Richie Tassle from Coed Cymru will be giving an evening talk on the history of Welsh woodland at CAT on the 6th February. Come to the Straw Bale Theatre at 5.45. Admission £2.

Following on from the blog below Garden News reported today that there are two new methods of biological pest control available to gardeners. One for dealing with codling moth and another for cabbage white butterflies. These will help organic gardeners looking for an alternative to Derris, which is to be banned. Biological controls are usually [...]

Each year thousands of people phone the RHS for advice about pest control. All the enquiries are recorded to compile a list of the nations favourite (if that’s the write word) pests. The list for 2007 was announced yesterday. Here it is: 1. Slugs and snails 2. Harlequin ladybird 3. Vine weevil =4. Cushion scale =4. Ants [...]

During a break in the rains last week I nipped out to take this shot of my garden, the roof tops and the floods beyond (normally this valley is pasture). At the front of the picture you can see my work in progress. It’s a tiny plot I’m working on (about 3.5m by 5m) but [...]

Garden Organic – www.gardenorganic.org.uk – have completed another positive study on green manures – this time for the government agency responsible for agriculture – DEFRA. Green manures put nitrogen back into the soil if planted as part of normal crop rotations. The new study found that growing grazing rye over the winter reduced leaching of [...]

Remember to spend an hour counting the birds in your garden this weekend so you can take part in the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch. Register your results at www.rspb.org.uk. It’s a great excuse to just sit and do nothing but enjoy the birds. Count the maximum number of birds of each species you see at [...]

Making your own compost bin really is easy so don’t think you necessarily have to buy an expensive one to get started. Here Garden News writer Martin Fish shows off his bin made from recycled pallets. Looks good to me.

Making a hand stitched Garden Diary
 
A garden diary is an essential piece of kit for any gardener, but make it that extra bit special by creating your own using a nice craft paper and a recycled notebook cover. This is how you make it (instructions adapted from Making Stuff: An Alternative Craft Book (Black Dog [...]

Gardening Which? magazine have brought out a critical report on peat free potting compost. Each year they trial 20 plus bags of compost and peat compost always come out best. Not suprising as peat is an ideal growing medium for most plants. The problem is peat is extracted from fragile wildlife havens and the sale [...]

If you’re visiting after reading my first article in Garden News mag hi and thanks for dropping by. I try and keep the website up to date with composting and eco related videos, news of what I’m doing and general compost and other eco news stories I find interesting. I’m also hoping to back my [...]

If you’re free around about 12.15 this Sunday (6th Jan), live in the Northamptonshire area or have internet connection I’ll be talking about compost on BBC Radio Northamptonshire. Turn on, tune in, compost. 

Hey I’m back. And its good to be back. Join me at compostlover.com and Garden News magazine from January 9th. Best wishes and happy new year, Allan.