I’ve had various people asking me what’s happening to Yalding and at the moment I’m not sure but it is my understanding that Yalding is currently threatened with closure again. The best place to get up-to-date information is http://yaldingorganicgardens.info/. And also see comment below from John who runs the website.

I’m really pleased forest gardening is getting so much coverage at the moment. Here’s an article by Dominic Murphy in The Guardian.

It’s a great week for alternative gardening ideas on TV. Following on from her forest gardening slots on Gardeners World Alys Fowler has started a new TV series about edible gardening. It’s a real treat – both aspirational and practical – and really pleasing to watch. The first programme features permaculture pioneers Maddy Harland and [...]

I was very excited to receive yesterday a copy of Martin Crawford’s long awaited guide to forest gardening – Creating A Forest Garden. Martin is the UK’s leading exponent of forest gardening – a style of gardening which concentrates on perennial food crops grown in layers. The book launch couldn’t have been timed better as [...]

Next week sees the publication of the first solar PV book to include full details of feed-in tariff incentives – the new government scheme that encourages the installation of solar PV modules by providing householders, communities and businesses with a guaranteed fixed price for every unit of electricity they produce using small scale renewable technology. [...]

The Centre for Alternative Technology has been left with an uncertain future following the liquidation of a construction company that owed it £530,000. It is now looking for financial support to finish its WISE building and continue teaching students, professionals and householders about environmental practices and technologies. The organisation – which has a 35 year [...]

This cold snap has brought out the climate change deniers in their droves. Unfortunately they happen to work for dangerously misguided national newspaper editors prepared to give a voice to their stupidity. Thankfully The Guardian – as its name suggests – is doing its best to protect us from the consequences of the creation of [...]

The biggest calamity of any gardening year is to have no garden at all but 2010 looks set to be the year that land share finally takes off so try www.yours2share.com, www.landshare.net and www.landshare.org to be part of the action.

Happy New Year! Have you made your gardening New Years Resolutions yet? Check out my article in The Guardian this week for a few new ideas.

I’ve just found out I was a finalist in two categories of The Garden Media Guild Awards. The two awards were for Inspirational Book of the Year – for The Organic Garden (which I wrote with Chloe Ward) – and Gardening Column of The Year – for my organic columns in Garden News magazine – [...]

Hi. I write this just after a really crazy half hour of weather. The road outside my house was suddenly covered with snow. I’ve had a question about really cold composting. How cold can it get before you have to stop composting? The composting process really slows down in the cold because composting creatures become [...]

Hi again. Apologies for not blogging much recently…mmh… since May! Back in the game now but I’m widening the blog to include non gardening topics close to my heart too. To start with just thought I’d let you know that I’ve written an article for The Garden (the magazine of the RHS) and it should [...]

Check this out. Gardeners World presenter Alys Fowler and Garden Organic Bob Sherman have joined forces to plant an allotment at the site of the proposed 3rd runway at Heathrow Airport. I am so pleased we have a new garden presenter prepared to step out of the gardening arena to comment on wider environmental issues.

Barbara Haddrill is taking her talk about her book Babs2Brisbane to the Hay Festival and Cardiff Borders next week. Hay on Thursday and Cardiff on Saturday. Babs travelled overland to Australia to be a bridesmaid at her best friends wedding because she wanted to avoid flying for environmental reasons. Her talk is inspirational – suggesting [...]

The easiest recycled wormery I’ve come across is at the Yalding Organic Gardens in Kent. It’s made with three fairly large polystyrene boxes – the type used for packing vegetables or fish. Ask around your local market for spares. Quite often, they’re left at the end of each day for waste collection, so it shouldn’t [...]