Category Archives: energy use

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

Time to Turn Off The Tap

With hosepipe bans now in place in many areas, gardeners everywhere need to start tapping into a more joined-up kind of gardening. By John Walker. Published on the Hartley Botanic website, 16th April 2012. Greenhouse gardeners are especially adept at … Continue reading

Posted in carbon footprint, climate change & global warming, climate- & earth-friendly gardening, container gardening, energy use, environment, garden centres & gardening industry, greenwash, media, politics, published articles, rainwater harvesting, renewable gardening, water & 'water footprints' | Leave a comment

Forget FITs – Roll Out Some Gardening GITs!

High-tech sunshine harvesting is all very well if you can afford it, but there’s an easier and more earth-friendly way to turn sunlight into energy that’s right outside your back door. By John Walker. Published on the Hartley Botanic website, … Continue reading

Posted in allotments, carbon emissions, carbon footprint, climate change & global warming, climate- & earth-friendly gardening, ecological footprints, energy use, environment, food & kitchen gardening, food miles, fossil fuels, gardening footprint, green gardening, organic gardening, packaging, peak oil, published articles, renewable gardening, resilience, transition | Leave a comment

Go Green – Hug a Greenhouse

In a garden near you there’s a greenhouse looking for love – and giving it a new home would make your ‘gardening footprint’ a few sizes smaller. By John Walker. Published on the Hartley Botanic website, 23rd January 2012. “Will you stop peeping?” … Continue reading

Posted in climate- & earth-friendly gardening, ecological footprints, energy use, freegardening, gardening footprint, green gardening, organic gardening, published articles, recycling, renewable gardening | Leave a comment

The Carbon Conundrum

There’s a hands-on horticultural way to mitigate climate change – but it will only make a real difference if our gardens aren’t also part of the problem. By John Walker. Published on the Hartley Botanic website, 4th December 2011. Something … Continue reading

Posted in carbon emissions, carbon footprint, climate change & global warming, climate- & earth-friendly gardening, eco gardening, energy use, environment, garden compost & composting, organic gardening, peat & peat-free compost, published articles, renewable gardening, soil | Leave a comment

Bring Me Sunshine: The Power Behind Renewable Gardening

Using a greenhouse to grow your own food will make your garden greener and help trim your ‘ecological footprint’ – but only if you tap into the right kind of sunshine. By John Walker. Published on the Hartley Botanic website, 23rd September … Continue reading

Posted in carbon emissions, carbon footprint, climate change & global warming, climate- & earth-friendly gardening, ecological footprints, energy use, environment, ethics, food & kitchen gardening, fossil fuels, gardening footprint, nature & the natural world, organic gardening, peat & peat-free compost, pollution, published articles, renewable gardening | Leave a comment

Drought of Good Sense

Are gardeners really the ‘victims’ when hosepipe bans are announced – or are we just the unwitting pawns of a gardening industry running dry on ecological consciousness? By John Walker. Published in Kitchen Garden, September 2010. Victimised, threatened and dealt … Continue reading

Posted in climate change & global warming, climate- & earth-friendly gardening, container gardening, ecological sustainability, energy use, environment, food & kitchen gardening, garden centres & gardening industry, garden compost & composting, greenwash, organic gardening, published articles, rainwater harvesting, soil, water & 'water footprints' | Leave a comment

Gardening on the Road

Our growing mania for having ‘one click’ gardens delivered in boxes is adding to the mounting pressures on the increasingly fragile world around us. By John Walker. Published in Kitchen Garden, July 2010. There’s quite a singalong going on outside … Continue reading

Posted in climate- & earth-friendly gardening, eco gardening, energy use, food & kitchen gardening, garden centres & gardening industry, gardening footprint, mail order, nature & the natural world, overconsumption, packaging, pollution, published articles, tv gardening & celebrities | Leave a comment

Money Can’t Buy Life

As we hanker for a taste of the ‘good life’, we need to realise that more satisfying, enjoyable and sustainable lives don’t arrive in the post. By John Walker. Published in Kitchen Garden, May 2010. I don’t know about you, … Continue reading

Posted in carbon emissions, climate- & earth-friendly gardening, easy gardening, ecological sustainability, energy use, environment, garden centres & gardening industry, good life, mail order, organic gardening, overconsumption, politics, published articles, resilience | Leave a comment

Election Special

With trust in status quo politics withering, I offer my manifesto for a brave, visionary and greener force fit for the dawning of a more earth-friendly era. By John Walker. Published in Kitchen Garden, April 2010. Amid fevered media speculation … Continue reading

Posted in climate change & global warming, climate- & earth-friendly gardening, eco gardening, ecological sustainability, energy use, environment, food & kitchen gardening, food miles, garden centres & gardening industry, peat & peat-free compost, politics, published articles, resilience, retail monoculture | Leave a comment