Power cut tea

In an age where sustainability and environmental consciousness are paramount, integrating  solar panels  into your garden emerges as a smart and responsible choice. These innovations not only enhance your garden’s aesthetics but also align with your eco-conscious values.

In an age where sustainability and environmental consciousness are paramount, integrating  solar panels  into your garden emerges as a smart and responsible choice. These innovations not only enhance your garden’s aesthetics but also align with your eco-conscious values.

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Today we’re visiting with Helaine McDermott from western Connecticut.

I started growing flowers for cutting on my allotment over 10 years ago. I was really interested in where the food we ate came from, and I had started to wonder about the provenance of the flowers at my local florist and the ones in buckets at the supermarket. The more I read the more I realised growing my own would be better for the planet – many shop-bought flowers have a significant carbon footprint because they’ve been grown abroad and there are issues around the chemicals used to grow them, the demands made on local water supplies and the working conditions of the growers and pickers. I also preferred a certain style of flower arrangement, something that looked like it had been picked from the garden, with a looser more natural feel.

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Dive deep into Connecticut State Flower and How to Grow It. Learn facts, growth habits, caring, and much more about this amazing flower with this quick and easy guide.

It’s a couple of days until the next stop on my virtual book tour, so it’s time to take off the pith helmet and put my feet up with a cup of tea and a biscuit. In a recent interview, I respond to a question I was asked about my favourite biscuit – which has to be Snickerdoodles. You can’t buy them, you have to make them, and they have nothing whatsoever to do with Snickers chocolate bars, or peanuts in general. They are a divine, spiced* biscuit (cookie) that’s very moreish and goes very nicely with a good cuppa.

My parents are coming to visit today, to ‘see the garden’ (which is probably just a convenient excuse for them to visit). I am a little apprehensive – not least because it doesn’t look like it’s going to stop raining all day. We were going to have a barbecue; we’ve thought better of it.

I’m sure my parents didn’t know when they named me (and still don’t!), but Emma is the Tibetan word for a spice – the dried berries of Zanthoxylum species, more commonly known in the UK as Sichuan pepper. I really must replace the two species I had, which didn’t survive life on the allotment.

There’s nothing quite as British as a nice cup of tea, and sitting down for a good cuppa can certainly brighten up your day. A tea bush is unlikely to thrive in most UK gardens (although there are a couple of tea plantations) because of the climate, but there are plenty of herbs that are easy to grow and make a refreshing brew. They’ll even grow well in containers – so they make ideal plants for a windowbox or a patio. Having them close at hand means you can harvest leaves as and when you need them.

When I was younger, I used to be a fan of cream cakes – especially chocolate eclairs and those cream-filled meringues. As I got older I moved onto cream teas, preferably with clotted cream. When my body decided it no longer wanted to digest cow’s milk, I kissed all of those things goodbye.