Results for: ""

June is one of my favourite months in the tunnel or greenhouse. The majority of crops are planted by now and the responsibility of watering your seedlings every day is nearly over. You can enjoy tending your crops and observe how they develop. There is also a relatively decent range of crops ready to harvest. Read more

Immanuel Kant The Enlightenment was a time of great political as well as philosophical change. Much was written about how society should be organised. Locke’s vision of a society that protects and promotes life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness was cemented in the US Declaration of Independence, and the culmination of the Enlightenment –… Continue reading A brief history of philosophy, part 9: Enlightenment Read more

Biodiesel is a fuel for conventional Diesel engines made from plant or animal oils or fats that have been chemically transformed into alkyl esters. Read more

It’s a good time to take a break from your tunnel or greenhouse. All you need to do is harvest your salads and ventilate as much as possible. If you have spare time you can prepare the beds for the following year. It’s a good idea to let the beds settle in for a while… Continue reading What to sow, plant and harvest in your polytunnel or greenhouse in December Read more

Friedrich Nietzsche Hegel represented the end of huge, speculative, metaphysical systems. After Hegel, philosophy started to splinter into many ideas vying for dominance – none of which could be said to represent the growing tip, only the branches. Read more

Soil testing is a very useful way of seeing how your soil improvement techniques are working, what is working well and what isn’t. Read more

Already there are birds around the garden preparing for nesting. Blue Tits in particular have been checking out a couple of nest boxes that I can see from the house, one of which is right outside a bedroom window. Read more

This time of year is usually holiday time for me, so, when it comes to nature in October, my trips away from Shropshire and my garden have to involve a large element of looking at wildlife and hopefully walking in beautiful countryside. Read more

Sometimes seeds get broken and go mouldy. You can just throw out the mouldy bits, rinse, and the rest will be OK. Sometimes the whole batch will have to be thrown away, but often, mould looks a lot like healthy, feathery roots. Read more

This section covers the bodies you need to satisfy in the UK. Sorry, we have no information about circumstances in other countries, but probably the best place to start is your local authority. Read more

Thanks to Andy Reynolds for vids. Read more

When you make larger amounts of biodiesel you will inevitably end up with quite a large store of glycerine. Read more

Mushrooms can be preserved in several ways, but some species are better preserved in certain ways rather than others. What follows is a brief guide. Read more

A chainsaw is one of the most dangerous things you can buy. They can kick and move towards you – unlike other mechanical saws that stay in one place Read more

Think about how people in your house use hot water. Are they frugal? Do they use a lot? Are they wasteful? The more hot water the occupants use, the bigger your system needs to be. Read more

All types of building lime are made from limestone, which is a sedimentary rock composed of the dead bodies of sea creatures such as shellfish, corals and some planktons. Read more

The best advice for success is to start by growing Oyster mushrooms, the easiest and most forgiving variety for any home cultivator to grow. Read more

A social enterprise is a business set up for the greater good – to benefit society, disadvantaged people, the environment etc. There are various different structures that you can use. Read more

Thanks to Andy Reynolds for vids.  Read more

Make sure your stove or flue isn’t next to combustible materials. If the stove backs on to a wooden wall, fit a heat shield to protect it. Read more

First, work out if you need a chainsaw at all.  Read more

An average price for an installed system (including a new cylinder) for a family of 4 is around £4-5000, but there will be geographical variations, as labour can be cheaper in some parts of the country. Read more

Environmental and health benefits of lime. Read more

Crosscutting saws have two fundamental uses: for felling and for crosscutting (bucking). Read more

Generally one of the busiest months on the vegetable plot, here John Harrison shares his fruit and vegetable growing guide for May. The soil is warm and the plants growing well. But watch out for a sneaky late frost. Keep an eye on the weather forecast and be prepared for frantic last minute wrapping of… Continue reading Fruit & veg growing guide for May Read more

The following information is the understanding of a lay person interested in mushroom collection, rather than a legal professional. Read more

Thales of Miletus The way that we think nowadays didn’t just fall from the sky – it’s not ‘common sense’ and it hasn’t always been the same. We’re not born with a worldview – it’s something that we develop from what’s gone before. Read more

Here are 40 ways that the corporate sector influences government and receives huge benefits in return, disadvantaging communities, individuals and small businesses. Giant corporations would not benefit from ‘economies of scale’ without government support. Read more

Karl Marx Karl Marx (1818-1883) is possibly the most studied philosopher in history. He said that the point of philosophy is not to understand the world, but to change it – and change it he did, with an idea, although he never saw the effects of his idea after its interpretation and implementation by others… Continue reading A brief history of philosophy, part 12: socialism, utopianism and anarchism Read more

Cross-section of percolation trench. Read more

A member recently asked for details on growing the famous (and VERY expensive) Matsutake, the source of some pretty vicious armed confrontations between foragers and landowners not too many years ago. Read more

See ‘making lime mortars‘ for how to make mortars, plasters and renders. Read more

A mushroom develops in two stages: a vegetative phase when it grows and decomposes organic matter, and a fruiting phase, when mushrooms (fruiting bodies) are produced. Read more

Thomas Aquinas Last week we saw how Augustine reconciled Plato with Christianity; but Aristotle, with his logic and his empiricism, was difficult to reconcile with a book that already claimed to have all the answers, and so that didn’t happen until 900 years later. Read more

Never eat a mushroom unless it is positively identified as edible. Use a good field guide, but don’t rely absolutely on pictures in books – differences between fungi can be difficult to spot. Read more

When it comes to nature in September, this month is a melancholy time of year for anyone who loves swallows. Through the summer I enjoy seeing them and the local house martins, swooping and diving around my house and garden, drinking from the pond or sitting on our electricity wires, twittering and preening. Read more

May is the most exciting month in your tunnel or greenhouse. This is the time to plant out your summer crops – your tomatoes, peppers, aubergines, cucumbers and basil. Read more

This video shows a method of making a wormery using 3 old recycling boxes. Read more

This instruction relates to growing Oyster Mushrooms from dowels; these are intended for inoculation into hardwood logs. Read more

Anyone who feeds the birds in their garden is likely to have a Sparrowhawk passing through from time to time.  I am no different from anyone else – feeling that moment of flinching fear as the small grey male or his larger female mate come swooping past my window with outstretched talons.  Read more

The world wide web could have been a commons, and lots of people who work in the software and web sphere remain committed to the principles of P2P-commons in software code, digital data and digital processing capacity. Read more

Thanks to Andy Reynolds for vids.  Read more

Some mushrooms can be cultivated from commercially available spawn either as dowels, grain inoculated spawn or as truffle trees. Read more

You may be interested in following the process through from beginning to end – although you may not want to burn your own limestone, you may want to slake quicklime. Read more

Information provided by Andy Reynolds of the Ecolodge Read more

Commercially-available mushroom spawn: Read more

Plan of septic tank and drainage field from the Irish EPA Code of Practice. Read more

Materials Read more

Thanks to Andy Reynolds for vids.  Read more

Do you have some south-facing roof space? Most people have a pitched roof, so there’s a good chance that you do – but if you don’t, an east-west roof is fine. Read more

Here’s a simple but very effective waste oil filtering system Read more

The principles of Permaculture design are largely based on the study of natural ecosystems and their ecology. Read more

Step-by-step guides to growing different vegetables. Thanks to John Harrison of Allotment & Gardens. Read more

Socrates After the natural philosophers, the main focus of philosophy was changed by Socrates – probably the most famous philosopher of them all. His position was that you begin to become a philosopher when you admit that you know nothing. Read more

Lowimpact.org are working closely with Mutual Credit Services, the Credit Commons Society, Island Power and Local Loop Lancaster & Morecambe to help build commons institutions / a new, commons economy. New ideas are emerging that are summarised here. These new ideas allow us to take infrastructure into common ownership without incurring debt – which I think is the main reason that (much as… Continue reading Building the commons economy Read more

Some models, for example Envirolet, Sun-Mar and Biolet, collect all the solid matter and urine together, then attempt to evaporate the liquids, either with a fan or a heating element, and then excess urine is drained off later. Read more

So at the moment, your hard drive is all Windows, and you’ve practised running Linux from a datastick. But it runs slowly, because datasticks aren’t designed for swift data transfer – it’s like being on a little B-road compared to a motorway for data. Read more

The consumption of mushrooms probably occurred during prehistory, in the hunting and gathering period. Unlike plants, mushrooms could not be cultivated at first and were collected for a long period of time. Read more

For interest – you’re probably not going to do this, but… Read more

St. Augustine Augustine (354-430) was a bridge between the classical world and the medieval, Christian world. He reconciled Christianity with Plato, and his immaterial world of forms – a much easier task than reconciling Aristotle, with his scientific outlook and emphasis on reason. Read more

Cross-section of raised percolation bed. Read more

First, read our introduction to clay plasters. Now here are some common questions you might need answering before considering clay plasters. Read more

Preparation of the kiln site The ideal site on which to put a charcoal kiln has free draining sandy loam. Because of the high risk of fire never burn on peat – never! Read more

This article, originally published by Musgrove Willows describes how to make a woven hurdle from willow. Read more

Preventing and ending enclosure is a core commitment of commoning. Read more

We want to spread the word about compost toilets, and so they have to be pleasant to use. Read more

In order to look in more detail at the issues involved in practical biodiesel production we will take the example of a small-scale batch system making 100-litre batches. Read more

Linux is different from the programmes that you use to produce documents, spreadsheets, presentations, manipulate images, watch videos etc. Linux is an operating system – equivalent to Windows, rather than the programmes you run on it. So when you switch on your computer, you get a Linux system rather than Windows. Read more

Adsorption: attractive forces acting between particles in the wastewater draw them together, allowing them to settle to the base of the reed bed or wetland. Adsorptive forces also adhere pollutant particles to plant material and gravel or soil, trapping them within the system. Read more

Thanks to Sigi Koko of Build Naturally. Whether it’s for your kitchen walls or your 5 year old’s latest masterpiece, Sigi Koko shares her simple recipes for homemade natural paint with milk. Read more

March is the month when things really start to move in the growing season. In fact the start of the year used to be Lady Day, the Feast of the Annunciation, 25th March until 1752 in Britain when we adopted the Gregorian calendar and started our year on the 1st January. Read more

Microsoft enclosed an emergent software code commons: GitHub. Read more

This is a method of rinsing using a recycled plastic yoghurt pot (or something similar), with holes made in the bottom (from the inside). Put a handful of soaked seeds inside, rinse them well and drain them Read more

Making & using lime mortar, and pozzolanic additives. Read more

“You don’t have a slug problem, you have a duck deficiency” – Bill Mollison There are of course many approaches to the scourge of slugs and snails in the vegetable patch. Hand picking by moonlight and beer traps have always been my methods of choice, but if you think you’d like to keep poultry, ducks… Continue reading Using ducks for pest control in the garden Read more

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. You certainly can’t book a holiday during April because your seedlings in trays need to be watered every day and possibly twice if it’s… Continue reading What to sow, plant and harvest in your polytunnel or greenhouse in April Read more

Now that you’ve switched to free / open source programmes and downloaded the Linux operating system onto a datastick, you can launch Linux from the datastick to familiarise yourself with it, but when you take the datastick out, it’s back to Windows. Read more

You don’t need special training or certification if you’re using a chainsaw on your own land but you do if you’re using it anywhere else. Read more

Do you live in a protected building? Is it listed, or in a protected area – a national park, area of outstanding natural beauty or a conservation area? Read more

Here’s some background info on domes. Read more

Garret Hardin became infamous for promulgating his view of commons as ‘a tragedy’. Elinor Ostrom’s painstaking research shows him to be unhelpfully mistaken in his perception. Read more

Shiitake mushrooms require cellulose-rich material and will grow on a variety of woody substrates. Read more

Choose a stove Read more

Jean-Jacques Rousseau Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778), sometimes called the father of Romanticism, is often attributed with the phrase ‘noble savage’, although he never actually said it. What it implies is some golden age when humans lived in a ‘state of nature’ – in harmony with ecology and with each other. Read more

Make sure you buy at least a semi-professional model as opposed to an ‘occasional-user’ cheap one, which would undboubtedly turn out to be false economy. Read more

The choice is between flat-plate panels and evacuated tubes. Here’s what they look like. Read more

Non-hydraulic lime (quicklime), hydrated lime, hydraulic lime and lime sand. Read more

Sprouting Directions: these directions for one a 1-litre sprouting jar. If you are using a 2-litre jar, double the amount of seeds. Read more

The ‘basic method’ is the single-stage base-catalysed transesterification method. There are a number of variations on this method which may yield better fuel quality with certain feedstocks. Read more

The main benefit of building your own is that you can do it cheaply, especially if you have the materials lying around already. Read more

Most of people’s needs through (pre)history have probably been met through commons, and an estimated 2 billion people today depend for at least part of their livelihood on resources held in common. Read more

Mutual credit schemes are designed to supplement national currencies, not replace them. However, there are now plans afoot to build a global system called Credit Commons, by allowing local schemes to intertrade. Read more

Mushrooms can be preserved in several ways, but some species are better preserved in certain ways rather than others. What follows is a brief guide. Read more

Thinking about changing to open source software can be scary for non-technical people (i.e. almost everybody). We’d like to persuade you that it’s really quite simple to start, and you’ll gain confidence as you use it more. If you can use the proprietary software, you’ll be able to use open source / free software too. Read more

Sourcing your wood for smoking – Can be a very simple task, especially if you want to buy it online. If you’d rather enjoy a more DIY approach you can harvest wood after fresh autumn or spring winds. Read more

Here’s a code of conduct for wild mushroom collecting: Read more

As someone who used to work in university research, it is deeply ingrained in my nature to observe and record what I see, and also, when necessary, to count things (I once spent six years counting weed seedlings). All for the greater good of course as this meticulous sort of research is the basis for… Continue reading Nature in August – what to look out for Read more

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. Read more

A Refreshing and resourceful recipe for cider: Every year thousands of tonnes of apples go to waste in orchards and gardens. The Orchard Project Community Cider hub have rescued an incredible 21 tonnes of apples from rotting since 2016. If you want to share in the joys of cider-making, we’ve shared an excellent cider recipe… Continue reading Basic recipe for 5 litres of cider Read more

Facebook is not commoning, and is not costless. It’s a way for a giant corporation to pump value out of your traffic and unselfconscious gossip, for profit, surveillance and Big Brother manipulation of your buying (or voting, or social ‘othering’) behaviour. Read more