lace handkerchiefs by slugs. Let's not be militant about it, unless you want to be. But going forwards, in order to avoid chemicals where you can, just think of good practice in terms of nurturing healthier plants that will be less susceptible to pests and diseases. Think ‘right plant, right place’, and choose ones that can cope with drought, shade, sun or whatever the conditions might be. Hostas are notoriously delicious to slugs and snails, so don't grow them in a damp border near a lawn as the problem isn't going to go away (however many sacks of slug pellets you put down). Instead, put them in pots on the patio or grow them in a gravel garden where they're easier to protect and harder for critters to get at.

Think biodiversity in your planting as well, and try to choose a mix of plants that will flower in all the different seasons to attract pollinators such as bees and butterflies. I love including areas of meadow in the gardens I design. It doesn't have to be a huge space, and can work well in both urban contemporary and more traditional countryside schemes. Meadow turf is one of my favourite products as it rolls out like normal grass turf, containing juvenile perennial plants that will pop up in spring, do their thing in summer, then all that's needed is an annual cut at the end of the season ready for the following year.

Make your own compost or leaf mould to enrich the soil, as that's where the foundations of a truly healthy garden are found. A few old compost bags stuffed with autumn leaves and tucked out of sight behind a shed or bush for a couple of years will turn into a beautifully rich, crumbly mixture that's great for improving your soil structure and feeding your plants.

The green bins were barely collected in my neighbourhood in 2021, what with driver shortages and so on, plus the local council introduced a charge for green waste collection, which is another good reason to compost where you can. In terms of bought compost, peat will soon be banned, and peat-free is much better for the environment. However, it's worth doing your research as peat-free composts are variable in terms of quality. Check the packaging and see if it's suitable for sowing and/or containers, depending what you want to use it for, as some are just sold as soil improvers. If you can find reviews online then check these too.

Recycling is another area where gardeners can do their bit. Wash up old plastic pots and use them again for sowing seeds and potting in. If you are buying pots, look for those made from recycled materials, or the beigey-brown plastic ones that can be recycled, rather than the ones made from black plastic. With a few DIY skills and a bit of imagination, upcycled materials can make quirky garden features. Copper piping, pieces of driftwood, an old tin bath or piece of furniture could be the next project that gives your garden that individual touch. Upcycling is a great way to get children involved as well. n • ellyswellies.co.uk

Task of the month: build a bug hotel

A bug hotel will encourage beneficial pollinators and pesteating beetles into the garden to create that all-important, balanced miniecosystem. It's a fun project for children and can also make an attractive feature in itself, providing food and shelter for tiny creatures. There are more than 2,000 different insect species in the average garden. Very few of them cause damage to our plants, and most of them help to control the ones that do. Now is a good time to get outside and have a go at building them a safe habitat, as there is plenty of dead plant material around.

Start with some bricks or wooden boxes, pieces of wood, or terracotta plant pots on their sides, and stack them up to create a structure of shelves and layers. Then look for any natural materials you can find to stuff in the nooks and crannies, such as dry leaves, sticks, hollow bamboo stems, pine cones, bits of bark and straw. Cut the end from a plastic bottle and roll up corrugated cardboard inside to provide a dry nesting place. These will all help to create warm, dry spaces for creatures such as solitary bees, lacewings, ladybirds, woodlice and spiders to hide. A roof tile or two on top will keep out the rain and help it to last longer.

New Year, New Home

Stunning townhouses converted from an original Victorian factory building are about to go on sale at The Chocolate Factory in popular Greenbank.

Since the first 3-bedroom homes at the site went on sale in 2020 they have attracted a wide range of buyers from across the city. Many first-time buyers have bought apartments in Kernal Point and Kibbling House and the houses along Co-Operation Road and Carsons Road have attracted a range of professionals, families looking for space to expand into and downsizers looking for a secure home in retirement.

They have all been attracted by the high quality of design with spacious interiors, picture windows to let in lots of light and an enviable location. Quiet and neighbourly with easy access to the buzz of the city centre and the green open spaces of the surrounding area, Greenbank in BS5 is a part of the city known for its strong sense of community. There are lots of places to discover in the area from exciting new restaurant openings, parks, cycle rides along the Bristol and Bath Railway Path and local shopping on St Marks Road or Church Road in Redfield.

This month the 3 & 4-bedroom, 3 storey townhouses converted from the original factory go on sale. There are just seven of these houses on the development and the homes are designed internally to showcase the high ceilings and large windows of the original Victorian architecture with the addition of balconies from bedrooms and living areas.

There are two internal layouts to choose from. The Elizabeth Collection has a traditional layout suited to family living whilst the layout in The Shaw Collection lends itself perfectly to buyers who work or run a business from home or need more flexible living.

Prices are expected to start around £600,000 for a 3-bedroom property with parking.

Once complete the development will feature a mix of houses and apartments and a small selection of independent shops and restaurants located around the newly created public urban realm.

Rupert Oliver

“When wanting to sell your home, the pressure is on to stage your interior and infuse it with House & Garden glamour. In this scenario, it is in the pre-staging (also called sorting) that you need to be dramatic,” says Rupert.

Pre-staging your home

When it comes to preparing your home for sale, you want to do everything you can to show your property’s true potential. Here, Rupert Oliver of Rupert Oliver Property Agents shares his advice on getting your home market-ready

Flick through the pages of any luxurious interior design magazine and you’ll be struck by breathtakingly styled rooms, iconic statement furniture, divine artwork, svelte bedrooms with tantalising fabrics and textures, and streamlined kitchens with shiny saucepans hanging from the ceiling, abundant fruit bowls and designer kettles on the otherwise clear worksurfaces.

These spaces are always swept clean, dusted, hoovered, manicured and presented to an inch of their lives. Even in the interiors that are actually people’s (sophisticated design types’) homes, there are no toppling piles of papers that need dealing with, no coats hanging on the back of chairs, no receipts abandoned on the floor, no coffee tables with notebooks and ashtrays and bottles, no piles of paperclips and pins and random plastic attachments that might be useful, no discarded envelopes, no hammers and glue guns, no piles of Playstation games and instruction booklets, and no boxes or corners filled with items for Oxfam. No life stuff, in short.

This, I charge you, is the challenge for any home-dweller, dealing with the melee of everyday life that is never represented in the design inspiration pages. That’s why these spaces look so darn good! Keeping an interior spick and span is frankly hard work. Having a cleaner helps if you can afford it, but do we expect cleaners to make decisions about abandoned buttons, rusty nails, broken blinds and piles of small change? There is indeed an ever-present compulsion to tidy up before the nominated cleaner arrives, otherwise they can’t get to the bits that need cleaning.

Keeping this under control is about making decisions, but it’s also about planning and logistics (selling unwanted items, transport, commissioning helpers with physical strength) and DIY skills (dripping taps, regrouting, applying fresh paint and remembering to wash the brushes out after use). And what about when it cranks up several notches and you have to sort out someone else’s home, which is packed with objects with nostalgic memories. The result? More boxes in the spare room waiting for attention, dismantled beds leaning against walls, a pistol gun flint lighter that has lost its spark, and a battered copy of Mrs Beeton’s Book of Household Management that belonged to your great grandmother on the hallway shelf, with its spine long gone.

Aside from heritage management duties, most of us can drift along with a bit of sorting and admin at key points in the week, but when wanting to sell your home, the pressure is on to stage your interior and infuse it with House & Garden glamour. In this scenario, it is in the prestaging (also called sorting) that you need to be dramatic.

As you sort, you need three categories: charity, sell and throw out. The throw out is the easiest; the charity and the sell both require sustained and dedicated planning and then action. If you struggle with clear decisions on these, a successful tactic is to use a surface (such as a table) and put all the random life stuff on it from the room in question and then summon all members of your family together to make decisions about it (where it belongs or if it’s needed). It’s a great way of clearing but you have to insist on familial cooperation - and it can only be done one room at a time because of their generally short attention span. More practical approaches are to make or reallocate deep shelves or repurpose a cabinet for storing the unsightly piles that are indispensable, thereby clearing the dining table, and train yourself and your family to put things back where they belong. This is the hardest job of all.

In conclusion, it’s best to forgo Vintage Chic, Industrial, Scandinavian and Rustic at this early stage, and embrace Swept Clean surfaces and floors. Only then can you get the cleaners and the DIY team in. n • rupertoliver.co.uk; 14 Waterloo Street, Clifton, Bristol, BS8 4BT

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