Category Archives: energy use

Time For Climate Questions?

I join the audience for a Gardeners’ Question Time recording to pop questions to our top gardening ‘experts’ about carbon footprints, but did I get any answers? By John Walker. Published in Organic Gardening, July 2008. Inspiration is a powerful … Continue reading

Posted in carbon emissions, carbon footprint, climate change & global warming, climate- & earth-friendly gardening, ecological footprints, energy use, environment, fossil fuels, glyphosate, media, organic gardening, peat & peat-free compost, published articles, tv gardening & celebrities | Leave a comment

A Royal Shade of Green?

In an exclusive interview for Organic Gardening, I talk recycling, renewable energy and carbon footprints with Bob Sweet, the key decision-maker behind the Royal Horticultural Society flower shows, including the 2008 Chelsea Flower Show. By John Walker. Published in Organic … Continue reading

Posted in carbon emissions, carbon footprint, climate change & global warming, climate- & earth-friendly gardening, ecological footprints, ecological sustainability, energy use, environment, ethics, garden centres & gardening industry, gardening footprint, greenwash, media, overconsumption, plastic, published articles, recycling, tv gardening & celebrities | Leave a comment

Waste of Space

As new research describes areas of the UK as ‘food deserts’, it’s time to pull down the garden fence and turn unproductive, resource-hungry urban ‘green spaces’ into edible havens. By John Walker. Published in Organic Gardening, March 2008. This is … Continue reading

Posted in allotments, climate- & earth-friendly gardening, energy use, environment, food & kitchen gardening, green gardening, organic gardening, politics, published articles, resilience, transition | Leave a comment

A Tale of Two Books

Two new titles, both claiming to show us how to garden in more planet-friendly ways, while helping to curb climate change, prove that you can never judge a book by its cover. By John Walker. Published in Organic Gardening, February … Continue reading

Posted in carbon emissions, carbon footprint, climate change & global warming, climate- & earth-friendly gardening, ecological sustainability, energy use, environment, ethics, gardening footprint, green gardening, nature & the natural world, organic gardening, published articles | Leave a comment

Turning Off the Tap

 ‘Peak oil’, when global oil supplies begin to enter terminal decline, is a matter of when, not if. So when can we expect a transition away from oil-hungry organic gardening? By John Walker. Published in Organic Gardening, Winter 2008. Just … Continue reading

Posted in climate- & earth-friendly gardening, ecological sustainability, energy use, fossil fuels, garden centres & gardening industry, garden compost & composting, organic gardening, peak oil, pesticides in the garden, resilience, transition | 1 Comment

Carbon Positive

Calculating the ‘carbon footprint’ of individual products is becoming all the rage. In search of a carbon-neutral garden, what about applying the concept to our plants? By John Walker. Published in Organic Gardening, December 2007. Is your garden costing the … Continue reading

Posted in carbon emissions, carbon footprint, climate change & global warming, energy use, environment, gardening footprint, organic gardening, packaging, published articles | Leave a comment

Don’t Look Back

As climate scientists find a ‘human fingerprint’ in extreme rainfall events, and warn that the past is no longer a guide to the future,  how will organic gardeners fare in an unpredictable climate? By John Walker. Published in Organic Gardening, … Continue reading

Posted in allotments, carbon emissions, carbon footprint, climate change & global warming, climate- & earth-friendly gardening, energy use, environment, food & kitchen gardening, gardening footprint, nature & the natural world, organic gardening, pollution, published articles | Leave a comment

Centres For the Earth

As supermarkets eye up the ‘green pound’, what we need is not a monoculture of ‘Tescoised’ garden centres but local, diverse and distinctive earth centres. By John Walker. Published in Organic Gardening, October 2007. By the time you read this, … Continue reading

Posted in climate- & earth-friendly gardening, eco gardening, energy use, environment, ethics, garden centres & gardening industry, gardening footprint, nature & the natural world, organic gardening, overconsumption, published articles, recycling, resilience, retail monoculture, transition | 1 Comment

Intensive Care

As weather patterns shift and water supplies dwindle, can we sustain the container gardening craze in its present form? By John Walker. Published in Organic Gardening, August 2007. Love them or loathe them, there’s something mesmerising about those TV dramas … Continue reading

Posted in climate change & global warming, climate- & earth-friendly gardening, container gardening, easy gardening, ecological sustainability, energy use, environment, ethics, gardening footprint, green gardening, organic gardening, overconsumption, peat & peat-free compost, pesticides in the garden, published articles, rainwater harvesting, soil, tv gardening & celebrities, water & 'water footprints' | Leave a comment

I Don’t Need a Bag…

Amid a media frenzy over excess packaging, garden centres seem oblivious to putting the stops on plastic – and they’re giving us their own waste to dispose of too. By John Walker. Published in Organic Gardening, July 2007.  It was … Continue reading

Posted in climate change & global warming, energy use, environment, garden centres & gardening industry, nature & the natural world, overconsumption, packaging, plastic, pollution, published articles | Leave a comment