The trouble with the great outdoors is that it gets a bit untidy. Your lawnmower might do a good job of keeping your garden in check, but keeping your patio, decking and outdoor furniture spick and span can take hours, especially if you rely on a bucket of soapy water and a scrubbing brush. The … Read more
I’m sure many of us are guilty of relying on our phones to decompress, even when taking some downtime. But if your social media feeds are anything like mine – an endless stream of fad workouts, meal plans and extravagant skincare routines – it’s more likely to whip you into an anxious frenzy than leave … Read more
The city of Berkeley has a new message for residents of its most fire-prone neighborhoods: it’s time to cut back your gardens. People living in the most high-fire-risk areas of the California city will be required to remove plants and other flammable materials close to their homes as part of strict new wildfire safety rules … Read more
Re the declining numbers of birds that we are seeing (or not seeing) in our gardens, I believe that a significant contributing factor is the lack of garden hedges (Starlings fall to record low in UK’s 2025 Big Garden Birdwatch, 11 April). Your report states that starlings like short grass so that they can watch … Read more
I’ve always owned houseplants – but not, it must be said, always the same houseplants. Of the handful of plants I tend to acquire every year, only one or two survive to see in the next. It’s not that I knowingly neglect them: I try to be attentive to their needs, water them regularly, assess … Read more
While waiting for a show during London fashion week in February, I and a few fashion writers, stylists and editors were admiring each other’s outfits. Surprise, surprise, we discovered that the pieces we loved most were preowned (and largely from charity shops, I might add). The Guardian’s journalism is independent. We will earn a commission … Read more
It is not by design that I have come to meet the Devon-based ecological gardener Poppy Okotcha on the spring equinox, when day and night are equally balanced. It feels fitting. In her new book, A Wilder Way: How Gardens Grow Us, Okotcha describes how it is now that she rids her garden of last … Read more
Secateurs are the single most valued tool in the gardener’s trug, an implement as personally prized as the bricklayer’s trowel. With time, their weight and shape wear familiarly into the hand, becoming a companionable tool for all garden tasks, from pruning woody shrubs and cutting back perennials to slicing twine and preparing cut flowers. The … Read more
Six years ago, the Royal Horticultural Society drew attention to the escalating challenges faced by independent plant nurseries. Citing pressures such as an ageing customer base, fewer skilled workers and the arrival of new pests and diseases, the gardening charity warned that nurseries – the “lifeblood of gardening in the UK” – were becoming increasingly … Read more
Re Chris Smith’s article (I don’t want to die with a freezer full of seeds. Biodiversity and preservation need rethinking, 2 April), the Heritage Seed Library (HSL) based at Ryton Organic Gardens in Warwickshire has been encouraging its members to conserve seeds in their own gardens since the 1970s. The HSL, set up by Lawrence D Hills, … Read more