Winter Solstice

Today is Winter Solstice the longest night of the year. It's a great milestone in the gardeners year, as it means it has got as gloomy as it can get and from now on each night will be 5 minutes lighter and before you know it, it will be Spring!

No wonder our ancestors without electric lighting or heating celebrated the fact they had reached the darkest point and were heading back to warmer days and longer days.

Frankincese Trees Under Threat

Interesting article about how Frankincese is made and how the trees where the resin is taken from are under threat from development.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-16270759

My Kinda Town! - Todmorden

I remember reading about this West Yorkshire town last year, and now the Daily Mail have done an article about them. Tordmorden is leading the way when it comes to grow your own and community gardening. They have fruit and veg growing all over the place eg. roundabouts, car parks, and canal sides.

Word is spreading around the world about what Todmorden is achieving, and its highly likely there will be plenty of copycat towns growing their own, but its likely rather than annoy the people of Todmorden, it'll make them proud!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2072383/Eccentric-town-Todmorden-growing-ALL-veg.html

Gardens to Visit - Stillingfleet Lodge Gardens, York

Just 6 miles outside of historic York, a series of gardens surrounding an 18th century farmhouse.

http://www.gardenandgreen.co.uk/#/stillingfleet-lodge-gardens-yo/4558683115

Christmas Gift Idea No.9 World Land Trust

Credit: Elwood W. McKay III

If you're struggling for an idea for a Christmas gift, pressed for time or the person has requested you donate some money to charity on their behalf, the Worl Land Trust might be just the answer. They can send the gift certificate by email as a pdf. You can buy an acre of rainforest or donate to a range of conservation projects.

View gift options here

How to make Your Own Christmas Wreath

Here is a good page on the RHS website about making your own Christmas using materials from the garden, country lanes etc. Fun to do with kids and look great on your front door.

http://apps.rhs.org.uk/advicesearch/profile.aspx?PID=615

Garden & Countryside Events 2012

Now is a good time to be uploading your planned events, farmers markets, garden shows etc for 2012. It is easy to do and does not cost anything.

Just click add event then complete details.

http://www.gardenandgreen.co.uk/#/events-diary/4532467145

Christmas Gift Idea No. 8 English Heritage Membership

An alternative to RSPB gif membership is a gift membership for English Heritage for people that love day trips to the countryside. English Heritage has 400 hundred glorious places to visit throughout England such as historic houses, prehistoric sites like Stonehenge, castles, Hadrians Wall, etc and the gift membership means free entry for a whole year. The Membership comes as a packaged voucher and booklet, containing all the information needed for the recipient to redeem their Gift of Membership. Last date for Royal Mail Christmas postage - midnight on 18th December.

PRICES FOR 12 MONTH MEMBERSHIP
Student (under 19 and NUS Members) £34.50
Adult (age 19-59) £46.00
Senior (age 60+) £33.50
Adult and Senior £66.50
Couple (age 19-59) £80.00
Senior Couple (age 60+) £54.50

Buy membership HERE

Christmas Gift Idea No 7. RSPB Membership

The RSPB does a great job protecting Britain's wild birds and their habitats. A gift membership is a great way of supporting their work and also is a gift that can bring a lot of pleasure to the recipient over the following 12 months. It might inspire them to get involved and become a volunteer, or an avid bird watcher, a hobby that involves getting out and about in the countryside.

Gift membership has to be bought by 17th December to ensure it arrives for Christmas. It is £36 for a years membership, or you can opt to pay £3 a month to spread the payments.

Buy membership HERE

Christmas Gift Idea No. 6 Garden Kneeler

Weeding can get a bit more uncomfortable as you grow older, so a garden kneeler is a good practical gardening gift that gardeners of a certain age will appreciate. having said that anyone can use one, as it can keep your knees from getting damp and stones digging into them while you work. The garden kneeler can also be used as a small stool, which is great for when you are potting seeds etc.

Vistore sells garden kneelers for £28 inc delivery.

Buy online HERE

Christmas Gift Idea No. 5 Vegetable Seeds

Christmas Day is only 3 months before seeds are planted, so a few vegetable seed packets in the stocking are always appreciated. For a small outlay, the gift recipient as long as they put the work in get quite a huge present when harvest comes later in the year. Blooming Direct sell the well known Mr Fothergills range;

Click here to buy vegetable seeds.

Christmas Gift Idea No 4. The Garden & Nature Quiz Book

The Garden and Nature Quiz Book is a selection of quizzes about gardening and nature eg. grow your own quiz, bird quiz, national park quiz, tree anagrams etc. Ideal for garden club gatherings, allotment society barbecues or to keep in the shed or greenhouse to complete while your having a break, or at home when the weather is bad.

£4.99 plus £2 UK P&P
Order the book online HERE

Christmas Gift Idea No 3. Hyacinths

Hyacinth are renowned for their pleasant, fresh scent, and a basket of Hyacinth bulbs to place on a windowsill or dining table are always appreciated. They will give an early splash of colour and will last a lot longer than a bunch of flowers. Once the bulbs have bloomed they can be planted outdoors, so they will come up the following spring.

Deluxe Hyacinth Basket
26% OFF - SAVE OVER £6
Despatch: December 2011
Price: (£24.99) £18.29

Buy HERE from Thompson & Morgan

Christmas Gift Idea No 2. Holly Tree

Holly is the perfect tree for a Christmas gift. For centuries people have been decorating their homes with Holly. The person you give the holly to can use it for decorating their home over the festive period, but then can plant it out in their garden, and it will grow to a decent size and make an attractive, evergreen garden feature.

Tree2mydoor who specialise in tree gifts (Oaks, Scots Pines etc) sell Holly trees for £24.50, they are 20-40cm tall and come in an attractive canvas covered pot with card and can either be sent to the recipient direct or the gift givers home address.

Order from Tree2mydoor HERE

Christmas Gift Idea No 1. London Zoo Pass

London Zoo is an Oasis of world wildlife in the centre of London, it is possible to get a years membership, so you can go for walks around the zoo and observe the animals as often you like throughout the various seasons.

PRICES
Family 1 (1 adult and up to 5 children)
Previously £150 now £120

Family 2 (2 adults and up to 5 children)
Previously £225 now £180

Joint adult
Previously £165 now £132

Joint concession
Previously £150 now £120

Adult
Previously £90 now £72

Concession
Previously £77.50 now £62

BUY GIFT MEMBERSHIP HERE

Christmas Gift Ideas

In the run up to Christmas, the blog section of gardenandgreen.co.uk will be featuring Christmas present ideas for people who love gardening, nature, outdoor pursuits etc.

FREEBIE! - Garden bird feeding guide

FREEBIE - Free garden bird feeding guide, just enter address for one to be sent. http://tinyurl.com/cfdytll

Jersey Royal Potatoes for Christmas Dinner

Jersey Plants Direct are selling Jersey Royal Potatoes to be delivered in time for Christmas. £9.99 for 5lb / 2,3kg includes UK delivery.

View Jersey Plants Direct HERE

Solar Tariffs A Temporary Setback

I was chatting to a man who runs a Solar energy company. I asked him about how the changes to feed in tariffs might affect the industry, and he was quite optimistic. For those that don't know the government has been offering a deal where anyone with solar panels could feed their electricity into the National Grid at a subsidised rate of about 43p per Kwh, due to the state of the economy they are reducing this dramatically so the feed in tarrif will be about 21p Kwh.

This will mean home solar electricity producers will get less for their excess power. However, the solar man explained that the cost of solar panels have came down dramatically over the last few years, so it makes it much cheaper to install, customers still get free energy that reduces their bills, and even the new rate means that people can be quids in for their excess power.

So, overall I was left with the impression that solar power for homes will continue to be a growing market, and the new lower tariff is just a small adjustment in the long term scheme of things.

Puffin Painting For Sale

DUTCH AUCTION - Puffin painting. Acrylic on canvas board. Size 46 x 61cm (18in x 24in) Best offers to gardenandgreen@hotmail.co.uk

La Train pour Allegmagne c'est GLOWING??

A group of protesters have tried to halt a train that was carrying nuclear waste, being taken from Normandy, France to Germany. Here is a vid of them being chased by a bunch of Deutsch Robocops.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-15905468

Well Done Waitrose

Waitrose has been commended for its commitment to using only palm oil from sustainable sources. Palm oil is used in loads of everyday products from food to cosmetics and in South East Asia large amounts of pristine forest has been destroyed to make way for Palm plantations, resulting in habitat loss for animals such as the Orang Utan.

Tom Hart Dyke's Travels

Over on the main site a new interview with Tom Hart Dyke, of the World Garden at Lullingstone Castle. He has just returned from the Cape Verde Islands and is planning on a new Cape Verde section in his glasshouses.

http://www.gardenandgreen.co.uk/#/cape-verde-plants/4557812991

Concrete Jungle

In just one year a total of 591,000 migrants arrived in the UK during 2010 while 339,000 left, according to the Office for National Statistics. This means net immigration was 252,000. This is the equivalent to the size of Nottingham in just 12 months! You do not need to be a rocket scientist to see that this deeply irresponsible levels of immigration allowed by the government will result in great environmental damage, thousands of acres of good farmland concreted over, busier roads and a lower of quality of life.

Dry Ice Winter

Spring was a record dry one, and autumn has had 50% less of the expected rainfall, this has resulted in some reservoirs being only half full and many farmers have had poor harvests. At the end of the article below DEFRA state "Many British farmers are facing difficulties due to the dry conditions and it is important that they can find ways to become more resilient in the long term," a spokesman said.

"While droughts are not new, we may face a future with less rainfall and less certainty about when that rain will fall. Next month we will set out our plans to ensure there are secure water resources in the future."


Thats relying on a bit of crystal ball gazing, as I can't see how they can be sure there will be less rainfall in the future. However, they have omitted one important FACT! The UK population has increased by 3 million in 10 years thanks to mass immigration, and is predicted to grow by another 10 million by the 2020's. Currently the UK population is growing by the size of a city the size of Leeds EVERY YEAR. So, if you're wondering why reservoirs are emptying a lot faster than they used to, there is your answer!

BBC Article about low reservoirs

Dog Lead?!

Looks like Benton needs to be kept on a lead! ;0)

A Film That Is Creating a Buzz

Vanishing Bees is a film made to highlight the plight of bees, which are essential to the planets well being. I haven't seen it yet, but I'm going to watch it, it looks really interesting. You can watch it online for a fee or buy the DVD, more info here;

http://vanishingbees.co.uk/watch/

Winter Visitors

The Telegraph has added a gallery of birds that are winter visitors to the British Isles. Of all the pics my favourite is the one of the Waxwing, what a beautiful bird it is!

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/gardening/gardeningpicturegalleries/8899555/Top-10-winter-birds-in-pictures.html?image=4

Hanging Bird Table Comp.

www.find-me-a-gift.co.uk is currently running a competition on our site. Two lucky winners will receive a Bempton Hanging Bird Table. To enter visit ;

http://www.gardenandgreen.co.uk/#/competitions/4526129864

Newcastle Greenbelt to Concrete Belt

Newcastle City Council are currently horrifying residents with a plan of the city, with colours to show where housebuilding is being planned. Throughout the city, playing fields and other green spaces are marked for housing and large swathes of greenbelt to the West and north of the city are also marked for destruction. This will be happening throughout Britain as a result of a huge increase in population mostly down to mass immigration.

Wild Pics!

Superb pics of Wildebeast from photographer Paolo Torchio

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2063219/Amazing-pictures-wildebeest-stampeding-Africa.html

New Blog

This is the new blo, g for www.gardenandgreen.co.uk