As tributes flood in following the recent and sad death of pop legend Michael Jackson, questions are beginning to emerge about how to make sense of his complex estate.

It’s no secret that in recent years Jackson was plagued by rumours surrounding his money problems – a remarkable feat for a man who sold over a quarter of a billion albums.  Asset-rich thanks to acquiring a diverse portfolio of land, art, historical artefacts and musical rights, it has nevertheless been reported that at the time of his death Jackson owed anything up to several hundred million dollars in debt. read more

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This week, elderly couple Brian and Joan Caswell hit the headlines after they scooped around £25million on the Euromillions prize draw. Brian, a keen gardener, pledged to pay someone to teach him how to grow carrots, having tried and failed himself for years. read more

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I recently received an email from the organisers of the Great Northern Contemporary Craft Fair, a Manchester event set up a year ago to showcase cutting edge craftmakers in the north of England, many of whom struggle with the costs and logistics of exhibiting down south. read more

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I don’t know about the rest of you, but as someone who’s sitting painfully at her desk having strained her back lying on the sofa watching tv last night (damn the excitement of that Property Ladder episode!), I find my garden (which I plan to spend the afternoon in, recovering) is most often best enjoyed from a deck chair, rather than from above a spade.

It’s not to say that I don’t do my share of digging – in the past year, I’ve laid a deck on my own, levelled and laid my own lawn, created raised borders and planted out 20 containers. So not lazy, then. However, when my back isn’t strained, I often find I just don’t have time to keep the garden looking good.

So, pretty happy that someone’s just sent me details of a company called The Balcony Gardener. I’ll warn you – it’s not desperately cheap, but in terms of how much time and effort you’ll save, it’s a bargain. The company plants up and delivers good-looking containers to help you create ready-made gardens. Choose from contemporary, edible and English country, among others. And, if you have got time to do it yourself, check out our plant galleries and garden design galleries, all on our gardening pages.

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Every now and then I hear about a unique property so interesting that my imagination instantly starts running away with me. This disused water tower in Warwickshire is no exception. With a guide price of £25,000 and wonderful views over rolling farmland, if ever a property were ripe for the Grand Designs treatment then this is it. read more

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The price is only available on application and it won’t come cheap, but the house that was crowned winner of Channel 5’s ‘I Own Britain’s Best Home’ is on the market to either buy or rent. The guys over at Primelocation drew our attention to it, and if you’re a fan of Grand Designs it could be right up your proverbial street.

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So here I am trying to get Planning Permission to build an eco-lodge in a remote Scottish glen. One of the first things I had to do was carry out vital Percolation Tests.

Percolation tests make sense.  They are a clearly measurable test that your soil is suitable for a septic tank soakaway.  If the water soaks away too quickly, it fails.  If the water soaks away too slowly, it fails.

So on a fabulous sunny day last September, I found myself fitting a 5 gallon container of water into my old-hippy-round-the-world-trip rucksack and heaving it onto my back.  I trudged across several acres of land (impassable by vehicle due to the presence of close-packed tree stumps and logs), emptied the water into a little hole and returned to repeat the exercise several more times.

In the Scottish Highlands (your area may be different – ask Building Control or Planning) you have to dig a 1 meter deep hole (needs chap with digger who is based far away and never available). Then at the bottom of that you dig a smaller hole as precisely 300mm cubed as you can get it (but don’t be silly about it, it’s a hole in the ground not a maths exam).  Then you fill it full of water to 250mm deep and time how long it takes to soak away.  If the water disappears too soon or too slowly, I hope you have budgeted for the chap with the digger to return and try elsewhere on your site.  Some of mine passed, some failed…

Last summer, unlike the rest of Britain, the North West Scottish Highlands had 6 weeks of unbroken sunshine and all the little burns I was relying on were barely a trickle. This is how I learned that water is very heavy to carry any distance.  It was a sobering moment when I reflected upon my (completely fake) connection with all the millions of women across the world who have carried water throughout history.  There and then I decided my eco-lodge would support Water Aid.  There and then I started to wonder what would happen to my water supply if we had another drought in the ‘wettest’ part of Britain.  So that’s why the biggest question about your site has to be: Where is the water going to come from?

Find out more about Escape Lodge and The Highland Township Project at www.escapelodge.com .

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Since I decided to try to build an eco-lodge in a wild and beautiful part of the Scottish Highlands I’ve found out that lots of other people have their own variation on this dream, maybe an outdoor activity centre, yoga retreat or self-sufficient commune.

My crazy plan is for Escape Lodge, an informal self-catering guest house where guests are immersed in nature and the landscape.  With optional activities to suit both active and passive guests we will aim to provide an escape from busy stressful lives. The activities include working on the land and using ancient craft skills to construct some traditional Scottish thatched stone houses – hence I had to find enough land to fit everything in.

Whatever your dream project, it seems building a house with lots of accommodation, social space and – of course – acres of LAND is a splendid plan.  All you need is the site… and the planning permission. 

There is a rule to this game – your land must be far from mains gas, electricity, water, roads, builders’ merchants and anyone with a decently big digger.

I have finally found my suitably impossible site and am preparing to apply for planning permission.  I have some experiences I’d like to share in case you find yourself in similar circumstances because there is no handbook for this one.  (You think there is but there isn’t!)

Escape Lodge is a good deal more demanding, and will be used differently from, a domestic house and it is an interesting challenge to remain ‘low-impact’ in every aspect of the project.  We have a burn (stream) which we hope to use for Hydro-electric generation but we are also investigating mains electricity connection and supply-back to the grid.  We are deciding on wood-fuel boilers and most importantly trying to work out how much water we will need from the burn and how much to store.  The journey starts with finding out if the soil can cope with sewage runoff.  

Water and drainage matter more than your grandest design and if you haven’t sorted them out your planning permission is not going to happen.  Next blog: carrying out percolation tests.

Find out more about Escape Lodge and The Highland Township Project at http://www.escapelodge.com/

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I thought Property Ladder made for fascinating viewing last night – especially as I bought my house in April 2007 at the height of the market. Luckily for me, unlike last night’s developers, I’m not thinking of selling any time soon, so I could watch the rollercoaster ride they were on with sympathy, but a certain detachment. Can’t wait for the rest of the series now, and I think this series, more than any other, deserves future revisits – in a year or so – to see just how these ambitious, would-be developers managed over time to realise their dreams, if at all.

If you’re looking for clarification of Sarah’s remarks about the housing market, we have our own expert take on the property market. It’s realistic, it’s not all pretty, but it’s by our expert Kate Faulkner, who knows exactly what she’s talking about. Don’t miss it. And let us know what you thought of last night’s show, too.

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