business

Any five-year-old can grow runner beans (Letters, 24 August)? Not this year. After more than 40 years of growing vegetables, the drought has defeated me. Repeated sowings and constant watering eventually yielded a few sickly runners that struggled up the canes. A handful of beans have presented themselves. Next year, I think I’ll look for … Read more

I love finding things on the street or in secondhand stores and bringing them into my home to upcycle. But that doesn’t mean I’m OK with bringing dirt, germs and dust from elsewhere into my space. When you’re upcycling or rehoming furniture, cleaning it properly is the first step. But cleaning thrifted pieces can be … Read more

Name: Homebuyer sleepovers. Age: Newish. Appearance: Imagine liking an Airbnb so much that you decide to live there. I’d love to do that, if only to see what is kept in the obligatory Locked Cupboard of Mystery. Well, great. Start looking around on Zoopla and see how it goes. Really? Sure. According to the Wall … Read more

Allotments were originally “allotted” to the landless poor of the 18th century to give them dignity, a means of eating and reprieve from the daily grind of land or industrial work (The one change that worked: I gave up my allotment – and accepted who I really am, 18 August). They were a necessity during … Read more

The fresh “forest floor” smell filled my nostrils as Mum twisted the lid off the compost bin. “Get a lungful,” she said, sticking her head over it and encouraging me to do so. It smelled fantastic – magical almost – raw nature broken down into dark, crumbly, nutrient rich compost; not pungent and wet like … Read more

Your article about the prisoner rehabilitation project LandWorks, excellent though it was, arguably placed too much emphasis on nature as the chief factor accounting for the project’s undoubted success (‘A natural antidepressant’: how working with the land is helping ex-prisoners, 16 August). I have been a keen supporter of the project since it was set … Read more

When we moved into our home, there was a rosemary plant in the bed by the back door. It hadn’t been pruned for some time, so was all legs with a short, dark green hairdo, and after our first winter it promptly died. Fast-forward to around this time last year, when I was searching for my dog after she’d … Read more