Fresh flowers can brighten your home. If you have your own flower garden, you have a sure way to bring your rooms to life. Even if you don’t have your own garden, there are flowers and plants that you can find in their natural habitat.

Here are some things to think about when decorating your home with flowers:

1. Pick a vase or container that matches your table shape. Whatever the flower arrangement, it will look more harmonious if you match a round vase to a round table, square to square or oval to oval.

2. Add to the beauty of your cut flower arrangements by using branches from a blooming azalea shrub, dried twigs, bamboo or reeds. If you use bamboo or reeds (or other similar plants with hollow stems), be sure you cut a notch in the upper part of each joint that will be under water so that the stem becomes filled. The flowers of shrubs, such as azaleas, should have the stems slit or the bark peeled up so that it will expose as large a surface as possible of woody fiber to soak up the water. Leave the cut parts on the plant so that it looks like ribbons. This will absorb the most water and make the flowers last longer.

3. When using flowers such as poppy or hollyhock, cut the stems and put the blooms into water immediately. If you wait, they produce a milky sap that will dry and seal up the end of the stalk so that it can’t absorb the water. Using warm (not hot) water will help even more. Don’t forget to wash your hands after handling sappy stems; the sap can cause skin rashes.

4. Don’t over-crowd your flowers. Leave room around the stems so that each flower can get the moisture it needs.

Container Tips:

1. As a rule, you should choose containers with little or no pattern. Patterns in the container will take the focus away from your beautiful flowers.

2. Be careful with trumpet shaped vases. They are not a good choice because they are prone to tipping, especially when used with heavier flowers.

3. Heavy-headed flowers, such as peonies or irises, do well in pewter mugs or beer steins. The mugs are heavier and, again, prevent tipping.

4. Use small glass bowls for smaller flowers such as violets. They are also good for flowers and buds that have been broken off their stems.

Use freshly cut flowers to give your rooms a quick “makeover.” Even if you don’t have your own flower garden, you can get flowers from your local supermarket. Flowers can make the dreariest rooms sparkle.

It was the beginning of 2008 and for some strange reason my partner, Nadine, and myself agreed to rent an allotment.
At first it was an exciting idea, fresh flowers, home grown vegetables and the possibility of sitting back, drinking homemade wine in our back garden during the late summer nights. Well, so far we have managed to grow the fresh veg and flowers but sadly no time for the wine, why well read on…
You see whilst the idea of an allotment can be a romantic one, you tend to forget that like a real romance, there has to be a little effort to make it work. So for the newbie, be prepared to bend your back, get wet and battle with the weeds.
By the way, I am not trying to put you off if you are thinking of renting an allotment. This is just first impression stuff.
The plot we chose had been neglected for some period of time and so as you can imagine, the question off where to start, whilst being a weeding one, was nevertheless not the obvious choice. A strawberry patch needed a good spring clean, the vegetable growing efforts of previous owners was evident in places and oh the mud! It had rained hard and drainage was a little slow.
Know not having a rotator, just a humble spade and fork, we set about cleaning up only half of the plot, the idea being that we could get something growing there and then move on later to the second half, this we did over one or two weeks.
Whilst I was learning the hard way, I was slowly getting to know my allotment neighbours as well. Some, like me were new to Sutton Allotments and others have been at it a while and it wasn’t hard to be a little jealous of their wonderful efforts growing away. I had heard it said that, allotment growing can be a great way to make new friends as well and the people we have met so far make it all that easier.
Also I did not realise that Chairman John, lived two doors away from me, and now we socialise (drink) at our local.
Of course with all this expertise around me, a few questions revealed that everyone was willing to guide us on our way through the growing season with vital information and hints and tips that may not be found easily in those “Allotment for Dummies” books, and no, I never bought one.
However since, I have started to watch gardening programmes on TV, this I never did prior and if asked to, I would rather go and watch Teletubbies with a whisky n coke. Now that’s entertainment!
So, weeks later and with one half of the allotment cleared and the decision made as to what vegetables to grow, it was agreed it was down to me to get the allotment up n running with colour and life. Basically I had the time as I had just been made redundant after a twelve-year stint with a local factory.
Anyway a month or two later and life was slowly appearing; carrots, beans and courgettes then artichokes. Potatoes arose up from nowhere; these were hiding from the last owner. The strawberry patch was fully weeded and waiting to go and my lettuce was going to be introduced to the plot shortly.
One important thing I did learn was to start life at home in the propagator and then when ready, pot out the young shoots. Growing from seed directly in the allotment was a lot slower because of the soil temperature and lack of rain at times, however others have had a lot of success.
It is now many moons later and I still do not have a rotavator, however to cut a long story short, it has since become more than just a hobby to me. We have happily achieved a level of success for newbies like ourselves and I guess you have to remember that there are no good times without a little bad times and eating your own home grown produce is simply wonderful.
You also find that buying vegetables from the supermarket, in no way compares to growing your own, there is a unique quality to the taste and of course you know they really are fresh. But above all, it is the ability to sit back and enjoy the many hours of hard work you have put into growing them.
So my advice to any newbie is to dig in and enjoy the satisfaction of growing your own produce, whilst also meeting and making some new friends as well.