Bring on the floral language
Say it with flowers
Certain flowers have specific meanings in the language of love, so consider these blooms when planning a Valentine bouquet.
Roses (love and romance), particularly red ones, are the first point of call but here’s what you are saying if you look beyond the usual suspects.
The large, cheery face of sunflowers mean adoration, loyalty and longevity. Fragrant lilies stand for friendship and devotion. Choose wild flowers for a whimsical, spontaneous and thoughtful message.
Carnations imply fascination and love. Orchids (love, beauty, luxury, strength) are a very elegant gift and hydrangeas (grace, beauty) last very well in a vase.
Save tomato seeds
Only save seeds from an openpollinated heirloom variety – not a hybrid, as these won’t grow true from seed.
Squeeze seeds from a very ripe tomato out onto a saucer. Separate most of the pulp and scrape the seeds into a jar with half a cup of water. Sit the jar somewhere warm out of the sun for a few days until a film starts to ferment and form on the top. Fermenting isn’t essential but it gets rid of the gel coating on the seeds, which can stop germination. Fermented seeds are cleaner, store better and grow better, so it is worth a little faffing around.
No wonder Vincent began spending more and more time with restful greenery, coaxing sweet peas up the railings on the balcony of her south-east London flat. When her partner left her unexpectedly, she tried to move through her shock and grief with the unhurried tenacity of her plants, stretching out little tendrils of hope and turning her tear-streaked face to the sun.
The journalist in Vincent ensures her book comes packed with great tales of gardeners past – particularly women. She draws comparisons between Millennials and the Victorians, who also turned to houseplants to steady themselves against the pace of the
Pour the water off carefully and add fresh water. Swish it around and pour it off again. The good seeds will sink and any you pour off will be bad seeds and pulp. Keep doing this until you have nothing but clean seeds then lay them out to dry on paper towels. When they’re completely dry, store them in sealed containers in the fridge. Don’t forget to label the seeds during the different stages.
DIY liquid plant fertiliser
To make comfrey tea, fill a large lidded barrel two-thirds full of water and add a few armloads of comfrey leaves. Leave it for a couple of months (keep the lid on it, it does get whiffy), stirring every now and again, then dilute to the colour of weak tea and apply.
You can make an organic plant tonic in the same way with almost any sort of green waste – grass clippings, manure, fish scraps or a mix of them all – but the big hairy leaves of comfrey are rich in nitrogen so it’s a particularly good tonic for your nitrogen-hungry leafy crops.
These homemade fertilisers are a great boost for plants, but you won’t be able to tell the amount of essential nutrients in each batch. To grow well, plants need balanced amounts of nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium – shown as the NPK ratio on commercial fertilisers. Look for a fertiliser with an NPK rating, such as Yates Thrive Fish Blood & Bone or Tui Seaweed & Fish Fertiliser to supplement your DIY tonics.
– compiled by Barbara Smith
industrial revolution. I particularly enjoyed the story of botanical artist Marianne North (1830-1890) who, condemning her sisters’ marriages as ‘‘a terrible experiment’’ that turned a woman into ‘‘a sort of upper servant’’, began travelling the world alone in search of exotic new plants to paint.
At the end of her exploration of Millennials and their perennials, Vincent allows herself to fall in love again. A full cycle of seasons has been weathered and she stands on her balcony as a calmer woman with ‘‘fewer expectations and happier to challenge them’’. I hope she continues to blossom. – Helen Brown, The Daily Telegraph