Wellness Ideas, Tips & Guides

If you've always been curious about secondhand shopping and are wondering how to make the most of your first trip to the thrift store, keep reading.

Planning a home’s private outdoor retreat for relaxation and social gatherings involves more than imagining how it will look. Much like interior redesigns, the focus first must be on functionality, and practical logistics like how the space will be used and how many people it should or could accommodate.

Living with a tiny patio, deck, or terrace is a challenge to furnish. While the size and scale of your furniture and planters are critical factors to consider, I found it’s important to look for items that can work double duty, too.

A wormery is a great way of recycling kitchen and small amounts of garden waste, using worms to turn this  material into nutrient-rich natural compost. A sump within the wormery also holds any excess liquid produced during this process and this can be used to feed your plants too. Simply drain it with the tap, every few days, dilute it to a 1:10 ratio of water and you have a nitrogen-heavy liquid feed ready to use. Wormery composting worms are different species to the earthworms you see in your garden, which aren’t suitable, and are known as brandlings, red, manure or tiger worms. They live inside the waste in the wormery bin and thanks to big appetites and a fast metabolism, quickly break down food waste likeegg shells, vegetable peelings and tea bags and turn them into compost for your garden. For help getting started our helpful step-by-step guide explains how to set up a wormery

The Standing Senate Committee on Fisheries and Oceans had harsh words for the Canadian federal government. At a meeting this week in Halifax, Nova Scotia, the committee presented its new report, which looked at the implementation of Indigenous rights-based fisheries. Its findings suggest that, despite more than two decades since key precedents were set, the fisheries have not been fully implemented. This has led, the committee stated, to confusion, tension and violence. 

Collecting and storing water is only one side of the story. Learning how to use this water effectively is just as important to ensure we make the most of every single drop of this most valuable resource. Naturally us gardeners often have much higher levels of water consumption compared to the average person, and as a result we are possibly the group of people who waste the most water. I know I have certainly been guilty of this in the past!

While college is a major change for students, it’s also a big transition for parents. Parenting from afar can be overwhelming and confusing, but one of the best ways to tackle this is to get prepared and plan ahead.

Orchids are the divas of the floral world. With all needs satisfied, they are utterly stunning! And when they effortlessly bloom out of crystal-clear water-filled jars, you know you’ve cracked the ultimate orchid code–water culture!

The garden as a whole has looked pretty hot in recent weeks, with June’s abundance filling it with glorious colour and lush foliage; the gardener, however, sees it very differently, and will quickly provide a list of its defects, things which a casual visitor might overlook. As simple as the overblown geranium above (probably G ‘Ann Folkard’), perhaps, draping itself over several smaller choice plants in front of it, or a more complex problem like the lack of support given to Rosa ‘Strawberry Hill’ (gearing up for a repeat flush) by its current support, below. Certainly, as I see it, everything is NOT coming up roses, or maybe it is but just not in the right place.

Q: We were planning on using a native hawthorn as a boundary hedge around our country garden. But a friend has warned us off it, saying that there’s a disease spreading throughout Europe that’s killing hawthorn trees and hedges. Should we use something else instead? Kate H, Co Wicklow

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If a room is feeling off, there's a chance that if you look down, you'll pinpoint it. Outdated flooring options can make an entire space feel stale or unbalanced.

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Rain Lily is the unexpected visitor you didn’t know you needed! Packed with symbolism and cultural significance, let’s uncover the rain lily’s meaning and explore why you should grow it at home!

You can’t even begin to garden without the proper preparation of your soil. Well-maintained, aerated soil is necessary for your plants to be as strong and as healthy as possible. However, this is often quite a daunting task, requiring soil to be rejuvenated through loosening and turning over. Forks make this easy – they’re one of the simplest but most effective tools in the garden. Not only are they great for cultivating and getting areas of soil ready for planting & sowing, they’re also designed to easily lift and transplant plants. There are several different types of forks, and most people’s go-to is a digging fork. However, these forks can be unwieldy, and ill suited to smaller areas of the garden like borders. They can also be a  little too clumsy for more delicate tasks like transplanting plants and harvesting from raised beds. Border forks offer an easy alternative. A  little smaller and narrower than digging forks, they’re great for getting into tight spots without compromising on strength or efficiency. They offer a finesse that makes them great for weeding, or lifting clumps of perennials from cramped borders. Their lightness also helps if you have mobility issues, or if you lack strength and stamina. A good border fork turns all of the above from a backbreaker into a breeze. It should be indispensable; a lifetime companion in the garden.

One of the first things to get me hooked on gardening was an illustration of delphiniums in full bloom. The otherworldly beauty of their soaring flower spires in shades of peacock, sky and electric violet was mesmerising and I coveted them instantly. Too many decades later I feel the same way, except now I know how difficult they are to grow well.

Gardening is not just a hobby, it is a way of life that allows us to get closer to nature. In our country, only 50 no deposit free spins in casinos can compete in terms of popularity with gardening, which has a special place in the hearts of millions of people. The history of British gardening goes back centuries, and this activity continues to attract more and more enthusiasts. In this article, we take a look at the best garden centres in the UK that offer a wide range of plants and gardening products, high quality service and many additional services. Whatever your preferences and level of expertise, you are sure to find something useful and interesting for you.

On Wednesday, the EPA chief, Michael Regan, announced that the Biden administration will formally repeal the Navigable Waters Protection Rule, a law that is barely a year old.

The quest for a perfectly organized home can feel never-ending. Could there ever be enough bins, shelves, and organizers of all kinds to contain your everyday items? The answer: yes. You don’t need to waste money on boring storage products though. We’ve scoured our favorite retailers for storage solutions that marry functionality with flair, as well as organization with personality. They’re all under $50 too.  Scroll on for our 12 favorite sneakily-chic storage solutions. 

What I love about my vegetable garden at this time of year is that it is almost as full of flowers as it is with fruit and veg. Alongside the rows of beans, kale and lettuce, beds are edged with marigolds or zinnias, and there are obelisks of sweet peas at either end of a bed (or sometimes in the middle). I also let a hollyhock or two seed around, as well as opium poppies, toadflax, ammi and verbena. Growing flowers alongside vegetables – or companion planting, as it is known – is something I’ve always done. There is no particular science to it, but the flowers attract more pollinators, which will in turn help the pollination of your crops. They can also lure the less beneficial aphids and other pests away from the vegetables and fruit; blackfly, for example, will colonise Ammi majus, lessening the chances of an infestation on your broad beans. And, more than anything else, letting flowers creep around the edges of your vegetable plot makes it look so much more attractive.

Embarking on a DIY sign-making project can be both exciting and rewarding. With the right materials, your creation can look professional, withstand various environmental conditions, and last for years. 

I was planning on taking the contents of whatever vase I created to Julie, whose Pilates class I have been attending for 12 years but who is stepping down as of today; however, she is poorly and unable to take the class so I will arrange to see her with a fresh bunch when she is well enough to mix with people again. I shall miss her weekly classes, but have always enjoyed those taken by her replacement, who has covered for illness and holidays and teaches a slightly different style, so all is not lost.

At first glance, the offerings from the Washington, DC-based soup company Soupergirl seem pretty straightforward. The company specializes in vegan and kosher soup and gazpacho, as well as soup toppers that customers can mix and match. There’s the classic tomato soup, a beet gazpacho available in a portable container and even vegan “cheesy” croutons. 

On the banks of the Hudson River in Troy, NY, there’s an unassuming forest-green building, tucked between a used-car lot and towing business. This refurbished auto-body shop fits right into the neighborhood of commercial buildings. There are no open fields or garden beds thick with produce. But step inside and everything changes. You’ve found Collar City Mushrooms. 

A long-running dispute between the United States and Canada over dairy imports reached new heights this week, as the Biden administration triggered a formal review of the issue under the still-young trade treaty that officially replaced the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) this past summer.

Plants that gracefully twine around a fence or gingerly cascade from a trellis are the stuff of any gardener’s dreams. Alas, your soil is where these dreams wither! Don’t worry; these easy vines that grow in poor soil are all you need to feel good about your gardening chops again!

Around 500 farmworkers took their first steps today in a march for voting rights that will take the participants 335 miles across the state of California over 24 days. 

I have mentioned the performance of my clematis this year several times, and thought I would do a quick reccy of them today to substantiate my feeling that it is a poor year for them here. Not including those that didn’t perform at all last year (mostly herbaceous clematis in the middle of borders, which have unaccountably been reluctant to establish), there are 15 in flower, 17 not yet flowering (many a long way off doing so) and 5 no-shows. All those not yet flowering would usually have been blooming since mid-June or so, other than ‘Duchess of Albany’ and ‘Gravetye Beauty’, who don’t start till later (strange then that ‘Princess Diana’, also a C texensis, is one of the first Group 3 clematis to flower).

A harmonious Dorset rose garden designed by Isabel and Julian Bannerman

Damp paper towels are sometimes the only help you need to coax stubborn seeds into sprouting. If you think it’s a myth, check out this list of seeds that germinate best, yes, the best in paper towels, and try it out yourself!

From novices to experts, all gardeners need a trusty spade and they’re often the first tool that gardeners will buy when starting out. These staples of the shed are invaluable and can help with dozens of jobs around the garden. Digging spades are the most common style of spade and are the go-to spade for beginners but there are also several other styles and models of spades, which are designed with particular jobs in mind.

The botanical realm is quite pliable like that. Take, for instance, these plants—complete shapeshifters! From spicing up a dull entrance in a standard pot to emerging as behemoths in your backyard, here are plants that can be trained as vines, shrubs, or trees!

With garden openings over for 2024, my ramblings around the garden involve a combination of “this is gorgeous!”, “aren’t we fortunate?”, “thank goodness that’s over” and “how can I improve this?”. Already thoughts have turned to potential ‘tweaks’, nothing major, and ways to improve things I don’t feel have really worked – perhaps I will write a post on them in due course…

You don’t need a green thumb to know that the most important things for a plant to grow well are sun and water exposure. But when you fill your home with plants and make intentional decisions about what to grow in a controlled condition, you also have to consider how that plant will survive in its fabricated environment.

For the first time in decades I heard a cuckoo just the other day, its pealing “Wuck-Koo” ringing out so loudly nearby that I felt a quick, sharp jolt of joy at being so closely in its presence. Once a common sound, the distinctive call of this fleeting seasonal migrant from tropical Africa is traditionally believed to signal the arrival of spring. But as is true of so many other once-common species of birds, its numbers, which are down by an estimated 27 per cent since the early 1970s, have been in slow but steady decline for decades.

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