Passive solar design takes advantage of solar orientation and other climate conditions to minimize (and in some conditions, eliminate) heating and cooling requirements for a building. Read more

You don’t want to show someone you love them by damaging the environment, do you? It sounds unromantic, but it’s really difficult to buy flowers in the UK that aren’t sprayed with huge amounts of pesticides, doused with chemical preservatives and flown half way across the world. Read more

Here at the Lammas Ecovillage we have recently celebrated our 7th birthday. The 9 households have collectively built around 15 different buildings, planted many thousands of trees, created hundreds of new habitats, and hosted thousands of volunteers and visitors. Read more

I’m beginning to realise just how much the garden birds occupy my thoughts when it comes to nature in November, as there is little else around in my wildlife garden just now. Apart for a single Bank Vole, a few Grey Squirrels and the occasional Brown Rat from the farm next door, Read more

We usually don’t think about our tunnel or greenhouse in November. There is very little need for it especially if you have planted the winter salads and overwintering garlic cloves and onion sets in October. There is much less need for watering and also the weeds have slowed down. Read more

November is the month when the hard frosts and heavy rain usually arrive so it’s important to grab whatever time you can on the plot in case you don’t get another chance. Read more

Adam Curtis has a new movie out – Hypernormalisation, about how, due to ‘perception management’, what we see as ‘normal’ is anything but – and you can see it for free on BBC iPlayer. Read more

Every year there is a better understanding of the risks of toxic chemicals and more and more people are benefitting from a switch to natural cleaning.  Read more

There’s a weekend conference coming up that you might be interested in. It’s called ‘Land for What?’ and it’s taking place over the weekend of November 12 and 13. Read more

A way to reduce our impact on the environment is to increase the number of journeys made on public transport relative to the number made by car. So we’re doing this to encourage you to take the train rather than drive. Read more

The various pressures and threats to UK woodland are ever-increasing. These can include development, climate change or globalisation contributing to the spread of disease, insect and mammalian pests. Read more

It’s time for all those interested in how society will achieve a sustainable level of impact on the environment to brush up their own thoughts and opinions on the pros and cons of fracking in the UK. Read more

I’ve found that learning about how to change to open source software can be difficult for non-techies. Yes, you can easily find the websites that contain the information you need, but it’s almost never written in a style that non-techies can understand. Read more

I harvested some honey from my hive recently, on an extremely hot day – a great day to visit the hive, as the bees were mostly out foraging so there are fewer of them in the hive. Read more

This is an interview with Mariann and Gabor, a Hungarian couple with 2 young children, who left their jobs to go WWOOFing. We wanted to show that WWOOFing is a route out of the ‘rat race’ Read more

This is a radical new book – not because the ideas within it are going to change the world, but because it contains funky little DIY projects that could make a lot of people think ‘hey, I’ve always wanted one of those, but was put off by the cost – but actually, I could do… Continue reading The power of doing things ourselves using recycled materials: the Permaculture Book of DIY Read more

Imagine a man whose response to youths repeatedly vandalising his property is to invite them onto his land to learn about it. Pretty right on, maybe, though not that unlikely given what we now know about nature’s importance as a healer and educator, but this was 1902. Read more

Here are two sources of information about CETA (Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement) – and both of them are completely biased. They are biased against the interests of the corporate sector and in favour of the interests of ordinary people and communities. That’s the kind of bias we like. Read more

This is an interview with Tony Wrench of ‘That Roundhouse’ fame. He built a super-eco roundhouse in Pembrokeshire over 20 years ago, and is still living in it, after having many battles with planners and regulatory bodies. Read more

This time of year is usually holiday time for me, so, when it comes to nature in October, my trips away from Shropshire and my garden have to involve a large element of looking at wildlife and hopefully walking in beautiful countryside. Read more