Love Chelsea by Cleve West – Best in Show

The Climate Change Garden

The Rooftop Workplace of Tomorrow Garden

The DMZ Forbidden Garden

The Arthritis Garden by Thomas Hoblyn

The Telegraph Garden by Sarah Price – can you spot her in this photo?

Homebase Garden

The Bradstone Penache Garden

 The Rainbows Children’s Hospice Garden

Which is your favourite? We love Sarah Price’s garden for the Telegraph – what an amazing, not to mention gorgeous, talent.

Look out for a new feature on the Edible Bus Stop‘s latest projects, coming soon on LULR.

Mayflower or Hawthorn blossom can be widely found in both towns and the countryside.

We will leave the more heavy-bodied fruit recipes until the autumn harvest, and concentrate on quickly fermented varieties now that the blossoms are ripe for the picking. Flower petal wines clear well, mature early and produce wines of delicate flavour and have pleasantly fragrant bouquet. Always pick the blossom when they’re in full bloom on a dry sunny day, discarding stems and other green parts. Try to avoid picking flowers near a road. To measure the flower heads, pack them loosely into a measuring jug. The May blossom of the hawthorn bush or tree makes a light flowery wine, which I prefer with a fairly dry finish.

What you need:

• 4 pints of hawthorn or mayflower blossom
• l.2 kg (2½ lbs) granulated sugar
• 226g (8 oz) sultanas
• 1 lemon and 1 orange
• 1 Campden tablet
• ½ teaspoon grape tannin (or two teabags)
• 1 gallon of cool, boiled water
• All purpose wine yeast and yeast nutrient

What to do:

Wash the blossom to remove dust and insects, place into a large white sterilised bucket and cover with a gallon of boiling water.

Stir in the crushed Campden tablet and leave to infuse for 24 hours.

Draw off two pints of the liquid, heat just to boiling point and pour over the sugar, stirring until dissolved. When this syrup has cooled to blood heat, return it to the bulk of the liquid.

Add yeast, nutrient, chopped sultanas, grape tannin and the juice of the citrus fruit. Shake the demi-john.

Cover with a tea towel and leave in a warm place to ferment for five days, stirring twice daily.

Strain the liquid carefully and transfer to a one-gallon fermenting jar. Fit an air-lock and leave to continue fermenting.

Within a few weeks, the sediment will begin forming at the base of the jar and the ‘must’ or new wine will start clearing.

When all fermentation has ceased, add one crushed Campden tablet.

Siphon or ‘rack’ the new wine from the sediment into another sterilised demi-john, and store in a cool dark place to mature for at least four months.

Serve cool and sweetened if desired.

For more wine recipes from Sylvia click here or visit her blog sylviakent.blogspot.com

Pick of the Day

From this one container, you will have a long season of regular pickings that will provide you with fresh, flavoursome herbs through the seasons and a summer salad of lettuce and tomatoes. By using a square container, you can space the plantings in three ‘rows’, packing in a surprising amount. The planting contains a mixture of hardy and tender subjects, with some perennials and some annuals.

You will need:

• Square fibreglass planter, 40 x 40 x 40 cm (16 x 16 x 16 in)
• Drainage material such as crocks, gravel or polystyrene packing peanuts
• Multipurpose compost
• 1 small cherry tomato plant, 1 dwarf lavender plant, 1 purple-leaved basil plant, 4 small green loose-leaf lettuces, 1 chive plant, 1 oregano plant
• Tomato fertiliser

Planting your pot

1. Put in about 5 cm (2 in) of drainage material, then add the compost, pushing plenty of it into each corner.

2. Start with the tomato, because depending on its size, you may need to adjust the number and position of the other plants. Plant it in one corner; it may need up to one-quarter of the planter. Plant the other corners with the lavender, basil, oregano and chives. If the clump of chives is large, divide it into smaller sections.

3. Now fill in the gaps with small lettuces, perhaps three in the middle row and one between the tomato and basil. Keep spare plants in separate pots for replacements later on.

4. First cut the chive and oregano foliage; they are tasty when they are young and it keeps the plants small. Pick the lavender flowers when in bud. Cut the loose-leaf lettuces as you need them. Later, the chives and oregano will flower; you can eat the petals.

5. When flowering, start to feed the tomato plant. Pick ripe tomatoes and the basil. Remove the lettuces when they begin to set seed in summer. In autumn, remove the tomato and basil plants.

Grow for it! Alternative colours

Each of the six subjects in the recipe has alternatives in different colours, so there are many colour combinations. Cherry tomatoes are also available with yellow or orange fruits, which can be paired with a red-leaved lettuce and a green-leaved Genovese basil. A specialist herb nursery can supply, for example, white-flowered chives, golden oregano and a paler mauve lavender.

Small is Bountiful by Liz Dobbs (Reader’s Digest, £12.99)

Bring your blanket, your current crafty project, and a yummy picnic. Share your crafty love with like-minded handmade heroes on the craftiest day of the year.

The Stitch Picnic will feature workshops and talks from the likes of Mr X Stitch for some cool cross stitch, Momtaz Begum-Hossain for some splendiferous sewing and the infamous Deadly Knitshade for some nifty knitting, and learn a little bit about what they do.

There’ll also be wondrous prizes in the ‘Really Rather Marvellous Raffle’, which you can feel virtuous taking part in as all the money raised will go to the charity Médecins sans Frontiers.

stitchldn.com/stitchcrawl2012

As the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Regatta and its accompanying flotilla of 1,000 boats pass the museum’s door, it will be on hand to tempt guests with picnic boxes, homemade cakes, cream teas and lashings of homemade ginger beer. The food and drink will have a garden theme running throughout. Bunting, giant paper flower balls and festoon lighting will adorn the museum and garden.

In the churchyard, there will be traditional stalls and games such as tombola, guess the weight of the cake, coconut shies, sweets in a jar, white elephant stalls and more. Visitors can relax on pretty picnic blankets in an oasis of calm from the hustle and bustle of the day. To finish the day, summer cocktails will be served, including gin and rhubarb and the museum’s own Gardini – a garden inspired Martini.

The temporary exhibitions and permanent collection will be open as part of the day’s celebrations.

gardenmuseum.org.uk

The living art gallery will be created by some of the very best floral designers in Europe.World-renowned designer, Mig Kimpton, is the festival’s artistic director, which will follow the theme of transformation.

Kimpton has assembled a team of over 75 designers from across Europe to create an experience of colour, fragrance and fantastic floral design.Visitors will have the opportunity to join some of the designers for mini demonstrations each day.

You can buy tickets for the event here.

 tlmewfestivalofflowers.org.uk

In the true spirit of British patriotism, we should all be making our own bunting for the Jubilee street parties – they wouldn’t be complete without it!

Sew Over It will be running two-hour sessions throughout the day priced at £15 each. They will include all the materials, so you can make as much bunting as you like.

No sewing experience is needed, and the crafty teams at Sew Over It will show you all you need to know. Children over the age of seven are welcome but must be accompanied by an adult.

sewoverit.co.uk

There’s been a huge amount of interest in Hen Corner since you launched your venture – why do you think it has been so successful?

We’ve been really pleased with the interest in Hen Corner, it all started when a friend encouraged me to start a blog. I’m discovering that there are many of us living in towns and cities that have aspirations of country living and we want to encourage people to grab the city in one hand and country life in the other. We believe you can have a bit of both and it adds fullness to life.

I think another reason that people like to follow us is that we’re learning as we go. We’re not professional farmers and encourage others to join us on the journey. Like many other London families we have busy urban lives with work commitments, children in two different schools and voluntary roles in the community. Finding time and space to learn new skills and produce some food is a great hobby that is so rewarding.

What are you most proud of since you started it?

Each year we try something new. Last year it was cheese-making – the Camembert style is my favourite and it has come out great each time. This year beekeeping is the new venture. It’s going very well so far, but I must admit I do get a bit nervous every time I open the hive. We had an unexpected gift from them recently of four frames of honey (about five jars). It was a real incentive to take it seriously and make it work. Honey on toast for breakfast is certainly a daily taste of the good life!

Tell us a bit about your hens – how many do you have and what are their names?

I was given my first two hens (Pepsi and Shirley) with a Classic Eglu (chicken coop) as a surprise birthday present from my husband in 2007, the next two were a couple of chicks from a project at my daughter’s school. We then invested in the bigger Eglu Cube and currently have nine hens. In age order we have:

Pearl (Crested Cream Legbar), Butternut (Buff Orpington), Ascot (Silver Laced Wyandotte), CouCou (Maran), Salt (White Leghorn), Duracell (Copper Black), Cinnamon (Columbine), Bunty (Chocolate Bantam Orpington) and Barnie (Barnevelder).

Do you have a star layer?

The hybrids tend to lay eggs most days and between them they lay a variety of colours. Salt lays a perfect chalk white egg and each morning we collect a pale blue egg from Cinnamon. Duracell and Cocou give us pale brown eggs most days and then when the pure breeds are in lay we could have a full house (or nest box)!

Do you think more city dwellers are now keeping chickens in their gardens?

Oh yes, we’ve had several friends start to keep chickens at home including some of the families from my daughter’s school. We run courses from Hen Corner to give people a taster and some of our attendees have come from only a short bus ride away. I’ve also noticed how many chicken products are available at local pet stores and garden centres, so yes, it’s definitely become a hobby for those living in cities.

How much space do you need?

We started to keep chickens in a very small garden and found that the Omlet Eglu Classic was an ideal coop. It needs a footprint of 3m x 1.5m and will happily house two to three hens.

What breeds would you recommend for beginners?

I would recommend hybrid hens for beginners. They will lay the most eggs and are less likely to go broody. Many people start with Rhode Island Red, which is the classic ‘Little Red Hen’, but there are also many other hybrid breeds available with different coloured plumage laying a variety of coloured eggs. Choose the chickens that you like and ask the breeder or supplier for their advice.

What are the key things to think about for people considering keeping urban hens?

It’s really nice for the chickens to get the opportunity to roam around free now and then, however, given the chance they will try and make a dust bath in your flower beds or peck at your veggie patch. It’s worth thinking about where you are happy for them to wander and where not. Netting and fencing can help give them a bit more freedom without them doing too much damage. Unfortunately, most towns and cities have their fair share of foxes, so do make sure your run and coop are fox proof. Finally, think through who will look after your hens when you go on holiday. I expect your challenge will be who to pick from the willing volunteers queuing up to collect the eggs as a reward for feeding and watering the chickens!

What else do you have in Hen Corner?

We’ve got an overflowing kitchen garden, complete with asparagus bed, 11 fruit and nut trees, and a new colony of bees. Our shed stores the chutneys, preserves and our cider press. We’ve got a small pond with goldfish and frogs and may try hatching some ducklings next year.

Are you planning any new courses for this year at Hen Corner?

Most certainly – we’ve found that early evening mid-week works quite well for busy Londoners. Our Urban Hens course is available every other Wednesday between May and September, from 6.30-8pm. Then we are holding a ‘Pick and Pickle’ course in September and a ‘Family Feathers and Fun’ course in November.

What is your idea of a perfect family day in London?

London is great, there is so much on the doorstep for families to enjoy. Kew Gardens is just across the river from our home, if it’s wet then the museums in South Kensington are nearby and if it’s a special occasion, a West End show makes the day complete.

If you do escape to the countryside, where do you love to go?

We take most of our holidays in the British countryside and have recently spent time in the Yorkshire Dales, South Wales, Norfolk and Dorset. We like to get to the coast if possible, it’s an added bonus and the fresh air and unrestricted views are priceless.

What are your top tips for injecting that country feel into our busy city lifestyles?

Oooh, there are lots of things we can all do…

• At least once a week, try and make a meal using only fresh ingredients.
• Grow something that you can eat, such as herbs, tomatoes and salad. If you have a garden, then try something bigger – new potatoes are easy to grow and so rewarding.
• Support your local farmers markets and treat yourself to some of their produce.
• See if you can source local eggs and honey, you may even get to meet the chickens.
• Get out into some green space, breathe deeply and be thankful.

For more info on the courses Sara mentions and the daily goings on at Hen Corner visit hencorner.com

Do you fancy seeing yourself featured in our LULR Interview slot? Email us on hello@liveurbanloverural.com and let us know why – we’d love to hear from you.

The rules are east peasy: bring 1-10 items – they should be clean, ironed and on hangers and simply swap like with like.

Clothes will be graded accordingly; high street and top end high street such as Reiss and Karen Millen, and designer. Clothes, shoes and accessories must be in good condition so don’t take along anything that requires repair or is stained. Avoid taking Primark cast-offs or plain t-shirts, too.

Drop off clothes between 6-7.15pm, have a drink, relax and socialise. Clothes swapping begins at 7.30pm.

Email superswishclothesswap@live.co.uk to secure your place.

The team are putting on a pre-Jubilee Vintage Special on Sunday 27 May at the Islington Assembly Hall. The first 50 visitors get a free goodie bag filled with vintage stallholder discounts, special offers, free gifts and jubilee goodies to celebrate vintage at its best.

Vintage entertainers, the ukulele playing trio The Strumpettes, will be delighting shoppers. There’ll be 40 of the best vintage traders from all over the country, afternoon cream teas, vintage ice cream van and vintage makeovers by Pincurls & Pout.

We ask you, what is not to love?

For more details email info@popupvintagefairs.co.uk

www.facebook.com/popupvintagefairs