The Chelsea Flower Show was a time for the ritual genuflecting before the horticultural world.

Just as a mind game imagine, instead of gardens at Chelsea, they're going on about sitting rooms. A whole week of programmes about beautiful, dazzling, innovative sitting rooms. The most sumptuous sitting rooms that...

Jamie Oliver had a splash in the Guardian this week bemoaning the quality of our children's diets. "Tell me," he says in an interview, "Tell me, Mr Gove, Mr Lansley [the health secretary], two out of five kids are obese, how you plan to change that?"

Of course he's right,...

The beautiful weather has tempted many of us out into the garden, and so I thought it would be a good time to look at some common garden problems - and some short and sweet solutions.

I've been writing a gardening advice column for House Beautiful magazine for eight years...

Deck the halls with boughs of holly? Where exactly do you find holly boughs without being arrested? In fact, when it comes to making Christmas garlands and wreaths, 'first get your holly boughs and lengths of ivy,' is normally where people switch off.

No, forget about the wilting, prickly...

Which are the prettiest garden lights you know? The cheapest and easiest to install? No electrician needed, and a fraction of the cost of other garden lights? Which can make a grown man go 'wow' and 'ah' when you switch them on?

The little miracles, which can...