Grow Your Own

27/01/20 - Grow your own sponges to cut down on plastic waste, National Trust says as first property begins practice Grow your own sponges to cut down on plastic waste, the National Trust has said as its first property begins the practice. Gardeners at the Knightshayes estate in Devon decided to grow loofah plants in order to supply the kitchen with zero-waste cleaning utensils. While some sponges come from the sea, loofahs are grown from the Luffa cylindrica, a vine in the cucumber family. These are, the National Trust has said, very easy to grow and suitable for any garden, and are "the same as growing courgettes".

01/01/20 -  Orchard People Podcasts - Episode 36: Willow mulch for fruit trees Wouldn't we all love to find a magic remedy to help our fruit trees become healthier and more pest and disease resistant? Well, scientists in the UK may have discovered that magic remedy and it comes in the form of single-source willow mulch. In this episode of The Urban Forestry Radio Show, we speak to Dr Glynn Percival. He manages the UK and Ireland Bartlett Tree Research and Diagnostic Laboratory based at the University of Reading and he is also actively involved in managing urban and rural landscapes for the Royal Households.

24/05/19 - How the UK could become self sufficient in fruit and veg  If UK households went on a growing spree they could produce enough fruit and veg in their gardens to feed the whole country, one of the world’s leading bee and horticulture experts Dave Goulson has said. Giving over half of the average garden to crops would produce 7.5 million tonnes of fruit and veg a year in the UK – ahead of the national consumption of 6.9 tonnes by weight, if not variety.

22/06/18 - Monsanto trial over possible Roundup cancer link begins Opening statements could begin as early as Monday for the trial of a California man suing herbicide Roundup maker Monsanto, whom he believes caused him to get cancer through its weed killer.

27/03/18 - Why So Many US Public Libraries Are Now Giving Out Seeds Seed-sharing programs in US libraries aim to expand access to crops and educate the public, while also protecting scarce agricultural resources.

06/03/18 - Watch your back Celebrity gardeners are getting behind a national campaign, using humour to help fight melanoma. David Domoney, Adam Frost and David Stevens will all appear dressed up looking ‘ridiculous’ in a campaign urging us all to think twice about our sun protection habits.

January 2018  "For your garden journey in 2018, keep questioning the common assumptions: see the Myths video below. You don’t need to till, you can compost roots of perennial weeds and leaves with late blight, rotation is not obligatory, you often don’t need to ‘harden off’ especially when using row covers, most of us don’t need fertilisers, and generally you can save yourself much time by looking for short cuts that are really common sense. Life is easier and cheaper for having no wooden sides to the beds." Charles Dowding

Managing your soil - Advice from Garden Organic

23/02/13 - Weedkiller banned in US ‘is getting into compost and killing garden vegetables’Gardeners are calling for clopyralid, a resilient chemical banned in several American states, to be taken off the market in Britain