Take a sustainable step toward home decor and try out some Creative Ideas to Use Old Windows in Home & Garden. They are all stunning and easy to complete.
23.06.2023 - 10:25 / houseandgarden.co.uk
Window boxes and troughs are the perfect way to dress your house, but it’s not as easy as simply planting them up and forgetting about them. Even before you start putting plants into soil, it’s well worth thinking about the practicalities. If you can’t easily and regularly water your plants, for example, consider installing an irrigation system or buying self-watering window boxes (try lechuza.co.uk). Your choice of compost is also important, as many multi-purpose composts are too light and will dry out in a flash, so choose a soil-based compost such as John Innes No. 3 or make your own mix from topsoil and multi-purpose compost.
To begin, consider where your window boxes are. If they are on a north-facing wall then the range of plants available to you will be restricted; in full sun or partial shade the choice will be much wider. Next, think about whether you want seasonal displays using annuals and bulbs – perhaps changing them two or three times a year – or whether you’d prefer evergreen or perennial displays that are more permanent (and easier to care for, usually). A combination of structural evergreens or perennials padded out with annuals is often the best solution, though you may even want to try fruit, vegetables or herbs. Whatever you decide, it’s best to choose low-maintenance plants that hold their colour or structure for as long as possible.
In terms of design, work out what effect you want, whether traditional and symmetrical or loose and naturalistic, and think about plant heights carefully. You’ll need one or two slightly taller plants to create visual interest, but don’t choose excessively tall plants that risk obscuring the view from the window the box is sitting under. Choose a range of plants that will
Take a sustainable step toward home decor and try out some Creative Ideas to Use Old Windows in Home & Garden. They are all stunning and easy to complete.
No matter the time of year, freshly cut flowers will always bring a sense of joy and natural beauty into any room. Fresh bouquets in water — whether grown ourselves or gifted — are normally at their best for a couple of weeks, but blooms will be fleeting and are usually thrown away once they start to lose their colour and wilt. So, a question that I’m asked a lot is simply — ‘How can I make my flowers last longer?’ The answer lies in the art of drying flowers — a craft that I’ve been immersed in for the past seven years. Dried floral arrangements will bring a different aesthetic to interiors compared to fresh — they are not for everyone — but if you like the look, you can very easily prolong the beauty of your flowers by months — even years — by creating striking arrangements that celebrate floral structures and will add interest to mantelpieces, dining tables, sideboards — you name it — throughout the seasons.
Iris ‘Benton Olive’ in Sarah Price's garden
10 stems of foliage cut from your garden, foraged or purchased from your local florist
Harry's Chelsea garden, The School Food Matters Garden
A garden with a restrained planting palette can be so exciting and atmospheric. Nowhere is this more true than in the case of the white garden. The limitations of choosing plants of a single colour means you can focus your attention; in fact there are so many plants out there that if you don’t have some sort of guiding principles when you set about designing your garden, you will soon be lost and overwhelmed with options.
Ina Garten at her East Hampton home.
The gardens at Great Dixter.
In the well-to-do town of Bedford, New York, there are a few givens: there are apple orchards and quaint bed and breakfasts, cute bakeries and amazing antiques shops and, of course, many grand estates complete with rolling green lawns and well-hedged gardens. Perhaps most impressive of the latter belongs to the doyenne of the domestic, Martha Stewart.
Set back on an 11-acre property in Surrey is the faded-brick Arts and Crafts house that once belonged to the influential British horticulturalist, garden designer and writer, Gertrude Jekyll VMH, Munstead Wood. Gertude was the first woman to be awarded the Royal Horticultural Society's Victoria Medal of Honour – the most prominent of awards for British horticulturalists – following an illustrious career during which she “transformed horticultural practice and inspired others to become gardeners through her books and more than 1,000 articles,” says the National Trust. Designed by her frequent collaborator Sir Edward Lutyens, the house is a charming emblem of classic English Arts and Crafts design and, thanks to Gertrude's own talents in gardening and floriculture, the house's garden is a “horticultural gem.”
The season of late sunsets, swims in the sea and garden parties, summer is a joyous time, full of late sunsets, refreshing swims in the sea, blue skies and balmy weather. Also attendant to these warmer months are the myriad flowers on display no matter where you go: there are sweet-smelling peonies in Tesco, hydrangeas flowering on front lawns and ruby red zinnias sprouting in every park and field. To make the most of the the season's floral bounty, we've rounded up five simple flower arrangements perfect for a summer bouquet from the House & Garden archive.