UK Ecology

Articles we posted in 2006.

A nice little piece on how to keep your babies warm over the winter period from icBerkshire.co.uk focusing on research from Gardening Which? magazine, which tested 15 greenhouse heaters, assessing everything from safety and ease of use to noise and heat output efficiency.
Click here for the full article

Popular beat-combo 'The Bees' have revealed that their first album was created in a shed: "We really did record (2002's Sunshine Hit Me) in a shed in my back garden, surrounded by nature," said the band leader Paul Butler in an interview given to The Age newspaper of Australia.

“ If we wrote that same album in a dark studio in London, it would've been completely different. And the press thought it was a nice story, too: a band born in a shed on the Isle of Wight. There's not many who can claim that.”

A press release from popular e-commerce website Garden Buildings Direct has an inside look into the future of the garden buildings market and discusses why timber prices are about to rise.
Click here for the E-consultancy.com news release.

The guerilla gardening movement, described as "non-violent direct action", has spread north, as the Shetland News reported when some public space suddenly found itself spruced up and planted with flowers (hardy varieties, of course). A spokeswoman refused to comment as to when and where they might strike again.

Here is a link to an interesting article on the UK Allotment Movement, the US Urban Gardening Movement and Guerrilla Gardening.

An innocent shed was today blown up by Scottish terrorists. Investigations are continuing.

Breakthrough Breast Cancer and Solus have some great products for gardening enthusiasts that come in the charities trademark pink colour. Sales of Camelot gardening gloves (in hot pink) and Yeoman hand held bulb planters (rosy pink) will see part of the proceeds go to help Breakthrough Breast Cancer's work. The products will be on sale during Breast Cancer Awareness Month in October in garden retail outlets through UK. Last year Solus Garden & Leisure raised £60,000 through sales of special edition bright pink Yeoman secateurs and Camelot pink gloves and everyone is hoping to beat that this year.

May 2006 sees Oxford University Press release a 584 page volume covering gardens and gardening around the world from the beginning of history to the present. Edited by Patrick Taylor and featuring some 170 contributors The Times reviewed it as

“ "lively and erudite company not only for anyone actively interested in the garden in all its guises, but also for those whose love of civilisation does not quite extend to the dirtying of fingernails.”

RSP at £40.00 - from all good book shops etc.

Hose-pipe bans and drought orders are starting to come into force across southern England. Water conservation is the order of the day and garden centres are reporting significant increased sales of water butts, trickle irrigation systems, mulch and drought tolerant plants. Sutton and East Surrey Water is the first water company to be granted a drought order by the government - affecting over 650,000 customers who cannot now use hoses, sprinklers or fountains and can only top up ponds

“ ...if your fish are in danger.”