I have always thought of gardening as a social enterprise. It aims to improve the immediate environment around where we live and usually manages to generate co-operation between individuals and/or an income if run as a business.

As an UnLtd Level 1 Award winner, I feel passionately that this is the way forward out of the [...]

Tags: social enterprise

This has to be Beth Chatto who is celebrated at a wonderful exhibiton opening today at the newly designed Musuem of Garden History in London. http://www.gardenmuseum.org.uk
This remarkable lady is 85 and yet she is still as inspirational as ever. She is a plants-woman, designer, author, 10-time gold-medal winner at Chelsea, holder of the Royal Horticultural [...]

Winter 2008/9 forecast for UK
The days are much shorter now, it gets dark about 4pm and the trees are dropping the last of their leaves.
Yet, the temperatures continue to be very mild  -around 11/12c. No sign of any frosts in SE England yet  which has allowed many plants to continue flowering much later - all [...]

Tags: Exotics, Met Office

Thought I would continue with the issue of water conservation as I feel passionately about this subject.
The Government has recently introduced more incentives for businesses to install Rainwater Harvesting systems . The message seems to be working as there are an increasing number of new buildings and rennovations using Rainwater Harvesting as an effective and [...]

Tags: rainwater harvesting

What a weird world we now live in!
Whilst the UK drowns in buckets of rain, it seems that Southern Australia has recently declared its worst drought on record. For the past decade, Australia has been experiencing very dry summers and many gardeners are feeling the strain as this extremely sad story reveals:
Australia’s first known case [...]

It rained all day yesterday - really heavy rain that settled on the garden in big puddles and is still there this morning. Many roads were flooded creating a strain on our antiquated drains.
Woke up this morning to find it was still raining - as I look out of the window there are sheets of [...]

Tags: rainwater harvesting

Read this amazing story published in the Independent yesterday :
By James Woodward
Friday, 7 November 2008

A plant enthusiast has shaken the horticultural world after successfully growing dozens of bananas in a British domstic property for what is believed to be the first time, Mike Hilliard, 64 bought three musa japonica plants two years ago [...]

Tags: Exotics

The Economist magazine recently ventured into horticultural matters with a very interesting article about the future of our gardens.Great to read about something other than the big financial mess we seem to be in at the moment.
Gardening is a great antedote to stress - anyone feeling the financial strain might like to get their hands [...]

The USA cetainly looks greener than it did 24 hours ago.

The President-elect brings new optimism about the future of climate change issues in the USA . Will his appointment herald the green light for radical environmental reform?  Mr Obama’s plans are certainly ambitious and long overdue. The energy and enthusiasm he inspires is what America [...]

Today marks the beginning of November and a step closer to shorter days and less hours in the garden.
The winds of change change are definitely upon us - leaves are falling and flowers fading - preparing for a winter of discontent perhaps?
Planting seeds for a new future is what we all need to do in [...]