6 now-or-never late-april tasks

If your attic has been the main source of storage for all your home items, it may be time to go through it all to sort out what needs to be thrown out or stored elsewhere.

Basements are a boon for those homeowners lucky enough to have one. They are cooler, expansive, and offer a lot of opportunities for extra living space or storage.

Growing up in Hawai‘i, Meleana Estes was immersed in the traditions of lei making, thanks to her tūtū, or grandmother, a seamstress and costume designer who took up lei making in the 1960s, when traditional Hawai‘ian skills were re-emerging throughout the islands. Her tutu became an expert over the years and passed this knowledge to her family and to Meleana, who, after a career in fashion, went on to become an expert lei maker and teacher of the craft, running workshops first in Honolulu and eventually abroad. 

Your bathroom is probably one of the spaces in your home you clean the most regularly; it’s important to do a deep clean at least once a month, and you should disinfect the toilet, wipe down the sink and counters, and scrub your bathroom floor about once a week.

A special Daiseye.

How do you plan a colour scheme when gardening with a wide palette of colour. The answer is to use complimentary colours that are directly opposite on the colour wheel. This give a lie to the old phrase about red and green which is about dress sense rather than gardening nous.

You may wonder how roses flower on 1st April when your favourite flower is just at its summer best

DIY projects are a budget-friendly and fun way to change the look of your home and furniture. If you are looking to repurpose an old, worn-out dresser into a new treasure in no time and want to take on a creative project, there are a few things you should keep in mind.

With so many types of art pieces to choose from for your home, it may be daunting to think about starting to shop for prints, posters, originals, or other works. However, filling your home with art should be an enjoyable process, and it isn't quite as complicated as you might think, either.

Closed-loop systems are the goal in many areas when it comes to sustainability, and gardening is no different. But I am often surprised by the number of gardeners who do not include creating a closed-loop system as one of their gardening goals.

I have a collection of heirloom German flag iris from my mother’s garden along with shared plants from aunts and good friends. The cultivar names are unknown, but the memories of the people who shared them with me abound every time I see the irises bloom.

For the last two or three years I have kept a rough record of how many hours I spend gardening (excluding things relating specifically to our charity openings). It’s usually the afternoon before any gardening can be done, and a couple of hours a day is the figure I generally quote when someone suggests I must spend ages working in it to get keep on top of it, but of course this varies during the week and over the year as a whole. This year, in the three months prior to this one, I spent 31, 20 and 39½ hours gardening; in April it was 59 hours! In previous years, the number of hours worked in the months after April dropped back to 30 or 40 and then tailed off towards 20 hours or so in December, showing that April is indeed the busiest month.