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Whether you’re dining outside, relaxing with a book or entertaining guests, a well-placed parasol, umbrella or shade sail can transform your garden into a comfortable and stylish extension of your home. A carefully chosen shade can help protect you from UV rays (don’t forgo a good sunscreen, though), creating cool, sheltered spots from where you … Read more

This week, I read that Joa Studholme, Farrow & Ball’s colour curator, was predicting the onslaught of butter yellow paint in our homes a decade ago, when everyone was still furiously coating their walls in “mizzle” grey. I marvelled at both her foresight and the comfortingly glacial pace of interior design trends. But if interiors trends … Read more

Gardening, I’ve realised, is easy. It’s clearing up afterwards that takes all the effort. This is true of many things, from cooking to relationships. Doing them is one thing; sorting the mess out afterwards is another. Planting stuff is a doddle. Planting the right things in the right place is less straightforward. But both are … Read more

Name: Living apart together. Age: At least since Victorian times. Appearance: Separate beds, busy loins. Living apart together? Is that where you share a home with your partner, but you’ve become so emotionally estranged that you can feel your connection eroding on a daily basis? No. Why? No reason. Carry on! It’s the opposite. Couples … Read more

The sun shone on Melbourne’s gardens in May – and kept shining. Warm-weather plants that had begun to die back in expectation of winter got a second wind. Basil started sprouting leaves again and roses shot new buds. The state’s second-warmest May on record also confounded cold-weather plants starting to make their way out of … Read more