Info, news & debate
Year: 2017
How to stop slugs in your allotment or garden, naturally
Ludwig Appeltans shares his top tips on how to stop slugs naturally and keep your garden or allotment thriving – no slug pellets needed!
Smallholding with heart: advice about getting and running a smallholding from Janet Jenkins of Cuckoo Farm
Embarking on a new life in the countryside, away from the trappings of urban existence, is a dream increasingly common to many. This week we interviewed Janet Jenkins about her and her family’s smallholding journey, putting the heart back into the land at Cuckoo Farm.
Two things you can do to help stop the encroachment of GM crops into the UK
Glyphosate is the key ingredient in Monsanto’s ‘Roundup’, the product that farmers have to buy to apply to the genetically-modified crops that they’ve bought from Monsanto. Half of Monsanto’s profits come from Roundup sales.
Dump Skype, switch to Jitsi: non-corporate, open source, nothing to download, no harvesting of your data
Here’s a free, open source programme for online chat / video chat: Jitsi. The corporate equivalent is Skype, which is now owned by Microsoft.
Why the ‘natural’ in natural soaps is so important
True soaps can be made from a range of oils and butters which come from plants, trees and in the case of some oils such as tallow and lard, from animals. These oils and butters are chemically classed as mild acids.
New Ecological Land Co-op share offer launched: here’s a chance to help bring about change in land ownership in the UK, and receive 3% interest for your trouble!
Please share this as widely as you can. I’m on the board of the Ecological Land Co-op, and so I know how much hard work has gone into this – it’s an opportunity for people to shift their money to help change the nature of land ownership in the UK, and receive 3% interest for …
Nature in April – what to look out for
As we move through April towards May, woodlands and waysides start to burst with late spring flowers. One of the most notable of these is the Bluebell which is opening its glorious blue nodding bells this month. We are famed the world over for our bluebell woods
What to sow, plant and harvest in your polytunnel or greenhouse in April
April is one of the busiest months and one filled with immense responsibility. All your crops are now sown and you care for them as if they are your little babies.
Fruit & vegetable growing guide for April
By April spring should be well and truly underway, the soil warming up nicely and everything growing away. Don’t be complacent though, it’s been known for a cold snap with snow to strike even in the sunny south of England.
Very worthwhile and interesting job available with the Open Food Network
Are you interested in helping create food sovereignty in the UK? Would you like to help create food systems in which everyone has access to affordable, nutritious, culturally-appropriate food?
University meets WWOOF: An interview with student and WWOOFer Iona Desouza
Hours spent in the library? Check. Essay and assignment deadlines flooding in? Check. Tractor driving, wool spinning and weeding at weekends? Check!
Why does Donald Trump scorn renewable energy when it’s so good for business?
US President Donald Trump seems to be locked into a crusade to deny that carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is the cause of climate change. While it is always possible that 97% of the scientific community have got it completely wrong, it would seem unlikely that they have.
Would you like to be a chef on an organic farm / cafe, with a small cottage available too?
Sinking into a bit of a depression about both the British and American situation this winter a wise friend kindly reminded me that these issues are merely a distraction from more important things in our everyday lives.
Will we reach ‘peak car’, after which we can begin to reduce the number of cars on the roads?
As a baby-boomer I have lived through a 50 year period where life has become dominated by and dependent on the use of the private car. I wonder whether other people are sharing my expectation that there will be a very much shorter period, equivalent to a revolution, where the car moves into the background?
Is democracy obsolete, and can we ever achieve it as long as we have to keep feeding ‘the beast’?
In the West, there’s a word that usually accompanies ‘democracy’, and that word is ‘liberal’. Liberal democracies – that’s what we have in the West. That’s liberal, as in liberty / freedom; and that’s certainly what classical liberalism stood for in its infancy.
Career change? Interview with Amanda James about becoming a dry stone waller
In a society increasingly out of touch with the joy of crafting and building by hand, making a transition to gain new skills and work within a traditional rural craft can seem at once appealing and daunting.
What we’re losing: the joy and satisfaction of crafting things by hand
The video below shows various stages of the production and finish of a 1-metre tall puppet by Jan Zalud. Jan makes all sorts of things – crafted by hand from wood.
How the corporate goldrush for incineration, gasification and pyrolysis of waste generates more consumption, more waste and more pollution
‘When waste to energy companies propose to build incineration/gasification plants they stipulate that contracts be in place which lock-in local authorities to providing them with a fixed tonnage of waste over the lifetime of the plant (often about 25 years).
Low-impact & the city 11: buying a laptop without Windows – with Linux or with no operating system at all
This is the last in a series of articles to help you to jettison Windows and corporate software generally.
Low-impact & the city 10: how to install Linux on your hard drive (alongside Windows)
This is the latest in a series of articles intended to help you become Windows- and corporate-software-free.