News - Page 111
Over one in ten native species of plant and wildlife in Britain are facing extinction, and about half are in decline according to the latest analysis of the state of wildlife in our country today.
Is Britain's Wildlife facing Extinction?
Over 50 plant conservation and wildlife organisations pooled resources to create the State of Nature report, monitoring almost 10,000 species from plants and lichens to birds and butterflies.
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Green walls and roof gardens play a far greater part in improving city living than previously thought, according to a new research study.
Improving City Living
Researchers looked at five cities – Berlin, Hong Kong, Melbourne, London and Los Angeles – and measured the impact on noise, pollution and heat of green infrastructure such as vertical planting and green roofs.
They found greenery on buildings can reduce air pollution b...
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Sow winter lettuce while the weather is still mild to give them plenty of time to establish into young plants for growing outside under cloches in the garden or in borders or grow bags in the greenhouse.
Sow your Lettuce Now
Winter lettuces are bred to tolerate the vagaries of a British winter, allowing you to produce a generous supply of lettuces from your garden every month of the year if you switch to hardier varieties now. They are every bit as d...
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The ultimate harvest festival gets under way this weekend as the RHS Malvern Autumn Show opens its doors for a two-day celebration of all things grow-your- own.
RHS Malvern Autumn Show
A highlight is the UK National Giant Vegetables Championship, where the country’s top vegetable growers vie for honours in growing the longest parsnip, fattest onion or heaviest pumpkin. Last year three world records were broken at the show. The longest beetroot, grown...
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Spending just half an hour a day gardening could reduce your risk of heart attack by over 50% according to new research.
Researchers studied 2,456 men and women aged between 65 and 74 over 12 years between 1997 and 2007. First they divided them into three groups according to the amount of physical activity they took part in.
Gardening can Improve your Health
The first group had ‘low’ levels of activity of less than four hours a week. The secon...
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Get ready to refill the greenhouse the moment your summer crops are spent and you can coax an extra crop of leafy veg and salads to see you right through the winter.
Refill your greenhouse
As you pick the last of your tomatoes and the aubergines and green peppers begin running out of steam, sow hardier varieties of lettuce from seed into pots or modules in the cold frame. You can also start winter baby-leaf salad mixes including oriental vegeta...
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The accounts book used by Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown is going on display for the first time at the Lindley Library in London – and it reveals he was among the 18th century’s richest businessmen, worth over £508 million in today’s money.
Capability Brown
Capability Brown changed the face of British landscape with his sweeping designs remodelling the countryside to include picturesque vistas, lakes and natural-looking serpentine streams. This year mar...
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As the sun dips lower, things get busy in the garden again. The autumn harvest needs gathering in, and late summer flowers are at their best - so gear up and get stuck in to this month’s jobs around the garden.
General tasks:
Clean the greenhouse after clearing spent tomato and cucumber plants, washing the glass thoroughly and disinfecting benches and pots.
Feed established lawns with low-nitrogen feed to enco...
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A gardener from Stockport, near Manchester, has grown ripe bananas in her back yard. Kate Burke, 53, said she couldn’t believe her eyes when the 10-year- old tree began flowering and then producing fruit earlier this summer.
Growing Bananas in the UK
The fruits are about 5cm long - much smaller than they would be in their native countries like the Caribbean, where temperatures average 27°C – considerably warmer than the 9.4°C average...
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Harvest your onions as soon as the ramrod-straight leaves start toppling over and turning brown.
Harvest your Onions
This is a sign that the plants are drawing all their goodness down into the bulb at the end of their season – your cue to dig up the lot for storing through winter.
Take your time over lifting and drying the crop, as the slower you do it, the better they’ll keep and the less likely they’ll be to develop rots in storage. The firs...
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