Fans of “superfoods” are being given advice on how to grow “supergardens” filled with fruit and vegetables packed with nutrition and flavour.
The Royal Horticultural Society said any garden, whatever its size, can be used to grow foods ranging from tomatoes to kale and blueberries, which are good to eat and can even look good.
Gardeners who only have small plots or urban gardens can try growing blueberries in pots, training a kiwi vine over an arch or putting in alpine strawberries beneath trees.
Most painful events are ranked
The most painful events in people’s lives – including a kick in the groin and breaking a bone – are revealed in a new survey.
The nation ranked childbirth as the most painful event (51 per cent), with less than half (24 per cent) giving a kick in the groin the same rating. Breaking a bone, a migraine and arthritis complete the top five.
Having a blood test was the least painful along with paper cuts, according to the survey of 2,048 adults, released by the charity Arthritis Research UK as part of National Arthritis Week.
Ladybirds become city slickers
Invasive harlequin ladybirds which have spread rapidly through the UK in the last decade are “city slickers” that prefer urban areas, a study suggests. Many people will have found the ladybirds, originally from east Asia and larger and more voracious than their UK cousins, clustered on windowsills in winter.
Now research using thousands of sightings from the public suggests the harlequin’s ability to over-winter in buildings and eat a wide range of prey has allowed the species to establish itself rapidly in towns and cities. The harlequin has outcompeted native species of ladybird, which have suffered from both a loss of habitat and competition from harlequins, the study, by the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology and Anglia Ruskin, Edinburgh and Reading Universities, published in the Journal of Biogeography suggests.
Man, 73, and his guilty conscience
A 73-year-old US Navy veteran found his guilty conscience got the better of him more than 50 years after some high school hijinks led to the theft of a set of street newspaper racks.
Bernard Schermerhorn and a friend stole several racks belonging to The Ledger in Lakeland, Florida. They kept a handful of change and dumped the stands. He told the newspaper from his home in La Mesa, California, that he decided: “Hey, send them the money. It’s just not right to not pay it back.” He sent a cheque for 200 dollars (£125) and an apology. The Ledger says the publisher plans to donate the funds to a group that helps victims of domestic sex trafficking.
Attacked for onion ring complaint
A US man is suing Burger King after he says a manager attacked him – for complaining about cold onion rings.
The lawsuit says Robert Deyapp was assaulted in June last year when he told a manager at the fast-food restaurant in the New Mexico city of Bloomfield about his cold order. The lawsuit claims that when Mr Deyapp asked for a refund, manager Francisco Berrera lunged at him with a stun gun and flick-knife. Court records show Berrera later pleaded no contest to aggravated assault.
US police don’t believe tar gazer
When police in Daytona Beach, Florida, found a man covered in tar on the roof of a closed petrol station before dawn, he told them he was visiting family. They didn’t believe it.
The 30-year-old then tried to convince officers he was a repairman who was on top of the Sunoco station at 3am because he heard the air conditioners making noise. Officers didn’t believe that one, either.
Finally, he told police he had been sleeping on the roof and had smeared tar on himself so he wouldn’t be seen. Police say that since he had a prying tool with him, they think he was a would-be burglar and arrested him for attempted burglary.