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Homes and Gardens

  • Blooming Times: Heavenly Hyacinths

    Versatile, easy-going hyacinths bring colour and scent indoors and out, writes Flo Whitaker

  • Blooming Times: Know Your Enemy

    Plagued with Vine Weevils? Enraged by Lily Beetles? Despairing of Box Caterpillars? Flo Whitaker investigates three of the most troublesome gardening pests

  • Bespoke Dreams from Eridge Green Kitchens

    Rob Wheeler’s passion for inspired carpentry and woodwork is unmistakable and instigated the creation of Eridge Green Kitchens. With a new showroom on the way and business flourishing, Robert Veitch went to visit the workshop

  • 10 Hot Years: iFit Fires & Flues

    iFit Fires & Flues Ltd are celebrating 10 years of successful business. The warm and genuine couple behind the name, Paul and Jo, share the secrets of with Sara Whatley

  • Home Style: Bold Type

    Textile designer Zoe Davis and her husband James have transformed a Grade-II listed farmhouse with a vibrant pallet and vintage finds

  • Blooming Times: The Sky's the Limit

    The clematis family offers flowers in a wide array of colours and shapes, and there are varieties for nearly every month of the year, says Flo Whitaker

  • Home Style: A Better Way of Life

    When Catherine and her late husband Dr Brian Sack left London for a more rural lifestyle. They bought a 16th century cottage and created a home full of modern artwork and stylish vintage French finds

  • Homes Extra: Shed Space

    Are you thinking of a new shed, greenhouse or garden room? Sara Whatley gives you some food for thought on all three

  • Blooming Times: Top of the Pots

    How are your patio pots? Show-stopping, or lacklustre? Time to try some different planting combinations, suggests Flo Whitaker

  • Kids Zone: Get the Kids Growing

    Read on for some green fingered ideas to get the kids involved in the garden from Sara Whatley

  • Home Style: Pastures New

    The grass really was greener for this family, who left behind their recently remodelled London house for a new life in the country

  • Homes Extra: Let There Be Light

    Read on for the latest in home and garden lighting ideas for a bright and up to date space, says Sara Whatley

  • Blooming Times: Wisteria Hysteria

    With its exquisitely fragrant, show-stopping blooms, wisteria is the queen of spring climbers – yet it can be frustratingly sulky and thuggish. Flo Whitaker offers a quick troubleshooting guide to floral success

  • Home Style: Home on Wheels

    A plot on the family farm with stunning marshland views was the ideal spot for Freddie Pack and Katie McNie to build their new home – a cabin on wheels

  • Home Style: Modern Outlook

    Downsizing couple Pauline and Bill chose practicality over space, but didn’t compromise on their love of mid-century style

  • Blooming Times: Dahlia Mania

    Inexpensive, hardworking plants with blooms in a vast array of colours and shapes - no flower is perfect, but dahlias come pretty close, says Flo Whitaker

  • Home Style: Time to Heal

    After losing her husband, Tracy Nors threw all her energies into renovating a period terrace in the pretty town of Rye

  • Blooming Times: Spring into Summer

    Say the word ‘bulb’ and thoughts of spring immediately come to mind - but there are some bulbus characters to plant now for summer colour. Flo Whitaker selects a few of her favourites

  • Home Style: Farm Stay

    While living in a tiny cabin on the family farm, Freddie and Katie Pack saved up to build their dream house on a plot a few fields away

  • Home Style: Romantic Vision

    Tim and Jenny Backshall rescued a derelict timber-framed hall house, respecting its history while future proofing for generations to come

  • Homes Extra: Dining Style

    Sara Whatley is singing the praises of the dining table and looking at different styling options for it

  • Blooming Times: Spring Fever

    February is often labelled the cruellest month in the horticultural calendar. However, Flo Whitaker suggests there is still plenty of opportunity for growth

  • Home Style: Forest Idyll

    Moving the kitchen became the start of a much bigger project for the Buckinghams, as it created opportunities to change their new home

  • Blooming Times: What's in a Name?

    Botanical Latin may seem daunting, but it’s designed to be helpful and informative, says Flo Whitaker

  • Gardening: The Benefits of Hedges

    Gardeners are a flower-obsessed lot, greedily seeking out the latest, brightest blooms. That’s all very well, but ephemeral flowers need a stage to perform on. Plant a hedge - they add structure, benefit wildlife and look good all year round.

  • Home Style: Treasure Trove

    The interior of a quaint, white-washed cottage in Sussex has been transformed into a colourful home full of character by a couple of keen collectors.

  • Blooming Times: Awesome Alliums

    Easy-going and beloved by bees - now’s the perfect time to plant allium bulbs for a spectacular display next year. Flo Whitaker picks some of her favourites.

  • Homes Extra: Truly, Madly, Deeply

    Fall in love with your soft furnishings again this autumn and make it the season to snuggle up in style, says Sara Whatley

  • Home Style: Clear Vision

    Jacqui Elliott Williams has relished bringing this elegant Victorian house back to life with confident ideas, stylish choices and creative flair.

  • Homes Extra: Parasol Power

    Pretty parasols are enjoying their moment in the sun and making our outside spaces spin with style, says Sara Whatley.

  • Blooming Times Garden Lore - Fact or Fiction?

    The horticultural world abounds with bad advice and old wife’s tales, but some pronouncements are scientifically sound, says Flo Whitaker, as she asks, “True, or false?”

  • Home Style: Beaming with Happiness

    Lisa and Matthew Good wanted a property to add value to, sell and move on – but they ended up so enamoured with their renovation that they decided to stay put.

  • Sussex Homes: Transforming a dark and unloved cottage into a Greek Escape

    Helen Robinson has transformed a dark and unloved cottage from 1837 into a bright and inviting space with a Mediterranean feel in St Leonards-on-Sea.

  • Sussex Homes: Transforming a once unloved oast into a colourful and funky family abode

    Sam Fallon, who works in advertising and husband Nick, who works in publishing have transformed a once unloved oast into a colourful and funky family abode near Tunbridge Wells for themselves and their daughters Tilly and Isobel.

  • 7 Sustainable Design Tips For Hosting A Glorious Summer Garden Party

    ​​​​​​​Trying to take responsibility for our carbon footprint doesn’t mean we have to stop enjoying ourselves, far from it. With a few changes, we can continue to enjoy life as we know it but with a reduced impact on the planet.

  • 5 eco ways to use old kitchen products in your garden

    So many kitchen and cleaning products ending up in landfill at the end of their lives, just think of all those sponges, scourers and rubber gloves that add to our waste problems! Here’s 5 eco ways to use old kitchen products in your garden.

  • 6 of the best shrubs you can buy and plant for your garden

    If your garden’s looking parched and bare, why not invest in a few shrubs to fill the gaps. Flo Whitaker picks six of the best for late summer colour

  • Stylish Home Upgrades To Help You Save Energy

    One of the biggest issues facing everyone across the country is the cost of living crisis. Whether it’s your weekly shop, new appliances or even where you get your electricity from, the costs have spiralled to a level that is forcing us all to feel the pinch. 

  • Design Trends To Inject Life Into A Boring Bathroom

    For many people, the bathroom can be a problem room in their homes. Changing things around can be expensive and time consuming while the need for a plumber or installer is another common barrier – assuming you can even find one in the first place!

  • What The Average UK House Price Could Get You In Sussex (And Beyond)

    In the UK right now the average house price is estimated at just over £245,000 (as of February 2021). But that figure obviously varies from region to region. So if you're a first-time buyer or looking to move to pastures new, which areas should you be looking at to get the best value for your money?

  • Rhododendron's are show stopping flowers: here's why

    Most gardens can claim at least one rhododendron resident. Nowadays, they are commonplace plants, ubiquitous even, but rhododendrons are not native to Britain and were once considered exotic.

  • Blooming Times: Fritillary Magic

    Fritillaria meleagris was one commonplace in our countryside, but its natural habitat of damp grasslands has declined to such an extent that wild colonies can now only be found in a few locations around the UK.

  • Be Inspired at Village Bathrooms

    ADVERTISING FEATURE: These days the bathroom has become a place of refuge, wellbeing, indulgence and creativity; as exemplified by Darren and Alison Standing at Village Bathrooms in Uckfield, when Robert Veitch visited the showroom

  • 6 decorating tips to cheaply transform your home

    It is an undeniable truth that homes require occasional renovations. A simple addition of a piece of new furniture or a fresh layer of paint can significantly transform the appearance of an older home in particular. Upgrading the look of your home can be achieved through various methods, such as installing new tiles or a modern bathtub.

  • This is the gardening job you need to do in January

    Some plants pootle along at a snail’s pace, while others grow at dizzying speed. Sweet peas belong in the second category. These fast, fuel-guzzlers are the Formula One of the gardening world, writes Flo Whitaker.

  • Is open-plan living really the best way? Our Editor explores the pros and cons

    Open plan design in our living spaces has long been heralded as the solution to family harmony, but as heating costs rise and families grow and change, Adele Trathan questions whether wall-less really is best

  • Small but perfectly formed: Here's a home we really love

    With a background in interior PR and dog accessory online store, Helen Smith has a keen eye for design and detail. She was living in a six-bedroom country house set in five acres near Burwash, East Sussex, with husband Nick, and children Oscar and Isabella when she turned her attention to finding a town house in nearby Rye.

  • Salvias For Summer And Beyond

    If you’re looking for easygoing, heat-tolerant plants with a long-flowering season, (and who isn’t?) you can do no better than salvias, writes Flo Whitaker