Wild things
GARDEN style has veered towards the relaxed look over the past decade and this has been more recently amplified by a desire to let nature take its course.
We want to have planned gardens, however we’re also beginning to realise the importance of simply letting some plants grow as they like, while tolerating other uninvited guests because they are good pollinators or act as habitats for creatures which make up the great tapestry of garden life.
To achieve a mix of order and chaos in your plot you might consider choosing some plants that will readily self-seed and spread themselves around the garden. It’s a laid-back approach, the plants are free and it’s hard to beat the pictures that mother nature creates when given free rein.
In my garden, I have my favourite self-seeders, plants that I really like. When I’m weeding, I keep an eye out for their seedlings and try to leave them undisturbed. With some plants they are obvious, such as the coarse hairy rosettes of
Geranium palmatum
Echium pininana, and others you will get to know well if they are frequent visitors.
Here are some of the best selfseeders:
is a cultivated form of wild cow parsley that you will see in hedgerows across the country billowing with frothy foams of creamy white flowers. ‘ Ravenswing’ has dark purple stems and leaves, and is pretty easy to identify as a seedling because of this distinctive colour. It has self-seeded in my front garden underneath the birch trees and has been useful in extending the season of interest that starts with spring bulbs. It likes welldrained sandy soil and performs in sun or dappled shade.
is a perennial that will spread around quite easily and find its way into cracks and crevices in an utterly charming fashion. This ability to grow in poor soil makes it a good choice for those tricky areas, especially dry shade. I love the colour of its limey-green foliage and pretty sulphur yellow flowers. It’s always a beautiful picture after a shower as raindrops sit glistening on the hairy leaves.
or common fennel is dotted around my garden, its fine frothy fragrant foliage softening the edges of borders. At the height of summer the tall stems will be topped by flat heads of yellow flowers. If it threatens to become a weed for you, then cut off these flowers and pop them in a vase.
our native foxglove tends to self-seed in clusters so you get little groups of them standing together. The seedlings are easily identified by the furry leaves in a rosette formation. These are biennials so you can sow now for next year but also buy some one year olds in pots to plant for this year. You get tall spikes of wonderful spotted purple tubular flowers which bees love to burrow into.
has taken over a good portion of my garden and I’m happy about this as I love the green ferny foliage and the profusion of pink flowers at this time of year. If you find it getting a bit out of hand, you can easily pull up the seedlings by hand and chop off the flowers of bigger plants before they begin to set seed.
is a tall perennial and has been used as a medicinal plant for centuries, most notably as a sleep aid for insomnia. It’s an elegant plant with clusters of pale pink flowers on top of stout stems. It prefers damp conditions in sun or dappled shade.
We have already held street parties, pageants, lunches, beacon-lighting and bake-offs over this very special Platinum Jubilee weekend. And now, it’s the turn of superstars from the worlds of music and dance to pay tribute to Her Majesty. Hosts Kirsty Young and Roman Kemp will lead live coverage of the Platinum Party at the Palace (Saturday BBC One,
in which 22,000 people, including 7,500 key workers, members of the Armed Forces, volunteers and charity workers, will be in attendance to celebrate the Queen’s sevendecade reign.
The unique set design consists of three stages, linked by walkways, which create a 360-degree experience in front of Buckingham Palace and The Queen Victoria Memorial. Linking the stages together are 70 columns representing Her Majesty’s reign that can be illuminated to provide a full formation of lights and beams. Queen + Adam Lambert will open the spectacular concert with a very special one-off production which will no doubt summon memories of Brian May’s historic appearance on the Palace roof during the Golden Jubilee Concert in 2002. Then, Alicia Keys, Hans Zimmer, Ella Eyre, Craig David, Mabel,
Elbow and George Ezra will share the three-stage set up with the likes of Duran Duran, Andrea Bocelli, Mimi Webb, Jax Jones, Celeste, Nile Rodgers, Sigala and Diversity – all performing their biggest hits. Fresh from his recent success in Italy, the United Kingdom’s Eurovision hero Sam Ryder will also perform live, and closing the two-and-a-half hour show will be Motown legend Diana Ross. It will be her first UK live performance in 15 years. Stars from stage and screen, and the sporting world appearing at the event and on film will include Sir David Attenborough, Emma Raducanu, David Beckham, Stephen Fry, Dame Julie Andrews, The Royal Ballet, Ellie Simmonds, and there is a specially recorded message from Sir Elton John. The evening will pivot around global themes that have been born, or evolved, during the breadth of Her Majesty’s reign. There is a tribute to extraordinary British and Commonwealth contributions in the fields of fashion, sport, and the environment, as well as a look back over 70 Years of Pop Music and Musicals, curated by legendary composer Andrew Lloyd Webber.
Cheers. (R) Everybody Loves Raymond. (R) Live Formula E Jakarta eprix. Coverage of the ninth round of the season from Indonesia (Start-time 9.00am). The Secret Life of the Zoo. Four in a Bed. (R)
Live Betfred Super League Rugby. Castleford Tigers v Wigan Warriors (Kick-off 2.00pm). Channel 4 News. Live England International Football. Hungary v England (Kick-off 5.00pm).
(2021) Premiere. Documentary following the life and career of the legendary football manager, who won an unprecedented 38 trophies during his 26-year tenure in charge of Manchester United.
Hungary v England. Highlights of the opening fixture in Group A3 of the UEFA Nations League, which took place at Puskas Arena in Budapest. (2005) Married assassins are hired to kill each other – a situation that restores some much-needed excitement to their relationship. Comedy adventure, with Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie.
Raw. (2016) Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares USA. (R) Hollyoaks Omnibus. Extended edition of the soap. (R)
The Perfect Pitch. (R)
RADIO and TV presenter Sara Cox clearly loves a bit of sisterhood.
The bubbly, Bolton-born broadcaster is relishing working among some huge female talent at Radio 2 and is quick to praise the likes of her old mucker and fellow Nineties ‘ladette’ Zoe Ball, as well as fellow presenter Claudia Winkleman.
She’s also positive about the hierarchy at Radio 2 and the fact both her producer and the head of the station are women. Does she find women in her industry competitive?
“I think they are competitive with themselves, but we are all pretty supportive of each other. Because of the nature of the beast at Radio 2, we are all there at different times. I won’t bump into Claudia there but I will text her when she’s on air on a Saturday morning.”
Female friendship is a major feature in her debut novel, Thrown, about four women from the same estate who meet for a new pottery class at the local community centre – a setting inspired by her time as presenter on The Great Pottery Throw Down.
The women soon become friends as their different stories unfold: Becky, a single mother whose jailbird ex-husband turns up at her house; Jameela, whose life is in turmoil because she is childless; Sheila, whose retired husband has a surprising secret; and Louise, who seems to have a perfect life but is seeking something more.
As they are thrown together against a backdrop of the pottery class and its handsome tutor, the mutual support they show for each other through thick and thin becomes the heart of the novel, which makes for a feelgood beach read with a happy ending.
“I grew up with brilliant matriarchal characters on Coronation Street. I was brought up by a brilliant mum, then I have my nana and my sister, so I was drawn to the four characters and loved the idea of them mucking in and coming together,” Sara, 47, explains.
The fictional females are all at a crossroads, frustrated with their lives.
“I don’t think that reflects on me,” she says, laughing. “But I’ve definitely had times when my career’s been a little bit quieter and I’ve thought, ‘What if...’, and ‘Should I have done this?’, and ‘Have I made the right decision?’
“Overall, I’ve been really lucky. I had a bit of a false start with the old marriage stakes, when my first marriage went pear-shaped, but after that luckily I’m with Ben (Cyzer, her second husband) and I’m really happy and I’ve a great career, but I could just see how easily the odd decision you make or life getting in the way can affect things.”
In the Nineties, she partied hard and openly admits that her 2019 early memoir, Till The Cows Come Home – which charts her life growing up on her father Len’s cattle farm surrounded by animals, before getting into media after doing some teenage modelling – is unlikely to spawn a sequel, because she doesn’t remember an awful lot from those subsequent wilder years.
“The juicy bits are too juicy for consumption,” she reveals, laughing. “I can’t remember half of it, to be honest. I could put together a photo album from old copies of Heat magazine, so I could work out roughly what I was doing throughout the Nineties, but there would definitely be big gaps.”
Sara, who lives in north London with her family, had hoped that presenting Drivetime, from 5pm to 7pm, would give her more of a work-life balance. She has three children – Lola, 17, from her first marriage, and Isaac, 14, and Renee, 12, with advertising executive Ben.
“But then I get offered other work that I really enjoy, so I have to work hard to say no to keep that work-life balance going. I got a horse in 2020, which forces me to take time out because I have to go out and ride, can’t look at my phone and have to be in the moment.
“After a 30-year break, to have my own horse again is like some sort of therapy.”
Female friendship is something she has valued greatly both in and outside her broadcasting career, she agrees.
“I have my best friend and soulmate, who’s up north, and down here there’s a group of five of us.
“Two of them I met through Radio 1 and the other two through my husband. Radio has always featured a lot of brilliant women and a lot of great female producers and execs.
“I’ve an all-female team – a female producer and female assistant producer – and it’s a really supportive place to work.” She doesn’t see much of Zoe or others because of their different live show times, but remains good friends with Irish DJ Annie Mac. “I go round and see Annie and her family and they’ll come and hang out here,” she says. “I try to get it together to see Grimmy (TV and radio host Nick Grimshaw) but he’s really busy. But as a whole, I feel radio’s really friendly and we all feel like part of a family.”
She’s been hosting Drivetime since 2019, presents the weekly BBC2 book programme Between The Covers, and is currently hosting the new eight-part series Britain’s Top Takeaways, in which the country’s best independent takeaways go head to head.
“I’m definitely in a golden era of my career. I go to bed thinking about it and wake up thinking about it,” Sara admits.
As host of Between The Covers, she’s no stranger to novels but says she’s not going to read any reviews of her own book, and certainly won’t be featuring it on the show.
“One of my guests mentioned it and I did the equivalent of a hedgehog rolling in a ball and just disappearing.”
Her husband hasn’t read her novel and didn’t read her memoir, she notes, laughing.
“He doesn’t read a great deal. He might look at a book while we’re in bed, but I don’t think he wants to read a book about me or by me when he’s laying next to me.”
Writing the book sparked occasional tears, and she was often grumpy with Ben, she admits. There were creative obstacles before the pandemic, too, but then lockdown happened.
“At that point, my youngest child was 10 and I felt like I was making 1,000 sandwiches a day because they all just needed feeding and I had no head space. I was getting up early and trying to get in a 5am chunk of writing.”
She has a garden office where she writes, but says Ben would come in between his own meetings to chat.
“He’d come in for office banter, but when you’re writing you can’t dip in and out of it. You really have to lose yourself in it.”
There’s a second novel on the way, and Sara is hoping the same characters return in some way.
“I’d love this to be a thing, if I can,” she says of writing. “It’s so different to everything else I do.”
■ Thrown by Sara Cox is published by Coronet, priced £14.99