you can all sit around it, so no one needs to
be on barbecue duty, standing at the edge
of proceedings with a tea towel over one
shoulder, tongs in one hand and a beer in
the other — sad news for dads nationwide.PAMPAS GRASS IS
(FINALLY) BACK
“I’m taking an interest in pampas grass this
year despite it being out of fashion for
decades,” says Jack Wallington, landscape
designer and author of A Greener Life
(Orion £19.99). That unfashionability stems
mainly from it being claimed as a secret
symbol for swingers — if you were invited
for dinner at a suburban house with pampas
grass at the front, then you might have got
more than three courses. But it’s time to
reclaim the ornamental plant. “It makes an
excellent tall statement in a garden and is
growing in popularity because of its use in
dried cut-flower arrangements.” Wallington
recommends cutting all the flowering
plumes (arrange them in a tall vase) at the
start of winter, or they will self-sow and get
out of hand. Rather than a straight line, try
prairie planting — planting in drifts mixed
with late-flowering perennials such as
echinacea and helenium — for a more
organic, modern look. And don’t invite your
dinner guests to put their car keys in a bowl,
just to be on the safe side. ■open fire on cooler summer evenings
and also grill over it. After more inspo?
Start with Seared: The Ultimate Guide to
Barbecuing Meat (Quadrille £20), the new
book by Genevieve Taylor, an expert who
also holds specialist “machismo-free”
cookery classes as the Bristol Fire School.
And for veg there’s Francis Mallmann’s
Green Fire: Extraordinary Ways to Grill Fruit
and Vegetables (Workman £32.50, from June
14). But the real joy of a fire-pit grill is thatPLANT SOME
BUZZY BLOOMS
This is the time of year to swap the last
of your spring bulbs for summer flowers
— and bee appeal should be at the top of
your list of criteria. “I think everyone,
everywhere, is trying to make their gardens
more wildlife-friendly,” says the garden
designer and RHS Chatsworth gold medal
winner Butter Wakefield. When she’s
designing gardens that means choosing
“a wide variety of flowering trees — native
are the best if at all possible — shrubs,
perennials and annuals that provide as
much pollen and nectar as possible”. In her
own garden Wakefield will be planting
“white and pink cosmos, cerinthe, borage
and zinnias, as all are hugely attractive to
the butterflies and bees”. And if that’s not
reward enough, they also “make great
cut flowers for the house”.THIS YEAR’S CULT
COOKWARE
The Big Green Egg and Ooni pizza oven
might have started the trend for cult
cooking gadgets, but the latest braggable
barbecue is more of an all-rounder.
Barebones Living’s portable fire pit and
grill (£269) — available from Gwyneth
Paltrow’s Goop, so it has Next Big Thing
written all over it — allows you to sit by anTHE
IT KITTHE
SUPER
SPRAWLMain picture: garden by Butter Wakefield Garden Design. Photograph: Ellie Walpole
The Sunday Times Style • 43