Claire Ratinon

2 weeks ago | theguardian.com | Claire Ratinon

If you’re growing any plants for fruit, getting your head around pollination is key to ensuring a bountiful harvest. Thankfully, the plants and the pollinators – whether that’s bees, beetles or a summer breeze – have a system for making this happen. Still, any grower should be familiar with the pollination needs of their crops in case intervention is necessary. If GCSE biology is a distant memory, here’s a quick refresher.

2 weeks ago | theguardian.com | Sarah Phillips |Tim Dowling |Hilary Osborne |Georgina Hayden |Claire Ratinon |Oliver Burkeman | +7 more

HouseholdStuffed-up sievesAlways use a dishwasher. If one isn’t available, soak in the sink first, to loosen particles, then take a dish brush or nail brush to it. Rinse under a fast hot tap. Aggie MacKenzie, TV presenter and authorCoffee that clogsCoffee brewed with a French press leaves behind a slurry of grounds and water, and usually too much liquid for the kitchen bin. But coffee grounds can clog up plumbing and create major problems, which I learned the hard way.

4 weeks ago | msn.com | Claire Ratinon

Microsoft Cares About Your PrivacyMicrosoft and our third-party vendors use cookies to store and access information such as unique IDs to deliver, maintain and improve our services and ads. If you agree, MSN and Microsoft Bing will personalise the content and ads that you see. You can select ‘I Accept’ to consent to these uses or click on ‘Manage preferences’ to review your options and exercise your right to object to Legitimate Interest where used.

4 weeks ago | msn.com | Claire Ratinon

Microsoft Cares About Your PrivacyMicrosoft and our third-party vendors use cookies to store and access information such as unique IDs to deliver, maintain and improve our services and ads. If you agree, MSN and Microsoft Bing will personalise the content and ads that you see. You can select ‘I Accept’ to consent to these uses or click on ‘Manage preferences’ to review your options and exercise your right to object to Legitimate Interest where used.

4 weeks ago | theguardian.com | Claire Ratinon

I started my growing season late this year. Life got in the way. By the time I was able to get stuck in, my veg patch was busily filling up with plants that had found their own way there. Now, I’m firmly in the camp of those who believe a weed is simply a plant that’s not where we’d like it to be. Our growing spaces and the creatures that dwell in them benefit from the gardeners who are able to live with some uninvited plants.