THEGAYUK

Category: Home And Garden

  • GARDEN | June Tips

    Up until now we’ve been patient, we’ve been ever watchful of pests and frosts and now spring is over and summer is here! We’re halfway through the year and this is when I usually start to panic! There’s always loads I haven’t done, things I haven’t sown and the weeds are growing faster than everything else in the garden. This is the month to stay focused and let the effort you’ve put in over the previous months pay off.

    In short – life in your garden is going to be ‘Crazy’ – so you better WERK! (when I’m not in the garden, RuPaul’s Drag Race is taking up too much of my life right now. Sorry)

    Weeds and Hoes – Everything is growing quickly – and I mean EVERYTHING. Weeding should be part of your daily to-do list now. Depending on the size of area you’ve got to look after, a little bit everyday should be enough to keep things in order. Weeds fight your plants for nutrition, light and water – so pull those suckers out and take satisfaction in what you’re doing. Hoe regularly to keep the weeds at bay – hoeing also helps stop slug attacks, as they don’t like to slime their way across disturbed soil.

    Last chance saloon – Suddenly from waiting for the weather to improve – we’re now in a race against time to make sure we don’t miss our sowing window. The soil should be warm enough everywhere now, except in the darkest, dampest corners of the garden. There are lots of seeds that can go straight in the ground this month including courgettes, runner beans and peas. You can now also plant out everything you’ve been bringing on in pots. Don’t forget to leave enough space for each plant to flourish – they always get bigger than you expect!

    Harvest – If you’ve been working on the garden since the beginning of the year there should be loads of treasures for you to harvest now. There are too many to list here but you could be enjoying new potatoes, asparagus, onions and spinach. Don’t be afraid to harvest hard, a lot of plants will keep yielding the more they’re picked – just Google what you’ve got and read up about it. For example harvesting spinach regularly and keeping it well watered will help stop them from bolting and give you more tasty leaves for longer.

    Start your own gardening calendar – This is the best piece of advice I have ever received. At this time of year I’m stressing about things I haven’t planted and mistakes I’ve made. Write everything down – every thought, every idea, every notion, because when the chaos of the summer months is over you can regroup in the winter, read about your thoughts and get planning for next year. I can’t count the amount of times I’ve missed the sowing window for crops I want to grow – if I’ve noted that disappointment I’ll be extra prepared next year. Gardening and planting is a continuing process. It’s so important not to get bogged down in defeat, every year you’ll get better, wiser and more confident. The rewards for perseverance are immeasurable. Today we’re having a spicy cucumber salad (not a euphemism) for lunch with every single ingredient grown by us and that’s a feeling you can’t buy.

    So go for it! June is one of the funnest months to be a home grower and will really connect you to the joys of seasonal food. Work hard and you’ll be serving up some home-grown produce REALNESS – (again blame RuPaul) in no time.

  • GARDEN | May Gardening Tips: May The (Ground) Force Be With You.

    It’s the cusp of summer so now’s the time to go for it! May is a great month, warm breezes herald the coming summer and you’ve probably had your first BBQ by now (albeit wrapped up warm and heading inside as soon as it gets too cold!) Your garden loves this time of year and any early crops you’ve sown may even be ready for your first harvest. Yum

    Don’t sow in one go– Now’s the time to plant in earnest, as always keep an eye on temperatures and uses clouches if necessary. The main thing to remember here is: don’t sow everything at once. Stagger your planting of the same crop, especially if you’re going to be eating it all yourself. Plant a few of each thing you want to grow and then a few more two or three weeks later. This helps to avoid gluts and means you can be eating an interesting and varied diet for the rest of the year.

    Water, water, water – If young plants dry out they can easily die. May can be a deceptively dry month, cloudy and misty days can make you forget to water the plants. The best way I’ve found is to have a watering schedule – I water twice a day, in the morning and evening. Even if there have been showers during the day – just in case. You can usually tell by looking and feeling if the soil is damp enough. Just keep on top of it and everything will be fine.

    Keep on top of your weeding – Weeds grow just as fast as your crops *shakes fist at sky* so make sure you keep getting rid as soon they appear. As with watering get yourself a weeding schedule. Try and get out there as often as you can as the weeds are always competing with your plants for the nutrients in the soil.

    Thinning – Everything you’ve been starting off indoors may now need thinning out. It’s tempting to keep as many sprouts as possible but bear in mind how large the plants can become. If they end up competing for space that will only end up being detrimental to the yield you end up with.

    Sowing seeds outdoors – There are so many great crops that can now go in the ground including – spinach, peas, kale, spring onions, lettuces, carrots, cauliflowers, rocket and runner beans.

    Sowing seeds indoors – Your early batches of indoor sown seeds should mostly be outside now, so clean up those trays and get a new batch on the go. It’s time to get those summery foods in the windowsill. Summer cabbages, chillies, peppers and runner beans will all be ready to go!

    It’s full steam ahead now. This is the time to start marking pages in your recipe books and Googling “things to do with runner beans” because the garden explosion is about to happen and you won’t want to waste a thing.

  • REVIEW | RHS Malvern Spring Festival

    The Royal Horticultural Society’s (RHS) Malvern Spring Festival is a fantastic annual event that takes place amongst the backdrop of the spectacular Malvern Hills. It’s the place to go if you are a keen gardener or foodie, as visitors are treated to show gardens, floral displays, celebrity talks, and lots of glorious food and drink. (more…)

  • HOME | Creative Curtains

    Adding character and individuality to your home needn’t break the bank or the environment. If you’re after a look that’s less glass coffee tables and flat-packed furniture and more individual and creative – use your imagination and what you can find around you to have fun decorating your home.

    Leaving city life for a more relaxed existence in mid-Wales and moving to an area that’s famed for its green credentials and alternative lifestyles, we were determined to make sure our 200 hundred year old cottage was restored and decorated sympathetically.

    Doing the work ourselves and with no real budget to speak of, the cottage has undergone a complete renovation. It’s taught us that style and personality doesn’t have to come at too high a cost. You just need to look at the materials you have around you – and seek out the alternatives to the ‘norm’.

    The curtains throughout the cottage are made from bespoke prints sourced from a local fabric shop. It’s a shop where you can easily loose hours rummaging through the rolls of original patterns. The results are worth the effort – curtains that no one else is likely to have and at a fraction of the cost of a standard pair.

    All you have to do is measure the spaces and buy some material that’s just a little bigger. Cut the material in half (vertically) to make the two curtains. Then using iron-on hemming tape, hem the edges (use a damp cloth and just iron the tape on).

    Using standard safety pins attach one every 5-10cms across the top hem. Then you’re ready to hang them.

    Find two old large nails for a rustic look (old roofing nails are ideal – they look worn and are big enough) or buy some from a local art/DIY store. It doesn’t even need to be a nail – they’re just easy to install – a hammer and it’s done. But you can use screws, old door handles, latches etc – let your imagination and creativity guide you. So long as you can attach gardening wire to it – go for it! For larger windows you may need a central nail or support to stop the wire sagging.

    Once in place thread the wire through the safety pins and then attach to the nails – and there you go shabby chic at its most simplest! The detailed expensive-looking prints contrast brilliantly with the utilitarian wire and nails.

    To complete the rustic theme you can decorate the window sill with cost-free natural finds like these old glass bottles – they make an uncomplicated decoration in a windowsill. At first glance they all appear clear but each one has a different tint. The colours stand out when the sun shines through them. And best of all they were all dug up from the garden literally under the same window – zero cost and zero miles!

    The pebbles and stones here have been collected from a beach walk. They’re arranged on a simple wooden plate found in a local charity shop and take pride of place on the bedroom windowsill.

    And finally an old pot with geraniums provides a splash of colour and connects the room with the garden outside.

    This style may suit a country cottage but the principles of doing something different, something no one else will have can be applied to any home – say goodbye to the mass produced stuff that a store buyer has chosen and introduce a bit of personality and style to your home.

     

    by Andy Richards

  • GARDEN | April Gardening

    Here we go! The days are longer and warmer now and you can actually get outside without dressing like an Eskimo.

    This is where the fun begins – but a word of warning: keep an eye on the weather. The month of the April Fool can play all sorts of tricks – be mindful of your particular surroundings because if you go gung-ho with your planting a late frost could undo all your hard work in a minute.

    Herbs – If you’ve limited space, even if you just have a balcony or window boxes then grow herbs. The best way to pep up your cooking is with incredibly fresh and flavoursome herbs – rosemary with lamb, basil on your pasta dishes, parsley with fresh fish – I could go on forever but it really is true. At this time of year almost all herbs can be planted outside now. Make sure the soil’s warm enough and get your kitchen garden in the ground. Your meals will never be the same again!

    Prepare you seed beds – Everyone loves a freshly made bed and your plants are just the same. If you’ve done this before you should have added your homemade compost to the bed last autumn to give it time to thoroughly rot down, but fear not some decent compost or manure that’s well rotted can be added now to get your planting off to a great start. Soil varies from place to place but any hard material like stones and sticks should be removed where possible – get the rake out and aim for the finest soil you can get – you can even sieve it if you want to go the extra mile (and are slightly crazy).

    Harden off your indoor grown young plants – Just like us your plants need a bit of training now and again. Anything you’ve been growing indoors at this point needs to be taken outside on warm days and then brought back in at night. Acclimatising plants like this gives them a better chance of flourishing in the unpredictable British weather.

    Don’t forget colour. – Growing crops is ultimately rewarding in the garden, but don’t forget to make it pretty too. Once you’ve got all your food and you’re enjoying the feast outside you should have somewhere lovely and bright to sit and enjoy it. I know psychologically for me sitting amongst flower-pots bursting with colour makes me feel very happy indeed. To pretty things up pots and hanging baskets are great as they can be moved and adapted to create different spaces and moods – and don’t be tempted to spend a fortune on them – old buckets and watering cans make great planters, just make sure you drill some holes in the bottom so the flowers don’t drown!

    So there we go, that’s April. Now’s the time to get ready to start reaping the rewards of your hard work – next month you could be harvesting your first crops and feeling very pleased with yourselves indeed.

  • GARDEN | March: Bursting Into Life

    We’ve made it through the dark times! For me March is the month of possibilities and potential. The days are getting visibly longer and life is starting to show signs of reappearing outside.

    Shoots are shooting and if you’ve been planting indoors all your early efforts are becoming vibrant bursts of green. So this is where the fun really begins.

    Weeds – The new shoots of spring are the first sign of new life, but if the shoots are weeds they’ve got to go. Spend time now really looking after your beds. Take the time to remove every trace of weeds that have started to germinate under the March sun. In my experience trying to do this quickly will only lead to more trouble later on. View each bed as something to be thoroughly cleaned and tidied and don’t stop until you’re happy it’s perfect.

    Go Hardy or go Home – The reason your beds should be carefully prepared is that it’s time for outside planting! Although it’s starting to feel like spring do keep an eye on the weather and make sure you’re aware of forthcoming frosts – if in doubt wait a few weeks or protect your new crops under cloches. Not everything can be planted now, select hardy crops such as leeks, lettuces, parsnips and onions. Some herbs can be sown towards the end of the month too. Parsley, fennel and coriander will all be fine – again protect if frosty.

    Pest Control – As life begins again, hungry animals are keeping as close an eye on your gardening efforts as you are. If the temperature is mild, slugs and snails may have begun to appear around the place. Depending on your style they will need dealing with. We try to avoid chemicals where possible and by heading out at dusk with a torch we’re always amazed at the amount of slimy guys we find. We usually feed our collection to the ducks – we like to think of it as the circle of life!

    The Wet Stuff – Water is a precious commodity for your garden – with so many of us now on water meters and the unpredictable British Weather it’s always worth thinking about sorting some water storage for your garden. Water butts under existing drainpipes are a great way to start. Also think about putting guttering on your sheds and any other outside structures. If you do this now you’ll be well prepared when the hosepipe bans kick in (I know, I’ve jinxed it now – wet summer here we come!)

    So from here on out it’s going to be full steam ahead. Savour this moment of anticipation – we all know it’s the best bit. ∎

  • GARDEN | The Month Of Love For The Garden

    Valentine’s day has come and gone so now it’s worth investing a bit of love outside this month for a long-term relationship with your garden.

    Fill the house – Windowsills are a great place to get things going. Seeds are unlikely to germinate outside at the moment so use your light filled indoor spaces to get your ‘grow on.’ You could start now with almost anything you want some of my favourites would be broad beans, peas, spinach, tomatoes and lettuces. Whilst sowing imagine the first barbeque of the year and plant what you’ll need to compliment your smoky meats and chilled beers.

    Get Chitting – If you want to grow potatoes this year then it’s time to get started. Choose your favourite variety and buy some seed potatoes. Chitting is the process of putting your seed potatoes in a cool light place and allowing them to start sprouting shoots known as ‘chits’. Spread the potatoes out in seeds trays to allow them the space to start. Potatoes are a great crop and are versatile – however, if space to grow crops is an issue perhaps grow things that are slightly more expensive to buy in the shops instead.

    Tunnel of Love – If you are lucky enough to have a polytunnel then the increasing daylight hours are going to be creating an atmosphere in the tunnel that will support the planting of seeds. Beware, plummeting temperatures will have an effect on what’s going on in the tunnel. To be on the safe side keep an eye on the forthcoming weather forecasts. To avoid getting caught out you could even create a mini tunnel inside your polytunnel with some clear plastic.

    Winter Pruning – If you have any fruit trees now is your last chance to prune. If you leave it until spring they may have come out of dormancy and bleed sap when pruned.

    Always use protection – If you’ve got any crops that you’ve been harvesting over the winter, now’s the time to protect them from hungry birds. Use nets on things like cabbages. If you want to help the wildlife then set up some bird feeders – making sure they’re away from your crops and out of reach of watchful pussy-cats.

    So whether you’re shot with cupid’s arrow or not in February – there’s plenty to love about your garden this month. Have a good one!

  • GARDEN | January Jobs For A Tidy Year Ahead

    Celebrations are over, the commute is back and the weather is making you want to stay under the duvet indefinitely.

    But what about your gardens, smallholdings and allotments? Now’s the time to wrap up warm, pull on those boots and begin preparations to make this the most fruitful year you’ve had so far.

    January jobs

    Check everything over – The winter weather can be hard on your outdoor equipment and structures so cast an eye over your sheds, greenhouses and hosepipes. Repair any obvious breakages and protect anything that looks like it might struggle over the next couple of months.

    Spread the s**t – Use well rotted compost or manure on your empty vegetable beds. You want the soil to be in tip-top condition when you come to plant things out. Dig the beds over to aerate the soil – but be careful, if the soil is frozen or waterlogged leave it alone until the weather improves.

    Clean Up – When the planting season begins you won’t have time to do much else so make sure your pots, trays and tools are clean and organised ready for the busy times. You’ll feel so much better when your potting bench is dirt free and ready for action – even if it only stays that way for a short time!

    Make a plan – With a cup of tea (it’s dry January remember) sit down with a good gardening book and get organised. Decide what you want to grow this year – learning from previous successes and mistakes – or if you’re totally new to the growing world then pick whatever you want, even if it just looks pretty! Order seeds and draw diagrams and I can guarantee it will set you up for a great year ahead.

    Sow Indoors – Get a head start by sowing some seeds indoors. Try broad beans, salad leaves, spinach, leeks and onions for the healthy new you in 2014. Nothing tastes better than home-grown organic fruits and veg!

    Something New – Try something new this year. If you like the idea of growing something unusual or for the first time, have a go. The gardening world is full of hints and tips on what to do – but going off piste can be the most rewarding part of growing your own produce.

    So who said January is always miserable? Get on it now and reap the rewards throughout 2014! Good luck.

     

    If you would like to share your gardening pictures this year then do forward to Newsdesk@TheGayUK.com and we’ll publish the best ones each month. Our favourite pic of the year will win a TGUK goody-bag!

    Happy Snapping!

  • What’s In Your Boyfriend’s Bed?

    When I decided to come out, aged 18, I was quite often to be found clubbing away at the weekends and getting the morning bus home from a conquest the night before. Being young, drunk and horny was great fun, though looking back now I do shudder a little at the thought of the random beds I have had the pleasure of sharing, and not just with humans.

    Sharing a bed with someone you’ve just met can be incredibly horny as you explore what’s on offer. How often though do you check under their bed or ask when the sheets were last changed? I try to change my bedding every week mainly because I like the smell of fresh linen. However as a student without a washing machine the bedding could be left for weeks if not months. Now don’t judge me, I’m sure there are thousands of other students, and I bet a few older guys too, who still don’t change the sheets once a week? Month?

    So what’s the worse you could find in an unchanged bed? Well I had a little chat with the Dyson microbiology team who inform me that although you may not be able to see some horrors, it doesn’t mean they aren’t there. The most common bedroom pest is the dust mite.

    These little mites can live for up to 4 months and produce approximately 2000 droppings. With an average of 10,000 mites living in any bed at one time, that’s around 20 million droppings every 4 months. Yum yum. If a bed isn’t changed or hoovered every now and then, the numbers could be a lot higher. Sometimes the morning after when you’ve sobered up and the sun sheds some light into the room, it usually bring a reality check on your choice of mate the night before. However more worryingly is it can also give you an indication as to how many mites you slept with the night before!

    Other bed horrors to be found are the larger bed bugs. Whereas the mites may give you itchy watery eyes or a stuffy nose, the bed bugs really like to get involved in the action. Biting into the skin whenever possible to feed on your blood. This blood feeding makes them prone to sharing infections from one partner to another as you sleep. Unlike the mite, which are very hard to spot with the naked eye, the bed bug is quite visible and also leaves visible red itchy bite marks on your body. If he’s bugs about the bed you’ll certainly know about them.

    It’s not only the bedroom critters though you have to think about. The average person can perspire up to a litre per night (I’m guessing a little more if enjoying an active night). The bed can also hide many other human fluids including saliva, blood, urine, faecal matter and semen. Then there’s the tea, coffee, beer, vodka, squirty cream to think about. Ah the memories and smell of poppers, lavender oils and squirty cream. The only excitement I see in bed nowadays is the occasional cuppa in the morning.

    Now please don’t let any of this put you off your evening plans or make you resort to sleeping in a sterile oxygen tent the rest of your life. Living with mites and microbes are a part of life and generally cause no problems whatsoever. They should only become a concern if left to breed to infestations then you should take action.

    The Dyson microbiology team offer this little tip on getting your bedroom clean:

    ‘Homes are full of irritants that can trigger allergic responses. Dust mites are the main culprits in hot spot areas where you spend the most time: The living room and the bedroom. Vacuum intensively around beds and under beds if possible, as dust mites can be disturbed and fall to the floor as covers are thrown back.  And don’t forget to vacuum under the sofa; the perfect hiding place for dust mites.’

    So next time you dive into the boyfriend’s bed just check all looks and smells clean, at least at the start of the night!

    Happy Sleeping.

  • Autumn Gardening Tips

    “Autumn is the mellow season, all the hectic flowering and reproductive activity of the summer is over. For the gardener, this is the time to start putting the garden to bed” – Alan Titchmarsh

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  • REVIEW: The Chelsea Flower Show 2012

    It’s that time of year again where we get to stroll, relax, drink Pimms and see the creme-de-la-creme of the gardening world at the Chelsea Flower Show.

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