Landscape Juice

giffgaff mobile network run by its users

I remember when the word 'disruptive' was used to describe an unruly child or a dog running amok amongst some chickens.

In modern day we tend to use it as a term when describing (although not exclusively) something related to the internet: an example of disruption in this context might be an online news site stealing a traditional print business' audience because it has instant reach and little overhead.

Disruption usually happens fairly fast affording traditional business little time to react - and even if traditional business saw the wave of change coming and realised that need to change or compete, there's often little time in which to do so.

Etesia use social media to engage directly with their clients

Etesia UK have joined the Landscape Juice Network; they are latest in a string of companies joining the site who see the benefits of social media as a tool with which to work directly with their clients.

Many of Landscape Juice's commercial and domestic landscape and garden maintenance contractors use or aspire to use Etesia mowers but a recent discussion revealed some discontent with the supply of Etesia parts.

South Wales based maintenance contractor Paul Forster claimed many dealers do not hold stock calling them 'useless'.

Incredible and hungry for local edible, the Todmorden conference

The Incredible Edible Todmorden London conference on 9 October brought Tim Lang, Professor of Food Policy, City University to point out our costly eating habits.

These were difficult words to swallow. Too much fuel, space and water is used in producing food: "The heart of the matter is that today's system of food is totally and utterly unsustainable," Professor Lang said.

Todmorden, where oats, peas, beans and barley grow

The old market town of Todmorden lies between Burnley and Halifax, on the borders of Lancashire and West Yorkshire in the Pennines.

There, where many strong rivers once powered the machine looms, an industrious cultivation project has begun to flow, a kind of market gardening with free produce and shared ideas.

Incredible Edible Todmorden (IET) is a pioneering project to create a sustainable healthy food chain. Say the word 'healthy' and many are put off. But this scheme is so different and ahead of its time that other towns are taking up the same ideas and it is taking root world-wide.

Rural Coalition, saving the countryside communities

With many eyes focused upon the actions being taken by the government, keeping the British landscape and way of life as it is will require more than simply sitting back according to a recent report titled The Rural Challenge by the Rural Coalition.

The report makes no less than 38 recommendations, and includes useful case studies, saying 'sustainability cannot be achieved by how we currently live our lives'.

According to the Campaign to Protect Rural England (CPRE) this report calls for fundamental change in order to prevent the loss of village life as we know it.

Climate Challenge fund to give away £9.3 million in the next twelve months

The Scottish government's Climate Challenge Fund is a grant scheme administered within the Sustainable Action Fund with the purpose of empowering communities with the ability to implement actions to reduce their carbon emissions.

From 2008 through to 2011, the Climate Challenge Fund will have channelled a total of £27.4 million into community projects that are aimed at promoting a sustainable future as part of the Greener Scotland programme.

Colinton Primary School garden will help army kids cope

Kids from Colinton Primary School in Edinburgh, now have a new way of coping with the absence of a parent in the military, after their new Room to Grow garden was formerly opened.

Colinton Primary School is just up the road from the Dreghorn ad Redford Barracks and many of its pupil's parents are in the military.

A team from the BBC's Beechgrove Garden helped plant out the garden last September; it's taken three years to plan and plant.

A green new force in British politics: The Gardening Party

With trust in status quo politics withering away, earth-friendly gardening writer John Walker presents his manifesto for a brave, visionary and greener force fit for the dawning of a more earth-friendly era.

As a media frenzy media engulfs confirmation of the date for the forthcoming general election, I am as delighted as I am humbled to announce that I intend to stand for Parliament, where I will sow the seeds of a dynamic new force in British politics. Fresh and forward-thinking, it will put real plot into politics, so that within a few short months of my party taking office, ‘political plotting’ will gain a new, historic meaning. When I say that my party will appeal to the grass roots, I truly mean it.

This new, vibrant and earth-centric powerhouse for change will be known as The Gardening Party (TGP). Its policies will be driven by the seriousness of the environmental challenges which lie ahead: the intertwined threats of climate change and ‘peak oil’, resource depletion, destruction of natural habitats, global pollution, and the planet-wide erosion of biodiversity.

Why the web will be the first place to do business for future generations

The government is set to announce that every citizen in the UK is to get their own web page.

It's a move that will certainly see many traditional methods of doing business, further sidelined as more information is made available online.

The Times reports, that under new initiatives due to be announced next week, public sector offices will be closed as business is moved to the internet.

A Facebook style interactive social network for UK citizens will be launched within the next three years.

Landscape Juice reaches 1000 members

I am absolutely delighted to report that the Landscape Juice Network has today reached its 1000'th member - that's a massive 47 new members in the last week and 100 members since the 3rd February.

This member groundswell is not only a personal achievement after thousands of hours of research and development but it's also a great advance for the members themselves; networking opportunities continue to grow and information is more readily shared.

Not only are the potential benefits increased for our members, the site's advertising sponsors are enjoying a greater exposure as a reward for their support and commitment to Landscape Juice.