Ben Law - Grand Designs vote

Hello

Channel 4 is asking viewers to vote for their favourite 25 Greatest Grand Designs.

The programme’s celebrity fans, tv critics and experts all have their view, but there is also a public vote.

If you have seen the programme featuring our author Ben Law we would love you to visit the Grand Designs site today and vote for Ben’s remarkable woodland house design and build.

Visit the link below, which has a summary of each of the programmes, and register your vote for Ben’s home at SUSSEX: THE WOODSMAN’S COTTAGE:
www.channel4.com/4homes/ontv/grand-designs/Grand-Designs-Awards/2008/Vote

The results will be unveiled during Grand Designs Live television event on Channel 4 from May 4th-9th.

Visit Ben’s website (www.ben-law.co.uk) for the latest details of his Open Days, courses, books and news.

guerrilla gardening

Have you ever walked down the street and felt sad for all the unwanted spaces that are just left vandalized and filled with rubbish? Did you wish that somebody would do something about it? well you know as well as I do that it’s never going to happen so why not take control and do something about it yourself?

Guerrilla gardening is political gardening, a form of nonviolent direct action, primarily practiced by environmentalists. Activists take over an abandoned piece of land which they don’t own to grow crops or plants. The practices are non- violent, unlike guerrilla warfare that can cause bloodshed. Guerrilla gardeners believe in reclaiming land from perceived neglect or misuse and assigning a new purpose for it.

image taken from guerrillagardening.org

Guerrilla gardeners will sometimes carry out their actions late at night geared up with gardening gloves, watering cans, compost, seeds and plants. They plant and sow a new vegetable patch or flowering garden. Others will work more openly, actively seeking to engage with members of the local community, as illustrated in the examples that follow.

Firstly you need to identify a piece of unwanted ground, perhaps an old allotment or even a planter in the precinct. Think about how much better you would feel with it filled with plants and looking like it was cared for. Even if you just scatter some seed here and there you are taking control of your environment, which you have every right to do. You don’t need to dig up a roudabout, even a few bulbs under a road sign make a difference.

Perhaps get together with a group of friends, I’ll bet that there are more people than you think out there who care about there environment. There is a community where you can advertise your planned attack, here http://guerrillagardening.org/community/index.php

Many people are already out there doing it, however many of then choose a more decorative approach to their plans and don’t always choose suitable plants for the environment they are plated in. I want to encourage the use of edible plants, perennials and fruiting trees, and use permaculture principals to cheer up unwanted spaces but also make them productive.

If there is anybody who feels like lending a helping hand get in touch.

best blog of the day award

thankyou whoever nominated me best blog of the day. best blog of the day and in the local paper in the same week, watch this space.

buying gardens update

On thursday morning I phoned the planning manager to ask how things were going but again did not get to talk to him. However a secretary phoned me back and I asked her if the land resistary would be finished by febuary but she said it was taking longer than expected, there was a suriprse. She could not give me a date, I said would it be done by summer? but she would not say. The prospect of having to wait another six to eight months worries me, as the garden presently belongs to an elderly lady who tells me she is on the list for sheltered housing, if she were to move out and a family with three kids were to move in, they would be less likely to want to give up there garden. I must stop thinking about it and just get on with what I have got and just see what happens . I just hate to see such a large plot go to wasts year after year.

voluntary hard-work

Voluntary simplicity, downshifting, low impact what ever you want to call it, sometimes feels like alot more hard-work than the name implies. Much of the way in which I choose to live requires me to break with the norm, to leave behind accepted behaviour. I often feel resentful at having to explain my reasons for not wanting to do something or why I choose to do without. Even psyically the attempt to be an ethical shopper requires me to travel further, rather than aquiring everything from one place. Sometimes I have to keep reminding myself that it’s worth it, there is no prize for being an ethical shopper or reducing your eco footprint.

However there is also part of me who enjoys the challenge, finding the lowest price the most local produce. Our lives in the western world are no longer a struggle, but why should food etc be so easily obtained. So often you here” I would buy organic but it’s too expensive” or ”they don’t sell it here”, my argument is, that it’s not an organic chicken thats expensive, it’s the factory reared chicken thats too cheep (sorry bad joke). I get such a good feeling walking with my son, visiting the differnt shops talking to people who actually know where there produce comes from. Perhaps people would have a greater respect for there food and their environment if they were forced to be more envolved in it.

creating green corridors

It’s not just the people in the community we should be thinking about, wildlife in the garden is essential to Permaculture and organic growing. Not just giving things like hedgehogs the ability to move from garden to garden but if you are trying to garden organic but your nextdoor neighbour sprays chemicals all over, you have a problem.

Town planners should make biodiversity a core consideration
within urban and suburban regeneration plans and purposefully
create ‘green networks’, reveals the Wild About Gardens Discovery
Survey, carried out by The Wildlife Trusts (TWT) and the Royal
Horticultural Society (RHS) in partnership with Ribena.

According to the findings, garden owners are responding to
wildlife gardening advice and taking action but there is still
considerable room for improvement, even among the most
wildlife-friendly gardeners. The survey’s findings that
mini-habitats are spread between different gardens emphasises the
importance of making it easier for wildlife to move within a
connected network of ‘green corridors’ by using trees, ponds and
hedgerows, and providing a greater variety of food sources from
nectar, berry and seed-producing plants.

Simon Thornton-Wood, Director of Science and Learning for the
RHS, explains: “Developers should be careful not to create ‘token
gesture’ green spaces in anticipation they might provide real
benefit for wildlife. From our preliminary findings we looked at
the gardens that recorded sightings of all five of our key
species and found that they nearly all had tall trees, but only a
third shared other important features such as ponds, woodpiles
and long grass. Not everyone, especially those with small
gardens, has the room for the ultimate checklist of features
which means that neighbours need to pull together to help improve
wildlife communities as well as social ones. Individuals who
have created a wildlife oasis in a conservation desert provide a
welcome refuge but its value multiplies when connected to
neighbouring habitats, as last month’s Stern Report touched upon
by calling for greater linkage of ‘green’ habitats to better
accommodate species movement.”

Over 1,500 garden owners responded to the survey between 2 and 17
September to help investigate links between garden habitats,
gardening practices and key garden species. Participants were
asked to complete an inventory of types of plants and features in
their garden including the garden’s location, their gardening
practices, and whether the following species visited their garden
within the two-week survey period: Hedgehog, Goldfinch, Common
Frog, Toad, Bumblebee, and specifically the Brown Bumblebee. The
data is being analysed in depth with more comprehensive findings
to be released next year.

Stephanie Hilborne, Chief Executive of The Wildlife Trusts,
added: “The survey showed whilst wildlife gardeners are busy
supporting the ‘attractive’ species such as birds, hedgehogs and
frogs, they’re not so aware of the need to encourage
invertebrates, with the possible exception of butterflies,
through planting buddleia and sedum. The importance of varying
ground cover and shrubs should not be underestimated in
supporting the less popular ‘creepy crawlies’ which play a vital
role in the food chain and in making gardens effective as
self-sustaining wildlife habitats. These are the sort of
perceptions the RHS and The Wildlife Trusts hope to change
through Wild About Gardens or through www.wildaboutgardens.org.”

Other preliminary findings from the survey include:

* Gardens with seed or nut-producing plants were over three
times more likely to attract goldfinches than those with none
(72% compared to 22%).

* Nearly twice as many participants who owned a garden pond
spotted frogs during the survey period than those without.

* Gardens with a larger area of long grass (over four square
metres) were more likely to attract brown bumblebees.

* London gardens recorded the lowest average number of sightings
of hedgehogs and frogs compared to the rest of the UK.

* Toads were found to be in gardens frequented by frogs but
seldom in gardens without frogs (toads were spotted by 25% of
garden owners, frogs by 58%).

(All five key species were chosen due to their decline or
fluctuation in number over the past few years.)

According to the survey, compared to other UK regions, gardens in
the East Midlands were the most wildlife-rich. Gardeners in the
East Midlands scored higher than the UK average for all the six
species bar the brown bumblebee, and sightings of hedgehogs and
goldfinches were highest in the East Midlands. Rachel Shaw,
Lincolnshire Wildlife Trust PR Officer, commented: “Over recent
years gardens in both built-up areas and within areas of
intensive farmland have become increasingly important for
wildlife in Lincolnshire. The survey results are very
encouraging but there is still room for improvement. Gardening
practices which are detrimental to biodiversity, such as the use
of fertilisers and pesticides, and a preference for an
‘over-tidy’ garden, are still all too common. We would also
encourage developers to incorporate wildlife areas and gardens
into new designs.” The recently revised Lincolnshire
Biodiversity Action Plan includes a plan for Gardens and
Allotments which outlines the actions developers and planners can
take to ensure space is provided for wildlife.

For more information and hints and tips on creating a
wildlife-friendly garden, visit www.wildaboutgardens.org

Allotment petition

Allotments as we know are a valuable resource that create an environment and community which is vital to some people. They should be available to all that require them and also more should be encouraged to take part, but sadly there are not enough in some places to meet demand.

Please join us in signing the petition here to lobby the government to provide more allotments in the UK.

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/allotments/

Buying gardens

Soon it will be time to apply again to buy the garden behind mine which currently belongs to an old lady but is still owned by the council. I applied in January of this year but was told that due to the council transfering ownership to the housing association, I would have to wait another year for the land registary to complete all the documentation.

It is a great plot of land about four times the size of my current garden which enough space for all my veg growing needs and some chickens too. If it goes through it will make a great difference to what I am able to achive. However as with all things of this nature I must stop dreaming about it untill I know for sure, too many morning I have spent looking longingly out of the bedroom window, planning where the compost heap will go and the best place for the polly tunnel.

This is a project that I have been trying to complete for many years now, when I first contacted the council about the land I was told that they did not ever sell gardens and that I was wasting my time. This was three years ago and last year I finally got to speak with the right person who told me that the reason more sales of this sort don’t happen, is that the secretary you speak to is not aware of it, or just a miserable idiot.

I contacted the council yesterday to see if everything was still on track and in true council style they had no record of my application and said that they would phone me back when the guy incharge had finished his lunch, needless to say I ‘m still waiting.

If you are considering this type of purchase you need to talk to your Business planning manager and ask about purchasing additional land, if you can stand the wait.