Newsletter Library - Garden

Permaculture - A Beginner's Guide Many people think of permaculture as being a set of vaguely mystical 'gardening techniques', or maybe that they need to 'buy some land' before getting started. In fact, permaculture is more of a holistic philosophy, and its practice is open to anyone, whatever their situation or state of their bank balance (or lack of!). The concept of 'permaculture' originated in the 1970s as a way of finding ecologically sensible alternatives to the industrialised farming practices that are wreaking havoc on a planetary scale. It has since evolved into a design system that brings sustainability - or a better word might be 'Earthrightness' - to all fields of human activity, from food production, energy management and dealing with 'waste' to housing, transport, 'green economics', health and community building. More →

Alex Stevenson and Zoë Wood set up The Flower Patch Company in 2008, both to save flower air miles and as a response to the current trend for local, sustainable produce. Their hand-tied bunches of sweet peas, larkspur, nigella and dahlias, to name but a few of the vast array of cottage garden plants they grow for cutting, are often vibrant in colour and heady in scent, moving away from the mundane scentless roses, white lilies and carnations often grown for their uniformity and shelf life. More →

Well, apparently it's the most depressing time of the year, and that crazy old nonagenarian genius James Lovelock, author of ‘The Gaia Hypothesis', foresees a grim future. In amongst all the doom and gloom about the inevitable consequences of climate change are a couple of glimmers of hope - one is that in the future the UK will be one of the few habitable places on a warming planet Earth; the other is the potential of something called 'biochar' for taking carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and beginning the process of bringing climate change under control. More →

This issue of the Big Green Idea newsletter is focusing on the difference communities can make, and this applies to gardening as much as it does to anything else. Whilst a private back garden enjoyed alone can be an oasis of peace and calm after a stressful day in the salt mines, communal gardening can also have its attractions. That might mean getting out in the garden as a family and having a talk over the fence to neighbours, joining fellow plot holders at an allotment site for some digging and a chinwag or getting involved with one of the growing number of urban communal gardening schemes. More →

‘A gardener should be a sort of prophet, in foreseeing what will happen under certain circumstances, and wisely cautious to provide by the most reasonable means, against contingencies.' From 'The Dictionary of Daily Wants' (1858) More →

Jim'll and Tanya built a solar dryer last year completely out of items they had to hand. Was it a success? More →

Now that we've reached June the garden should be enjoying the long warm midsummer days. That is assuming we actually get some sun this summer - let's hope it's better weather than last year at least! Your plants in the ground will be growing away madly and the ‘hungry gap' between the late winter crops and the new season's produce should have come to an end. It's time to get out there with your basket and get harvesting! More →

Salena learns about gardening in tune with the moon and other cosmic forces and considers how she can best use these principles in her organic allotment. More →

Mid-summer's day is now just a memory and little by little the nights are drawing in - we're on our way towards autumn now. This is the period when you can enjoy the fruits of your labours and also start to think about preparing the plants and garden for the colder months ahead. More →

Well, another summer draws to a close and the signs of autumn are beginning to appear around the garden. September is really a month of transition on the plot, finishing off the last tasks of the growing season we've just had this summer whilst starting preparations for the new season ahead in 2010. More →