Reports in the past 24 hours suggested that the UK had recorded its biggest ever wave, at Penzance in Cornwall. It later turned out to be an anomaly. But how do you measure the height of a wave, asks Tom Heyden.
Trim away dead or damaged parts in spring. If you live in a place with heavy snows and harsh weather, your lavender bush is likely to lose a few branches over the winter. Examine the shrub in early spring, before it begins producing new shoots. Remove any broken or rotting branches to make way for new growth.
A thousand years ago, the sorcererâs violet, what we now call periwinkle, vinca, or myrtle, was shrouded in superstition: 1  English herbalists believed that the trailing evergreen ground cover could be gathered only on the 1st, 9th, 11th, or 13th day of the Moon by a person cleansed of all impurities.