The decorator, dry cleaner, IT support, dentist, plumber and other professionals on the things we keep getting wrong – and what to do instead.
The important thing many owners fail to do with their dog is encourage it to calm down. There is so much emphasis on playing and running. People think they have to play with their puppy because it wants to, but this encourages the dog to be constantly active. It then doesn’t settle well and its behaviour can quickly become problematic. Spending time teaching dogs to walk calmly on a lead and rest at home should be a priority. To learn how, go to a class or follow online advice.
Ben Marsh of Balanced Dog.
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Pickled veg. Super Saturday magazine. ‘Mansplaining’ in Norwegian.
One of the joys of being a part-time gardener, who can’t be bothered to religiously water every day, is concocting preserves with wonky, undergrown veg (Preserve, pickle, freeze, ferment: how to capture your garden’s summer harvest, 6 September). Claire Ratinon omits making chutneys, which is easier than jam‑making and allows you to create a plethora of meal accompaniments out of just about anything, including human and caterpillar leftovers. Pickled green tomatoes were a revelation to me, as were pickled sprouts which, if consumed during Christmas lunch, have the added advantage of ensuring you will be gloriously placed in isolation by your family during Christmas afternoon.
Neil Heydon-Dumbleton
Pathhead, Midlothian.
• Congratulations on producing a Saturday magazine in which none of the four long articles, on Diane Abbott, the day my brother fell to earth, the magic art of fantasy football, and Bella Mackie writing about social media, were features about an interview with an actor. It made the supplement so much more interesting. Please keep it up.
Caroline Dalton
Wheatley, Oxfordshire.
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From dandelions in yards or mulberry trees on council strips, there are little edible miracles everywhere for those with the eyes to see them.Change by Degrees offers life hacks and sustainable living tips each Saturday to help reduce your household’s carbon footprintGot a question or tip for reducing household emissions? Email us at changebydegrees@theguardian.com
For most of human history, foraging was a core part of how we sustained ourselves. But it’s a skill few modern urbanites (and even many sea- or tree-changers) have honed. Long accustomed to ready-harvested produce, we’ve lost touch with the knack of recognising food in the wild – even if that “wild” is just in our own back yard.
In recent decades urban foraging has gained pace, and in Australia, interest in native ingredients is booming. From dandelions in our garden beds to purslane on the dunes or that mulberry tree in your local park, there is an abundance of produce ready for gentle harvesting by those with a keen eye and a bit of knowledge.
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An urban compost project has fostered an ingenious way to turn all kinds of waste food into fertiliser.
‘Let’s start in the front garden!” With the delirious energy of a zany scientist showing off his lab, Anthony Ussher, 42, takes me around the compartmentalised space that makes up the garden of James Brine House, a four-storey block of flats in east London. He pushes the fluffy seeds of a salsify plant into my hand while talking me through the street-facing section of the garden. What started as a few paving slabs salvaged from a skip is now a thriving, pocket-sized courtyard filled with unusual, edible plants. Ussher introduces me to fruits I’ve not met before, such as Nepalese raspberries and the aronia berries he infuses syrups with. “This is my favourite flower in the world,” he says, pointing to the devil’s-bit scabious growing next to some wild ginger.
This space emerged during the Covid lockdowns, Ussher says, when he and his neighbour, Helenka, healed their once tricky relationship over a love of plants. Ussher had previously run – and lived above – a fried-chicken restaurant on the spot where much of this garden now stands. When the pandemic forced him to close, the neighbours took down the fence that divided their land to create a larger, shared space that spans the courtyard, as well as a roof terrace and shady back garden. As they sowed and planted edible and medicinal plants to create a shared kitchen garden (from which seeds, plant cuttings and compost are gifted to locals) Ussher developed the burgeoning obsession that’s come to define the project: compost.
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Different parts of Australia have different laws on recycling, but there are also services to fix many common objects.Get our weekend culture and lifestyle email
The mantra “buy once, buy well” never feels more relevant than when you’re faced with mounting piles of household clutter. It’s hard to know what to do with things that might not be worth fixing (thanks to this current era of built-in-obsolescence), can’t really be donated (remember the rule: if you wouldn’t give it to a friend, it shouldn’t go to charity) and don’t belong in household bins.
Decluttering can be even more difficult given that each state in Australia has different laws dictating what waste is allowed to go where. For example, electronic waste is banned from landfill in the ACT, South Australia and Victoria.
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Northiam, Rye, East Sussex Created by the late Christopher Lloyd, Great Dixter is the legacy of a garden designer who forced us to re-think how we envisaged an English garden. It became less about ordered, neat prettiness and much more about excitement and colour. Today’s head gardener, Fergus Garrett, and his team continue to challenge and inspire, whether it be by championing flowers, such as dahlias and snapdragons, which we might consider relics of our grandparents’ gardens, or by demonstrating how texture and colour can change with the seasons. Where to stay: The George, Rye, double rooms from £ 86, thegeorgeinrye.com
Dalemain, Penrith, Cumbria There is something otherworldly about Dalemain. It is as if the gardeners who have tended it over the years have left their fingerprints in the soil. Dalemain has been in the same family since 1679, when it was bought by Sir Edward Hassell. You will find plants given to the family by Joseph Banks, as well as prolific, cornflower-blue poppies developed by Sylvia Hassell. It is a garden of nooks and crannies, but always with something surprising to discover: a beautiful view out over the fells or a sleeping dragon. This is a garden with heart. Where to stay: Pooley Bridge Inn, double rooms from £145, pooleybridgeinn.co.uk
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This striking home is an homage to the art of woodwork.
It all started with eggs. As a child in the 1950s in County Meath, Liz Pickett would collect dozens of eggs from the large wooden henhouse on her family’s farm, before walking to school. For more than a century, Liz’s family have lived on this bucolic windswept corner of eastern Ireland, just yards from 12 miles of overarching sandy shoreline, looking over the kinetic Irish Sea, where the range of blue on offer eclipses even the most committed watercolourist’s palette.
“It was Baltic in there today,” says Liz describing her daily dip in the sea. “But you feel great afterwards, you become addicted.” Liz, who lives with her husband, Roger, and their basset hound, Poppy, built their home in the early 90s on the site of the former henhouse. “We wanted to keep and preserve the old-world charm and feel when we designed it, so we decided to build a thatched cottage.”
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From interviews with Dusty Springfield and Agatha Christie to Jane Bown’s astounding pictures and, of course, Nigel Slater’s recipes… Some of our most loved writers, photographers, columnists and creatives share their stories of happy days on the mag.Celebrating 60 years of the Observer MagazineA gallery of a few of our favourite covers
I joined at the beginning, initially as a secretary/researcher. There were few magazines then, and little television, so there weren’t many outlets for advertising, and the colour magazines like us lapped it up. The money was coming out of our ears and what we were doing felt new and exciting.
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The weather’s a little cooler, flowers starting to fade, but there’s still lots to do: sow herbs and leaves, maybe shallots and garlic, feed the tiring soil.
No denying it now. A week on from the start of meteorological autumn. Daylight is shortening for early risers like me. Evenings drawing in, as my dad used to say.
My morning visits are cooler. Some summer flowers are starting to fade. The sweet peas are limping on, though now maybe more seed pods than blooms. The orache and amaranth are taller than me, sunflowers of all hues tower. We cannot keep up with the giant wall of French beans.
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Many of our flowers and other plants have thrived this year, though others did less well.
So, here we are. No denying it now. A week on from the start of meteorological autumn. Daylight is shortening for early risers like me. Evenings drawing in, as my dad used to say.
My morning visits are cooler now. Some of our summer flowers are starting to fade. The sweet peas are limping on, though now maybe more seed pods than blooms. The orache and amaranth are taller than me, sunflowers of all hues tower. We cannot keep up with the giant wall of French beans.
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From desert blooms to city parks, readers share their favourite places for native seasonal flora around the country.Get our weekend culture and lifestyle email
While a few Guardian Australia readers told us their own back yards are the best spots in the country to watch wildflowers bloom, many recommended places a little farther afield.
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Authorities in Dutch capital launch ‘Operation plant pot’, saying excessive pot placement threatens accessibility.
Residents have reacted with bemusement at plans by authorities in Amsterdam to crack down on what it sees as a plague of messy plant pots.
In an approach named “Operation plant pot” by the local media, the Dutch capital’s central district is limiting residents to two pots with footprints no larger than 50cm by 50cm, made of “sustainable” material and placed against their front wall. Rogue gardens of pots in parking spots and under trees will be confiscated, according to the policy memo.
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This low-maintenance, vibrant succulent adds colour and texture to an indoor garden.
Why will I love it?
This low-maintenance succulent will win you over with its unique and striking foliage. Its paddle-shaped leaves are decorated with purple and maroon banding, which add colour and texture to indoor gardens.
Light or shade?
The penwiper plant (Kalanchoe marmorata) thrives in bright, indirect light but also tolerates partial shade. To maintain its vibrant colours and ensure healthy growth, place it in a spot where it can receive at least six hours of filtered sunlight a day.
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From making jam to fermenting tomatoes, there’s a wealth of easy ways to store the sunshine flavours of your fruit and veg for the darker days to come.
The days are getting shorter, the last flush of blackberries are hanging sweetly on their prickly branches and a final flurry of tomatoes are ripening. With the end of the summer crops nigh, my thoughts have turned to how to capture their magic for times ahead when I’m craving sun.
My favourite way to preserve fruit is to make jam. It started with a new year’s resolution in 2011 to learn how, and I’ve been zealously pouring sugar over berries ever since. Two recipes I like to follow are from Kylee Newton’s book, The Modern Preserver: damson jam with orange, and blackberry jam with the juniper tones of gin. Jam-making involves cooking the fruit in water before adding sugar (which stops the fruit from softening further), then boiling away the excess liquid until the concoction reaches the desired consistency.
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Ever feel like you’re lurching from crisis to crisis, or chore to chore? Here’s how to knock at least some of them on the head – and lay the foundations for a less stressful, more organised existence.
However distant our schooldays, the start of the academic year makes everyone want to turn over a new leaf, to work harder and smarter; to be better. None of us has the whole answer but everyone has a tiny thing that works for them, and this list is based on the hope that some of those tiny things might work for others too. I asked busy people, organised people, parents, experts and Guardian readers about the one thing they do that makes them feel marginally more on top of everything.
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More people choose to pay on the day but trust properties received 25.3m visits in 2023-24.
The National Trust said its visitor numbers jumped by 5% in the last year with people still prepared to spend money on a day out despite the cost of living crisis.
But the charity’s annual report, released on Monday, revealed changing visitor spending patterns.
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An old surf shop in the dunes of the French coast is now a stylish home.
It was in 2017 that Joran Briand and his partner, Flavia Rouger, discovered what, at first glance, resembled “a monolith emerging among the wild dunes”.
“It was originally my neighbour’s boathouse,” Joran explains. “One day, after a surfing session, I saw him holding up a for sale sign. I slammed on the brakes and asked him if I could visit. He opened the large garage door and the light flooded into the empty space in a beautiful way. I immediately imagined myself living there.”
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Birthday cake and generations come together as the seasons begin to change.
Back at the summerhouse for Henri’s brother’s birthday. Generations of Londoners celebrating their best-loved Danish Uncle Jorn.
The sun shines, there are old school friends, fizz and excited chatter. Plus, of course, the classic family chocolate-and-coffee cake. Later, we gather for a sunset walk along the strand.
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