-
-
-
Recent Posts
Recent Comments
- Ian Brown on Keep Calm and… Put Up a Greenhouse
- Louise Doughty on Open Thread: Buying Peat-free Compost – How Easy Are You Finding It?
- Janet on The Real Gardeners’ World
- Virginia on Crowd Cultivation
- Dee Sewell on WIN a Signed Copy of How to Create an Eco Garden: The Practical Guide to Greener, Planet-friendly Gardening
Archives
Categories
- allotments (19)
- blight-resistant 'sárpo' potatoes (5)
- blog (13)
- carbon emissions (40)
- carbon footprint (41)
- climate change & global warming (43)
- climate- & earth-friendly gardening (68)
- container gardening (4)
- easy gardening (2)
- eco gardening (30)
- ecological footprints (17)
- ecological sustainability (32)
- energy use (44)
- environment (71)
- ethics (27)
- food & kitchen gardening (41)
- food miles (22)
- fossil fuels (31)
- freegardening (2)
- garden centres & gardening industry (35)
- garden compost (3)
- garden compost & composting (24)
- gardening footprint (24)
- genetically modified (GM) crops (4)
- glyphosate (6)
- good life (6)
- green gardening (32)
- greenwash (23)
- mail order (6)
- media (25)
- nature & the natural world (41)
- no-dig gardening (2)
- open gardens (5)
- organic gardening (74)
- overconsumption (19)
- packaging (10)
- peak oil (5)
- peat & peat-free compost (26)
- permaculture (1)
- pesticides in the garden (21)
- plastic (7)
- politics (14)
- pollution (21)
- published articles (80)
- rainwater harvesting (7)
- recycling (6)
- renewable gardening (18)
- resilience (14)
- retail monoculture (4)
- soil (11)
- transition (7)
- tv gardening & celebrities (18)
- vegan-organic gardening (2)
- water & 'water footprints' (6)
- weedkiller residues (3)
- © John Walker 2011, 2012, 2013
an ethical internet website
Category Archives: garden centres & gardening industry
Gardens in the Air
As the show season gets underway and entire gardens are flown in from the other side of the planet, has the UK’s leading gardening organisation lost the environmental plot? By John Walker. Published in Organic Gardening, May 2006. As I … Continue reading
Posted in carbon emissions, carbon footprint, climate change & global warming, climate- & earth-friendly gardening, ecological footprints, ecological sustainability, energy use, environment, fossil fuels, garden centres & gardening industry, greenwash, media, nature & the natural world, pollution, published articles
Leave a comment
Weedkiller’s Winning Ways: My Article on Clopyralid Compost Pollution Bags Garden Media Guild Environmental Award 2012
Last week I was chuffed and humbled to win – for the third time – the British Garden Media Guild’s Environmental Award for my article ‘Gardening’s own goal’, which was published by Hartley Botanic in August 2012. This is a real … Continue reading
Choosing Delusion
We’re told that whether or not to use garden chemicals is a personal choice. That may be so, but it needs to be an informed choice – and we’re not being told the whole story. By John Walker. Published on … Continue reading
Posted in carbon footprint, climate- & earth-friendly gardening, eco gardening, energy use, environment, ethics, garden centres & gardening industry, gardening footprint, green gardening, greenwash, media, nature & the natural world, organic gardening, packaging, pesticides in the garden, politics, pollution, published articles, renewable gardening
2 Comments
Grow Organic With Manchester’s Bud Garden Centre
One of the most engaging ‘twitterships’ that I’ve struck up in the flourishing world of gardening social media is my occasional exchanges with Brenda Smith, co-founder of Bud Garden Centre, in Burnage, Manchester (@BudGardenCentre). We share plenty in common, both … Continue reading
Reporting on Garden Weedkiller Pollution is as Damaging as the Pollution Itself
Recent reporting on the threat of pollution by the weedkiller clopyralid leaves gardeners without the full facts about both peat-based and peat-free composts. By John Walker. Published on the Guardian‘s website, 27th September 2012 Twisted, buckled and puckered leaves, bulging … Continue reading
It’s Time To Have Your Peat-Free Say On ‘Towards Sustainable Growing Media’
The chair of the government’s Sustainable Growing Media Task Force (SGMTF), Dr Alan Knight, has now published his chair’s report and draft ‘road map’, Towards Sustainable Growing Media. You might well be wondering why we actually need a map, when a … Continue reading
Flogging Faith in Nature
There’s no need to buy solutions to pest problems that nature can solve for us. The only real problem is how to sell this idea. By John Walker. Published on the Hartley Botanic website, 21st June 2012 Minuscule spiders a … Continue reading
Posted in ecological sustainability, energy use, environment, fossil fuels, garden centres & gardening industry, green gardening, media, nature & the natural world, organic gardening, pesticides in the garden, pollution, published articles, renewable gardening, tv gardening & celebrities
Leave a comment
Greening Up Your Gardening
Rethinking the way you tend your garden will reap great environmental benefits and help to strengthen your relationship with the natural world. By John Walker. Published in Kew magazine, Summer 2012. When it comes to more eco-friendly living, insulating your … Continue reading
Posted in carbon emissions, carbon footprint, climate change & global warming, climate- & earth-friendly gardening, eco gardening, ecological footprints, ecological sustainability, energy use, environment, food miles, fossil fuels, garden centres & gardening industry, garden compost & composting, green gardening, greenwash, nature & the natural world, organic gardening, overconsumption, peat & peat-free compost, pesticides in the garden, published articles, rainwater harvesting, renewable gardening, soil
Leave a comment
Austerity Gardening
Make do and mend, learn to do without, pull your socks up and get stuck in: it’s time to cultivate some old-fashioned values in the garden. By John Walker. Published on the Hartley Botanic website, 15th May 2012. Have you … Continue reading
Posted in carbon emissions, carbon footprint, climate change & global warming, climate- & earth-friendly gardening, ecological footprints, energy use, environment, food & kitchen gardening, fossil fuels, garden centres & gardening industry, gardening footprint, glyphosate, mail order, media, nature & the natural world, organic gardening, overconsumption, packaging, published articles, renewable gardening, resilience
Leave a comment
Peat-Free Compost: A Buyer’s guide
Having tested more peat-free composts than I could shake a beanpole at, in this article, republished courtesy of Kitchen Garden magazine (June 2012), I recommend my top six peat-frees for the 2012 sowing and growing season. You can read the original 3-page … Continue reading