Info, news & debate
Flower growing
Tulips, chill and climate change
Tulip bulbs are back in garden centres – read about how climate change, and the chill in the air, can affect tulips. Get hints and tips to help you make the best of this garden favourite.
Designing your garden for extreme heat
Many perennials, shrubs and trees – particularly newly planted – are going to struggle in the kind of conditions we’re faced with as I write – record high temperatures after months of low rainfall. What can we do to help them?
Jo’s Mini Meadow Part 1: how I transformed my lawn into a beautiful mini meadow
In a new series of guest blogs, former PA turned wildlife photographer Jo Cartmell of NearbyWild shares her journey transforming her garden into a haven for nature. It all began with the introduction of a mini meadow… over to Jo from here!
Join our new online community Living Low Impact
We’re excited to introduce our new Facebook group Living Low Impact – and you’re invited!
Could the ‘paperpot transplanter’ be a boon for small farmers or is it just a gimmick?
How about a human-powered tool that allows you to plant out 264 young plants per minute (!) without bending over? The paperpot transplanter, developed in Japan, allows you to do just that (if 264 seems a bit precise, it’s because each little paper chain contains 264 pots).
Taking the pee: is urine a good fertiliser?
Many of us consider it a waste product but, in fact, is urine a good fertiliser? Scarlett Penn of WWOOF UK sets out why we should pause for thought before we flush.
How to reduce the environmental impact of your wedding
Your wedding day is obviously one of the biggest days of your life — but it can also be huge for your carbon footprint. In the UK, the average cost of a wedding is over £20,000. Not only is this a huge amount of money to spend on a single day
How to buy flowers for someone you love without being part of an environmental nightmare: interview with Rachel Petheram of Catkin Flowers
You don’t want to show someone you love them by damaging the environment, do you? It sounds unromantic, but it’s really difficult to buy flowers in the UK that aren’t sprayed with huge amounts of pesticides, doused with chemical preservatives and flown half way across the world.
Why do organic farmers have to pay for certification rather than farmers who use toxic chemicals?
It’s always more expensive to do the right thing isn’t it? Like taking the train instead of driving or flying, or buying recycled products, organic food or natural building materials. If you want to do the environmentally-friendly or socially-just thing, it’s going to cost you more money. That can’t be right, can it?
Viable self-sufficiency
Back 40 years ago in 1976, John Seymour’s most famous work –The Complete Book of Self-Sufficiency – was published. It was billed as for dreamers and realists which was pretty accurate.
Win a copy of our partner Sally Morgan’s great new book, ‘Living on One Acre or Less’
This is a new book by our partner Sally Morgan of Empire Farm. It’s a comprehensive guide to starting and running your own micro-smallholding.
The price of the average wedding is now over £20k; how to do it for much less and give the finger to ‘Brides’ magazine
Flanked by an advert for the Ocean Club honeymoon resort in the Bahamas, with young bride and groom toasting a glass of champagne, Brides – “the UK’s number 1 bridal magazine” announces to its readers that “Planning your wedding starts here”
3 million front gardens have been completely paved since 2005. Let’s try to reverse this trend.
The RHS 2015 Greening Grey Britain Report reveals that three times as many front gardens are paved over compared to ten years ago, a total increase of 15 square miles of ‘grey’, and that plant cover in front gardens has decreased by as much as 15%.