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Half a Million Trees — An Announcement Worth Celebrating

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  Half a Million Trees — An Announcement Worth Celebrating At the end of September 2026, the Government announced an ambitious programme to plant up to 500,000 new trees across England. The £53 million Community Trees Fund will support planting between April 2027 and March 2030, with trees appearing in streets, parks, rural landscapes and places where people live and work. It forms part of a wider £79 million package to help communities restore nature and adapt to climate change. GOV.UK +1 That sounds like excellent news, and in many ways it is. We need more trees. They provide shade, absorb carbon dioxide as they grow, support wildlife, intercept rainfall and make our towns and villages more pleasant places to live. But whenever I hear announcements about planting thousands, or even millions, of trees, one question immediately comes to mind: How many of those trees will still be alive in 10, 20 or 50 years? Planting a tree is relatively straightforward. Keeping it alive through dr...
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The Great Autumn Garden Tidy-Up: Ten Things You Should NOT Tidy

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  The Great Autumn Garden Tidy-Up: Ten Things You Should NOT Tidy “A perfectly tidy October garden may look wonderful to us—and like a housing crisis to wildlife.” October brings out a particular instinct in many gardeners. The leaves begin to fall. Perennials turn brown. Seed heads replace flowers. The lawn becomes untidy. Stems lean at strange angles. There are twigs behind the shed, dead leaves under the hedge and plants that, by midsummer standards, appear to have reached the end of their useful lives. So out come the secateurs, mower, rake, leaf blower and garden-waste bags. Within a weekend, everything can be transformed. The borders are cut to the ground, every leaf has vanished and the garden looks wonderfully neat. There is just one problem. Much of what we have removed was somebody else's winter home. Those hollow stems, dead leaves, seed heads, old logs and apparently neglected corners can provide food and shelter for insects, birds, amphibians, small mammals and countle...
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Six Million Properties at Risk: Is Your Home Ready for a Wet and Windy Winter?

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  Six Million Properties at Risk: Is Your Home Ready for a Wet and Windy Winter? “We can't stop the storm arriving—but we can decide whether we prepare before or after it.” After a remarkably hot and dry summer, it may seem strange to start thinking seriously about too much water. But that is exactly what households should be doing. The Environment Agency says that around 6.3 million homes and businesses in England are in areas at risk of flooding from one or more sources — not only rivers and the sea, but also surface water and groundwater. Perhaps even more concerning is the finding that more than two million people may be unaware that their property is at risk. At the same time, the Met Office's seasonal outlook points towards an increased likelihood of wetter conditions this autumn, with an increased likelihood of windy weather later in the season. That does not mean meteorologists can tell us that a particular town will flood in November. Seasonal forecasts simply do not ...
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Could You Really Have a Home With Zero Energy Bills?

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  Could You Really Have a Home With Zero Energy Bills? A house with no energy bills sounds wonderful. But what does “zero bills” actually mean? Imagine living in a house with solar panels covering the roof, a large battery quietly storing electricity, a heat pump providing the heating and hot water, and a smart energy system deciding when electricity should be bought, stored, used or exported. At the end of the year, could your electricity bill really be £0 ? Increasingly, housebuilders, energy companies and government policy are moving towards homes that combine precisely these technologies. There are even commercial tariffs now offering qualifying households zero home-energy bills for a guaranteed period. So this isn't science fiction. But there is an important question hiding behind the headline: What exactly do we mean by zero? Because a home that produces as much energy as it consumes over a year is very different from a home that never imports electricity from the grid. And o...
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