Rhubarb is on the rise, as you may have noticed, and not before time, too. Make sure you get a tasty cultivar in the first place, such as Cawood Delight or Stockbridge Arrow, and prepare the ground thoroughly. As with all permanent crops, search out all trace of perennial weeds. Dig thoroughly, incorporating liberal quantities of organic matter: plenty of well-rotted, straw-based horse manure, if you can get it. Whatever it is, the more, the merrier. Rhubarb is the proverbial gross feeder, a big herbaceous perennial which, dwelling in riches, rewards its owner with beauty and flavour.
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'Just look at those stairs. Just as an art form, they are bewitching, like the shell of a nautilus': The lure of buying a stairway to heavenIt seems like madness to buy a house purely because you fall in love with the staircase — but sometimes, they are simply so beautiful that it's impossible to resist. Toby Keel takes a look at some glorious examples of staircases we've seen in Country Life in the last couple of years.
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'I found myself in a magical world of a sun-dappled forest, speckled with wild flowers of kaleidoscopic colours and brilliant mosses': Solo walking in the PyreneesThe Pyrenees reserves its best treasures for walkers prepared to venture off the well-beaten trail, says Teresa Levonian Cole, on a solo holiday in Ribes de Freser.
