Bloom

It’s just as accurate to say gardeners are playful – and if we’re not, we certainly should be. Growing plants and creating a joyful space to immerse ourselves in should be all about play: experimenting with forms, colours and plant characteristics, finding the humour in the wild reaching tendrils of a clematis, or simply spying on our feathered companions as they take a very splashy dip in the bird bath (clearly it’s as much about fun as cleanliness). All too often we can get bogged down with what’s ‘right’ and what we ‘should’ be doing, and even feel guilt about our positive actions; are we doing enough to support biodiversity, collect rainwater, feed our plants, back conservation causes, grow organic food, reuse plastic… the list could go on and on. All…

From the Latin niger (black) and ella (indicating a mini form), the genus name Nigella nods to the tiny black seeds found in its handsome seedhead. It’s a pod that forms pretty fast once the flowers have opened, giving you the briefest of time (just a few weeks) to enjoy the complex flowerheads in shades of blue, white, pink and purple. Love-in-a-mist, as it’s commonly known, might be an annual, but its habit of casting those little seeds all around means that once it’s happy in your garden, you’ll be seeing it return every year. If its bushy, feathery bracts and pastel flowers don’t bring you summer joy (or you simply have too many), pluck off the ornamental pods and dig into the seeds (see page 11).…

EXPLORE DUNES It’s the first ritual of a visit to the beach: scrambling up a wall of sand before arriving at the top and getting your first sight of the sea, then rolling happily down the other side. But dunes are more than just fun obstacles. They’re a vital part of the coastal landscape and home to a lot of site-specific wildlife – from tough plants like the bare-foot-pricking sea holly to the edible sea rocket and sea beet, as well as lizards and butterflies. Once you start seeing dunes as their own environment, and not just another bit of sandy beach, you’ll notice their incredible biodiversity. They can take years to form and are a constantly shifting environment, one that’s often under pressure from developments on the land side, so…

Hemp has come a long way. There is evidence of hemp cultivation dating back to ancient Mesopotamia, and a ‘health drink of cannabis nectar’ features in the first cookbook ever published (by gastronomist Bartolomeo Platina in 1475). In Tudor England its use in the production of sails and rope for the navy was considered so valuable it was illegal for farmers not to grow it. By 1928 it was outlawed as an addition to the Dangerous Drugs Act of 1920, only to be re-legalised in 1993 (the reasons for this remain as mysterious as the inner workings of government itself). While hemp (which, like marijuana, belongs to the Cannabis genus) has been championed by some as a sustainable crop for decades, its products haven’t always enjoyed mainstream acceptance. Researching the use…

The principles of traditional garden design will tell you to start by listing your demands from your plot: a shed, a dining zone, a barbecue area… the idea is to create an ‘outdoor room’ to extend your living space. Lock those requirements in first, the thinking goes, then move on to your planting scheme. But increasingly our demands are changing – rather than a functional utility space, we want to look out of the kitchen window and see a landscape – a living, thriving natural scene that is dynamic through the seasons. We want a place we can sit out in and feel immersed in and surrounded by nature. In my own garden near Bath, I have recreated meadows, a naturalised pond and small coppice; I’ve allowed the surrounding landscape to…

We are all foragers deep down and have the instinct to find food. We also enjoy searching for things: I’m sure our modern love for search-based puzzles is a way of satiating this desire, and it’s something we’re born with. Kids love foraging and in my experience their keen eyes and enthusiasm for the hunt make them brilliant at it. Foraging rewards you in many ways and I always say it feeds the soul as well as the belly. That said, I know when newcomers start out on their foraging journey it can seem very daunting. How will I know what to pick? How will I use wild ingredients? Will it taste good? And, of course, the biggest question of them all: will I poison myself? It just requires a bit of…