The natural plant dye found in Tutankhamun's tomb
Felix Green used to be a textile designer but with a flowery twist, drawing botanical patterns for all types of clothing. Then, during Covid, he decided to do something different to pass the time and signed up for one of the RHS gardening courses. 'I never had any interest in gardening before. There was no plan,' he says. For a man without a plan, it's all worked out rather well. He is now, at the age of 42, one of the gardeners at Hever Castle in Kent where, a few years ago, he planted its first 'dye garden'.
'We are going to start with possibly the most interesting but also the ugliest plant,' he says, walking me down to the far end of the dye bed. There I meet the plant known as madder. Or perhaps it is more accurate to say that it met me, its sticky leaves and stems not really wanting to let me go. It reminded me of cleavers, aka sticky willie, and indeed it belongs to the same family.
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BBC News
41 minutes ago
- BBC News
Hull4Heroes urges people to attend funeral of veteran, 102
An appeal has been made for people to attend the funeral of an Army Darnell, who served with the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, died recently at the age of a charity founded by Paul Matson, a veteran himself, issued the appeal on social post read: "William sadly has no surviving family, but his kind-hearted neighbours want to ensure he receives the farewell he truly deserves – let's make sure William is not alone on his final journey." The request for the charity to help came from Joanne Barlow, Mr Darnell's neighbour in the Holderness Road area of the said: "We started to get to know William during the pandemic when we offered him help with shopping and things."We took him out for his Covid injection and when he saw young kids on the street he would say that at that age he had to join the Army. "That's how we started to learn a bit about his past, although we still didn't know a lot about him."With no known surviving relatives, Ms Barlow said it was really important that he was given a proper send off."I'm pleased to see that lots of people have responded to the call out from Hull4Heroes," she added. One of those to respond to the post was motorcyclist Paul Perry, 68, who lives in said he would be attending the funeral along with members of the Veterans and Riders Support Group."There'll be at least two of us there on Harley-Davidsons," he added. "We have a motto that no vet should leave this earth alone," he Matson said: "All our veterans feel a sad loss when any veteran dies, just like they do in the police force, the fire service and such-like. It's good to pay our respects."Mr Darnell's funeral will be held on Monday at 11:00 BST in the small chapel at Chanterlands Avenue Crematorium in Hull. Listen to highlights from Hull and East Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, watch the latest episode of Look North or tell us about a story you think we should be covering here.
Telegraph
an hour ago
- Telegraph
How we created our dream country garden from scratch
In August 2011, Richard and Tricia Stileman moved in their late-60s to their present home, a 15th-century Wealden hall house in Leeds, near Maidstone, Kent, with a one-acre garden. 'We'd had a three-acre garden before, which was a lot of work because it was on a slope. It was lovely but just too much for us; we wanted something smaller,' says Richard. While this is still a big garden, the fact that it is flat makes it easier to manage. When they arrived, the garden felt 'higgledy-piggledy'. There was a lawn, several trees dotted about, and a large leylandii hedge, 30ft high by 30ft wide, dividing the garden into two. Behind the hedge sat a woodyard used by the previous owner. At the opposite end were four raised brick beds, 'which were all too close together and wrong', says Richard. Having designed their previous garden from scratch, the couple welcomed the challenge of a new, but smaller, project. It has taken them 12 years to do – though, as the couple point out, with a garden you can never say you have finished, because there is always something more to do. Here are some of the tips they picked up along the way. Decide if you want to do the work yourself Both gardeners, Richard and Tricia felt confident about tackling their new project. They have never used a garden designer, though have been lucky to garner tips from designer friends. 'If people feel they don't know anything – maybe they've lived in the city all their life – a garden designer can be a good idea,' says Richard, a retired book publisher. Even if you go it alone, you will still need to find skilled tradespeople for some tasks. 'Word of mouth is always best, from someone who has recently had similar work done,' he adds. They employed a man who had worked in their previous garden to dig up the leylandii hedge, and asked their neighbours to recommend tradespeople for other jobs, including digging a pond. Work out what you want to achieve 'You design gardens according to the piece of land you've got, so we didn't come in with any preconceived ideas,' says Richard. 'It's more challenging but also more fun to redesign a boring piece of flat ground, rather than somewhere full of slopes.' Both keen tennis players, they replaced the woodyard with a tennis court, and then designed the main garden – which covers two thirds of an acre – as one 'room', visible from most parts of the house. When not working in the garden, they enjoy sitting inside and looking out at it, leaving the exploring to their six grandchildren, who live next door. Consider what can stay, and what has to go The Stilemans uprooted the leylandii hedge because it was oppressive and in the wrong location, replacing it with a yew hedge planted farther towards the tennis court. 'We chose yew to hide the court and to provide a wall for the rest of the garden. Yew doesn't need much work and has class, permanence and solidity,' says Richard. Next came choosing which trees to retain. 'It's quite difficult because you have to know a bit about the trees and understand how they're going to look in 10 years' time,' says Richard. 'Are they going to take the sunlight out of your garden if they get too big? That's a common problem.' They chopped down a weeping willow and two cedars which were 'already too big and dark', and replaced them with a 'much less oppressive' blue cedar. They kept two silver birches, a Canadian red oak, a liquidambar (tulip tree) and two hornbeams. 'They fitted the look we wanted and they're nice trees,' says Richard. 'Anybody making a garden must have things they personally like. To have a tulip tree was marvellous, and it was in the right place too.' The brick raised beds were demolished to make way for a garden room extension. Choose hard landscaping with care Pivotal to the garden is an Islamic-style paradise garden planted in four quarters, and incorporating a water feature feeding via a rill into a square pond. It was inspired by the design and spiritual tranquillity of the gardens at the Alhambra in Spain. 'People garden because they want a nice place for contemplation and reflection at the end of a busy day,' says Richard, while Tricia enjoys the sound of the water feature, which recycles rainwater run-off from their roof. Richard advises taking care when installing a water feature, however: 'They all leak,' he says. 'I was too fast installing mine; if you choose one, do it properly to try to avoid leaks.' Do your research before planting Testing your soil in several parts of your garden will determine what you can grow, says Tricia. Their slightly alkaline, loamy soil sits on a bed of clay. Year-round interest was crucial, with flowering for as many months as possible. Their range of herbaceous perennials includes old favourites such as lavender, penstemon, alliums, salvia and cranesbill. Shrubs include several hydrangeas, including H. paniculata 'Limelight', with its green flowers that pinken with age. They have planted ornamental grasses including Calamagrostis brachytricha, Stipa tenuissima, Deschampsia cespitosa 'Bronzeschleier', and Hakonechloa macra (Japanese forest grass). They find them easy to maintain and control and enjoy the movement they add to a garden. 'On a windy day, they give so much; they're like wonderful ballet dancers,' says Tricia. 'Our Ampelodesmos mauritanicus grass puts out flower heads in early April, grows to six-feet high within two weeks, and keeps its flower heads until February. You cut them down, and in April there's a new lot,' says Richard. A 10ft-high rear fence has been transformed by priory-like arches of leylandii interfilled with ivy, an idea inspired by the Prieuré d'Orsan gardens in France. The Stilemans' colour palette is mainly blue, mauve, pink and softer reds. 'We have a problem with orange and mustard yellow,' says Richard. 'When you put them next to pink, something goes wrong; it just doesn't look at all right. You can mix yellow happily with blue, black and white, but not with pink or mauve.' They do not use bedding plants, because they find them too much work, and do not fit into the overall scheme. This sits awkwardly with Tricia's penchant for nasturtiums and pansies. 'We do have the odd argument about nasturtiums,' admits Richard. 'We generally agree on plants; it's just the nasturtiums leading Tricia astray.' An experiment with Geum 'Totally Tangerine' has not gone happily. 'It's too tangerine,' says Richard. However, having seen how successfully a designer friend mixed geums with dark purple alliums, he will try the combination. He advises reading up on plants before you start. 'You get bombarded by breeders offering new variants, but you don't know if they're going to stand the test of time. They're too early to have gone through the RHS testing regime. You can be seduced by a plant and often it won't work. Also, listen to people who have specifically tried something and it has worked. We got Rosa 'Blush Noisette' after a friend told us that hers flowered the whole summer.' The couple also has a main, manicured lawn, and two wilder grass areas, one with a hedgehog house. Accept that a garden will evolve 'Some things don't do as well as you expected, and others you don't like as much as you thought you would,' says Tricia. They keep trying new varieties of astrantia, which can be short-lived and not produce flowers. Sun-loving lavender planted in the wrong place proved a disaster after being drenched by roof run-off. They have also replaced box balls attacked by blight with yew balls. They plan to introduce more white. 'In the distance, white works well; we have Rosa 'Iceberg' on the far wall, which in the late summer catches your eye,' says Richard. They are also extending the flowering season, with snowdrops, aconite and hellebores kicking-off in late winter, and dahlias and asters flowering late in the year: ' Aster x frikartii is a must-have. It's the first aster to flower, in early August through to November. It's a delicate purple, not too big, and doesn't get mildew. It takes two to three years to get to a significant size, but it's not going to suddenly peter out.' Plants that die will be replaced by cultivars more resistant to hotter, drier summers and warmer, wetter winters. However, to avoid sun-worshippers being drowned by waterlogged soil, you need to have good drainage, warns Richard. They have a gardener, Tony, who helps for three hours every week, but they are gradually shifting the balance between herbaceous perennials and shrubs to reduce the workload. Newcomers include Hydrangea serrata 'Morning Glory' and 'Summer Glow'. Gardens are all about change: 'Don't think you can plant and that's it,' says Richard. 'It's a dynamic exercise; but that's the fun of gardening.'
Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
THE CANNY COOK: Cold-brew iced tea
In 20 or so years of writing about food, one of my greatest joys has been picking up clever little tricks from chefs. Simple, transformative things like adding a splash of water to onions as they fry (which helps them to soften and prevents browning too soon) or salting fish 10-15 minutes before cooking to firm up the flesh and enhance the flavour. A couple of weeks ago, while I was staying with a chef friend in Bristol, he offered me a glass of iced tea. Instinctively I turned it down, having never been a fan of its fruit-heavy, syrupy composition. But the drink he poured himself looked light and crisp, so I asked to try it. It was fantastic: elegant, refreshing, completely sugar-free and, it turns out, incredibly easy to make. He had simply soaked a couple of green tea bags (one classic, one with lemon) overnight in cold water. Cold-brewing is key as the tea releases fewer tannins than in hot water, resulting in a smooth and delicate finish. Aromatics (fruits and herbs) can also be added for extra flavour. As someone who is always searching for sugar-free summer drinks, I thought it a brilliant discovery, and I have been playing with variations since. If you fancy making a batch and need a nice carafe, Ikea has a great one with a cork lid for under £5. 1 mint sprig, 52p; 1 litre water, no cost METHOD Using a y-peeler, pare a long strip of zest from the lemon. Place inside a 1 litre carafe or jug, with the tea bags and the mint. If you don't have lemons, try adding slices of cucumber, rounds of orange or lime or strawberry tops (which you'd probably otherwise throw in the bin). Instead of mint, you could add basil leaves, lemongrass stalks or a sprig of rosemary. Fill the carafe or jug with cold water, put on the lid or cover, and leave to cold-brew in the fridge for 12-24 hours. Pour into glasses over ice and slices of the lemon and enjoy. *This cost assumes you already have some basic store-cupboard ingredients. Prices taken from Sainsbury's and correct at time of going to press.
