Expert insights. Personalized for you.
The London College of Garden Design has announced their sponsorship of a Planting Design Competition at the Belvoir Castle Flower and Garden Show 2020. This is the second year that the College has sponsored the Countryside Borders Competition which aims to help budding new garden designers and experts to show what they can achieve with plants. MORE
Your freezer is your friend by Michael Smith (Veshengro) Your freezer can be your greatest friend in the prevention of food waste, whether you have a large family or you a single parent or, simply, single. Save food, money and the planet and move food that’s nearing its ‘use by’ date to your freezer. Reducing your food waste It is estimated that one in five bags of food shopping goes to waste each week. That adds up to a substantial amount of food, but also money wasted. MORE
by Michael Smith (Veshengro) It’s time to pack away the flip-flops and bring out the boots, scarves and gloves. Temperatures will soon be dropping, meaning gardens and outdoor areas will need to be adapted to the new conditions. MORE
By Michael Smith (Veshengro) Some allege that putting a brick in the toilet tank can save water, and we are being told, time and again to do this, or to use the “Hippo” device, but doing that can keep your toilet from flushing correctly. MORE
PRESS RELEASE – Republished as received The UK's waste management agency says it's time to start fining companies that don't recycle their waste Britain could quite easily hit its 50% waste recycling target overnight if only people, companies and organisations up and down the country could be bothered. MORE
by Michael Smith (Veshengro) A great many of – often rather uneducated – people believe that ivy, climbing up trees harms the trees and strangles them but this is not the case. Unfortunately some people, alas, will not be told and, illegally, if they are not the owners of the woods, will cut the ivy and remove it. A good amount of ivy in the woods is good. MORE
Here's why your Christmas countdown is a single-use plastic nightmare In the next few days, millions of children – and quite a few adults – will open the first window on their advent calendars without a second thought of the mountain of waste to which they're contributing. One of Britain's top waste and recycling companies estimates that there are 16.5 MORE
Council of Europe statement ahead of World Environment Day (June 5) Strasbourg, 04.06.2020 – The Secretary General of the 47-nation Council of Europe, Marija Pej?inovi? inovi? MORE
by Michael Smith (Veshengro) While I personally do have an e-bike (a Gtech one) and have been very happy with it, the maintenance of one, especially when it comes to tire repair of the back, this is where the motor is in this one, aside from the fact that the lifespan of the battery is only a few years and then getting a new one seems difficult, the old-fashioned standard, and I stress standard, bicycle has still a great deal going for it. Maybe more so even than it is realized. MORE
by Michael Smith (Veshengro) Half a century ago, we were a thriving culture of reuse and repair. What happened? What happened? Simple. Industry decided that it was too expensive for it to develop new products that people really wanted and needed and rather made products that broke rather quickly and were made in such a way that they can no longer be repaired and thus people have to buy the same (kind of) product again and again. MORE
by Michael Smith (Veshengro) Recycling is a fraud, a sham, a scam, perpetrated by big business on the citizens and municipalities to make us all feel good about single use packaging. It won't save the planet. We blame ourselves, or consumers are getting blamed, that's you and me, by government, for not recycling more plastics, and yet our efforts are like “hammering a nail to halt a falling skyscraper.” It is time we got to the root of the problem. MORE
by Michael Smith (Veshengro) There are, despite what governments and especially industry try to tell us, far too many points against it, and I know that I have said many of those things before. MORE
by Michael Smith (Veshengro) Instead of waiting that everything goes back to “normal” after the pandemic and all this economic madness restarts would it not better to consider doing things differently? MORE
by Michael Smith (Veshengro) All we are hearing is CO2 and other greenhouse gases, and occasionally the issue with plastic, especially the kind that is plastic bottles of all sorts. The word carbon is being manipulated to include soot, for instance, which is now called “brown carbon” and all that in order to be able to trade all those issues under the carbon trading schemes, what I would refer to as modern day indulgences. MORE
By Michael Smith (Veshengro) Wooden implement are better on pots and pans and not just those Teflon or similarly coated ones. In all honesty you should avoid such so-called non-stick ones anyway. Metal implements should, ideally, never be used in pots and pans, even in stainless steel ones. MORE
Review by Michael Smith (Veshengro) The ARS-160-0.6 long-reach pruner is a cut and hold snipper, ideally suited for pruning of roses, for instance, but also for other tasks, including harvesting certain crops. It has a length, that is to say a reach of 60cm, to which you can add the reach of your extended arm, and a weight of 360grams. ARS-160-0.6 Price, incl. MORE
by Michael Smith (Veshengro) "Please, can we normalize clothing repair?!" visible mending piece on a pair khaki jeans. MORE
by Michael Smith (Veshengro) Or how else should one interpret the annual COP gatherings? While the great and the good in politics and environmental activism are telling everyone else to stop flying and driving cars they, almost all, jet around the world at least once a year to all those climate conferences regardless of the amount of pollutants (I will no call it CO2 as that is all very misleading) they pump into the air in doing so. MORE
by Michael Smith (Veshengro) Needs are problems looking for solutions, not products, and we also have, quite seriously, to learn to differentiate between needs and wants. Often our wants masquerade as needs when they are not needs at all. To say I need a new smartphone or simply new cellphone, while the old one is still performing well and is doing all you will ever need it for is not a need but a desire and want to have a new one just because there are new ones around. MORE
GREENWASH ALERT The 100% recycled material used by the British water brand generates 75% less carbon emissions than aluminium and is easily recycled unlike a carton. Pioneering social enterprise and ethical water company, Belu, has announced that it will become the first water company in the UK to make 100% of its plastic bottles from 100% recycled plastic bottles. MORE
by Michael Smith (Veshengro) What the COVID-19 pandemic should have shown us that we cannot rely on the capitalist market system to guarantee us a steady supply of the groceries that we need and thus it is important that we, once again, groin for victory, so to speak. And, alas, the situation is not and has not been thus with just food though food (and water) is more important than clothes and even toilet paper. MORE
by Michael Smith (Veshengro) If you are interested in growing a garden, there are lots of people offering advice from the internet, to books to even those you know very well. However, not all advice is good advice and some is just downright silly. Sorting out the good from the bad is sometimes difficult, especially if you are a novice gardener. MORE
by Michael Smith (Veshengro) We will not go back to normal nor should we. Normal never was. Our pre-Covid-19 existence was not normal other than we normalized greed, inequity, depletion,extraction, the exploitation of nature and man by man for ever greater profits. MORE
by Michael Smith (Veshengro) The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic might spell the end of global travel as we have known it for quite some time now, jetting from one side of the world to the other. Not only aids such fast travel to other countries far across the globe, and even countries closer, to the spread of any virus, it also can leave, as we have seen, travelers stranded in countries, affected or not from such an event, with almost no way to get back home. MORE
by Michael Smith (Veshengro) Many people will immediately think, and that is what the promoters want everyone to think, of nice woodlands with great biodiversity but, alas, the story often is very much a different one. More often than not those organization(s) behind this are promoting nothing uniform plantations of conifers, and other trees, in other words, monocultures, which generally lack biodiversity greatly, as opposed to mixed woodlands and forests, but is contiguous forest cover. MORE
by Michael Smith (Veshengro) Holidaymakers can see their unwanted lilos transformed into designer bags and pouches thanks to a holiday company that’s pledging to reduce the number of inflatables sent to landfill. Holiday Hypermarket has teamed up with sustainable designer Wyatt and Jack to encourage customers to turn their holiday inflatables into one-of-a-kind bags, with the package-holiday specialist picking up the postage costs for sending the plastic products. MORE
Monday, 25 January 2021 A research team – the first to carry out a survey of global ice loss using satellite data – has discovered that the rate at which ice is disappearing across the planet is speeding up. MORE
by Michael Smith (Veshengro) I don't want to put anyone out of business but I cannot understand this thing about bicycle servicing. Some people seem to believe that their bicycle needs an annual service – from a specialist – just like their car does and often it is also being touted in such a way. Anyone with a bit of common sense – I know that that sense is rare nowadays but nevertheless – can service his or her own bicycle. MORE
PRESS RELEASE Tuesday 26 January 2021 The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) has called on the government and local authorities for urgent investment in housing to meet the growing demand for social housing. MORE
by Michael Smith (Veshengro) Following a meeting at the Royal Geographical Society in London, United Kingdom the Earthwatch Institute declared bees the most important living beings on this Planet, however, according to wildlife experts & scientists many bees have joined the long list of Endangered species. MORE
by Michael Smith (Veshengro) Whether products are touted as green, environmentally friendly, eco, or whatever or not consumerism is still consumerism and bad for the Planet. Also many of those products are not at all as “green” as they are claimed to be. MORE
Supporting podcasts are an integral part of our marketing strategy now. The London College of Garden Design has announced their sponsorship of a new series interviewing some of the world's leading designers on ‘Roots And All’, the podcast that last week won 'Podcast of the Year' at the Garden Media Guild Awards. The first episode features Thomas Rainer, Principal Designer at Phyto Studio in Virginia and co-author of the book ‘Planting In A Post-Wild World’. MORE
WATER HAS BECOME A COMMODITY LIKE OIL OR GOLD: Now water is traded on the stock exchange Since the beginning of the week, water has been traded on the Chicago Stock Exchange for the first time. MORE
By Michael Smith (Veshengro) The rich use too much of it, and the poor have too little. Someone asked: "What's the higher moral imperative preferred? Poverty and reduced living standards commensurate with lower emissions or higher carbon emissions and all the benefits of a modern society?" MORE
by Michael Smith (Veshengro) In the Brazilian state of Acre the first supermarket opened its doors where it is possible for customers to exchange recyclables for food. This establishment, called TrocTroc, offers customers the possibility to exchange recyclables such as PET bottles, aluminum cans and plastic bottle seals for any product sold in the market. Each kilo of recyclable material is worth R $ 0.50 in purchases. MORE
by Michael Smith (Veshengro) Many people, and, apparently, even most governments, seem to think that all that is needed to create a woodland is to stick some trees in the ground and the rest will do itself. Alas, that is a fallacy. Just planting trees and leaving them for Mother Nature to do its work is a waste of trees, money, time and effort and will lead to nothing but disaster. MORE
Review by Michael Smith (Veshengro) I encountered Root Pouch for the first time at the Garden Press Event 2020 in the beginning of March that year and it immediately, for me, ticked a number of boxes in the green department. MORE
by Michael Smith (Veshengro) Spring is just around the corner here in the UK Mid February 2020 and the way the flowers and trees are slowly – and some quite a bit earlier than usual – are beginning to come to life it is not going to be far off. MORE
And 62% of parents admit they have no time to teach them by Michael Smith (Veshengro) 3 in 10 children are still unable to tie their shoe laces on leaving primary school according to findings from a survey commissioned by OSGO* to coincide with National Feet Week (13th – 20th May). Of the 500 surveyed, 46% of parents thought that being able to tie your own laces was an important life skill yet 62% of parents admitted to tying their children’s laces for them to save time and stress every morning. MORE
The UK will consume 19.2 billion single non-recyclable face masks in 2021. Most of these will be sent to landfill, the weight equivalent of 5 Eiffel Towers. Some will end up in watercourses causing an environmental nightmare. A new campaign has been launched in an attempt to reduce this number. “It’s MORE
also packing crates and similar by Michael Smith (Veshengro) There was a time when shipping pallets (not so much as to packing crates and such) were – supposedly – to be returned (not that that always happened) and then, not so long ago, like so many other things, pallets became “disposables” in that they were no longer being taken back (especially not for deposit return) by the companies. MORE
Green (Living) Review
JANUARY 26, 2021
PRESS RELEASE Tuesday 26 January 2021 The Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) has called on the government and local authorities for urgent investment in housing to meet the growing demand for social housing.
Green (Living) Review
JANUARY 26, 2021
Monday, 25 January 2021 A research team – the first to carry out a survey of global ice loss using satellite data – has discovered that the rate at which ice is disappearing across the planet is speeding up.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Green (Living) Review
JANUARY 12, 2021
by Michael Smith (Veshengro) Photo for illustration purposes only I am a very strange bird, so people would certainly say, in that I have a serious problem in that I am trying to find a reuse for almost everything.
Green (Living) Review
NOVEMBER 15, 2020
by Michael Smith (Veshengro) "Please, can we normalize clothing repair?!" visible mending piece on a pair khaki jeans.
Green (Living) Review
DECEMBER 12, 2020
WATER HAS BECOME A COMMODITY LIKE OIL OR GOLD: Now water is traded on the stock exchange Since the beginning of the week, water has been traded on the Chicago Stock Exchange for the first time.
Green (Living) Review
JANUARY 14, 2021
By Michael Smith (Veshengro) The rich use too much of it, and the poor have too little. Someone asked: "What's the higher moral imperative preferred? Poverty and reduced living standards commensurate with lower emissions or higher carbon emissions and all the benefits of a modern society?"
Green (Living) Review
DECEMBER 17, 2020
By Michael Smith (Veshengro) Some allege that putting a brick in the toilet tank can save water, and we are being told, time and again to do this, or to use the “Hippo” device, but doing that can keep your toilet from flushing correctly.
Green (Living) Review
OCTOBER 15, 2020
by Michael Smith (Veshengro) There are, despite what governments and especially industry try to tell us, far too many points against it, and I know that I have said many of those things before.
Green (Living) Review
NOVEMBER 18, 2020
by Michael Smith (Veshengro) It’s time to pack away the flip-flops and bring out the boots, scarves and gloves. Temperatures will soon be dropping, meaning gardens and outdoor areas will need to be adapted to the new conditions.
Green (Living) Review
SEPTEMBER 28, 2020
by Michael Smith (Veshengro) Whether products are touted as green, environmentally friendly, eco, or whatever or not consumerism is still consumerism and bad for the Planet. Also many of those products are not at all as “green” as they are claimed to be.
Green (Living) Review
MAY 18, 2020
Review by Michael Smith (Veshengro) The ARS-160-0.6 long-reach pruner is a cut and hold snipper, ideally suited for pruning of roses, for instance, but also for other tasks, including harvesting certain crops. It has a length, that is to say a reach of 60cm, to which you can add the reach of your extended arm, and a weight of 360grams. ARS-160-0.6 Price, incl.
Green (Living) Review
JULY 30, 2020
by Michael Smith (Veshengro) We will not go back to normal nor should we. Normal never was. Our pre-Covid-19 existence was not normal other than we normalized greed, inequity, depletion,extraction, the exploitation of nature and man by man for ever greater profits.
Green (Living) Review
JULY 24, 2020
by Michael Smith (Veshengro) Instead of waiting that everything goes back to “normal” after the pandemic and all this economic madness restarts would it not better to consider doing things differently?
Green (Living) Review
AUGUST 13, 2020
Review by Michael Smith (Veshengro) I encountered Root Pouch for the first time at the Garden Press Event 2020 in the beginning of March that year and it immediately, for me, ticked a number of boxes in the green department.
Green (Living) Review
AUGUST 9, 2020
By Michael Smith (Veshengro) Wooden implement are better on pots and pans and not just those Teflon or similarly coated ones. In all honesty you should avoid such so-called non-stick ones anyway. Metal implements should, ideally, never be used in pots and pans, even in stainless steel ones.
Green (Living) Review
JULY 1, 2020
by Michael Smith (Veshengro) I don't want to put anyone out of business but I cannot understand this thing about bicycle servicing. Some people seem to believe that their bicycle needs an annual service – from a specialist – just like their car does and often it is also being touted in such a way. Anyone with a bit of common sense – I know that that sense is rare nowadays but nevertheless – can service his or her own bicycle.
Green (Living) Review
JUNE 7, 2020
by Michael Smith (Veshengro) In the Brazilian state of Acre the first supermarket opened its doors where it is possible for customers to exchange recyclables for food. This establishment, called TrocTroc, offers customers the possibility to exchange recyclables such as PET bottles, aluminum cans and plastic bottle seals for any product sold in the market. Each kilo of recyclable material is worth R $ 0.50 in purchases.
Green (Living) Review
APRIL 13, 2020
by Michael Smith (Veshengro) What the COVID-19 pandemic should have shown us that we cannot rely on the capitalist market system to guarantee us a steady supply of the groceries that we need and thus it is important that we, once again, groin for victory, so to speak. And, alas, the situation is not and has not been thus with just food though food (and water) is more important than clothes and even toilet paper.
Green (Living) Review
APRIL 4, 2020
by Michael Smith (Veshengro) Following a meeting at the Royal Geographical Society in London, United Kingdom the Earthwatch Institute declared bees the most important living beings on this Planet, however, according to wildlife experts & scientists many bees have joined the long list of Endangered species.
Green (Living) Review
JUNE 4, 2020
Council of Europe statement ahead of World Environment Day (June 5) Strasbourg, 04.06.2020 – The Secretary General of the 47-nation Council of Europe, Marija Pej?inovi? inovi?
Green (Living) Review
APRIL 19, 2020
by Michael Smith (Veshengro) The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic might spell the end of global travel as we have known it for quite some time now, jetting from one side of the world to the other. Not only aids such fast travel to other countries far across the globe, and even countries closer, to the spread of any virus, it also can leave, as we have seen, travelers stranded in countries, affected or not from such an event, with almost no way to get back home.
Green (Living) Review
JANUARY 19, 2020
by Michael Smith (Veshengro) Many people, and, apparently, even most governments, seem to think that all that is needed to create a woodland is to stick some trees in the ground and the rest will do itself. Alas, that is a fallacy. Just planting trees and leaving them for Mother Nature to do its work is a waste of trees, money, time and effort and will lead to nothing but disaster.
Green (Living) Review
FEBRUARY 14, 2020
by Michael Smith (Veshengro) While I personally do have an e-bike (a Gtech one) and have been very happy with it, the maintenance of one, especially when it comes to tire repair of the back, this is where the motor is in this one, aside from the fact that the lifespan of the battery is only a few years and then getting a new one seems difficult, the old-fashioned standard, and I stress standard, bicycle has still a great deal going for it. Maybe more so even than it is realized.
Green (Living) Review
FEBRUARY 22, 2020
by Michael Smith (Veshengro) Many people will immediately think, and that is what the promoters want everyone to think, of nice woodlands with great biodiversity but, alas, the story often is very much a different one. More often than not those organization(s) behind this are promoting nothing uniform plantations of conifers, and other trees, in other words, monocultures, which generally lack biodiversity greatly, as opposed to mixed woodlands and forests, but is contiguous forest cover.
Green (Living) Review
NOVEMBER 24, 2019
by Michael Smith (Veshengro) A great many of – often rather uneducated – people believe that ivy, climbing up trees harms the trees and strangles them but this is not the case. Unfortunately some people, alas, will not be told and, illegally, if they are not the owners of the woods, will cut the ivy and remove it. A good amount of ivy in the woods is good.
Green (Living) Review
MARCH 5, 2020
by Michael Smith (Veshengro) If you are interested in growing a garden, there are lots of people offering advice from the internet, to books to even those you know very well. However, not all advice is good advice and some is just downright silly. Sorting out the good from the bad is sometimes difficult, especially if you are a novice gardener.
Green (Living) Review
FEBRUARY 19, 2020
by Michael Smith (Veshengro) Spring is just around the corner here in the UK Mid February 2020 and the way the flowers and trees are slowly – and some quite a bit earlier than usual – are beginning to come to life it is not going to be far off.
Green (Living) Review
MARCH 9, 2020
by Michael Smith (Veshengro) Or how else should one interpret the annual COP gatherings? While the great and the good in politics and environmental activism are telling everyone else to stop flying and driving cars they, almost all, jet around the world at least once a year to all those climate conferences regardless of the amount of pollutants (I will no call it CO2 as that is all very misleading) they pump into the air in doing so.
Green (Living) Review
AUGUST 11, 2019
by Michael Smith (Veshengro) Half a century ago, we were a thriving culture of reuse and repair. What happened? What happened? Simple. Industry decided that it was too expensive for it to develop new products that people really wanted and needed and rather made products that broke rather quickly and were made in such a way that they can no longer be repaired and thus people have to buy the same (kind of) product again and again.
Green (Living) Review
NOVEMBER 15, 2019
by Michael Smith (Veshengro) Needs are problems looking for solutions, not products, and we also have, quite seriously, to learn to differentiate between needs and wants. Often our wants masquerade as needs when they are not needs at all. To say I need a new smartphone or simply new cellphone, while the old one is still performing well and is doing all you will ever need it for is not a need but a desire and want to have a new one just because there are new ones around.
Green (Living) Review
NOVEMBER 7, 2019
also packing crates and similar by Michael Smith (Veshengro) There was a time when shipping pallets (not so much as to packing crates and such) were – supposedly – to be returned (not that that always happened) and then, not so long ago, like so many other things, pallets became “disposables” in that they were no longer being taken back (especially not for deposit return) by the companies.
Green (Living) Review
DECEMBER 16, 2019
GREENWASH ALERT The 100% recycled material used by the British water brand generates 75% less carbon emissions than aluminium and is easily recycled unlike a carton. Pioneering social enterprise and ethical water company, Belu, has announced that it will become the first water company in the UK to make 100% of its plastic bottles from 100% recycled plastic bottles.
Green (Living) Review
NOVEMBER 30, 2019
Here's why your Christmas countdown is a single-use plastic nightmare In the next few days, millions of children – and quite a few adults – will open the first window on their advent calendars without a second thought of the mountain of waste to which they're contributing. One of Britain's top waste and recycling companies estimates that there are 16.5
Green (Living) Review
JANUARY 4, 2020
by Michael Smith (Veshengro) All we are hearing is CO2 and other greenhouse gases, and occasionally the issue with plastic, especially the kind that is plastic bottles of all sorts. The word carbon is being manipulated to include soot, for instance, which is now called “brown carbon” and all that in order to be able to trade all those issues under the carbon trading schemes, what I would refer to as modern day indulgences.
Green (Living) Review
NOVEMBER 9, 2019
The London College of Garden Design has announced their sponsorship of a Planting Design Competition at the Belvoir Castle Flower and Garden Show 2020. This is the second year that the College has sponsored the Countryside Borders Competition which aims to help budding new garden designers and experts to show what they can achieve with plants.
Green (Living) Review
NOVEMBER 30, 2019
Supporting podcasts are an integral part of our marketing strategy now. The London College of Garden Design has announced their sponsorship of a new series interviewing some of the world's leading designers on ‘Roots And All’, the podcast that last week won 'Podcast of the Year' at the Garden Media Guild Awards. The first episode features Thomas Rainer, Principal Designer at Phyto Studio in Virginia and co-author of the book ‘Planting In A Post-Wild World’.
Green (Living) Review
JULY 30, 2019
by Michael Smith (Veshengro) Holidaymakers can see their unwanted lilos transformed into designer bags and pouches thanks to a holiday company that’s pledging to reduce the number of inflatables sent to landfill. Holiday Hypermarket has teamed up with sustainable designer Wyatt and Jack to encourage customers to turn their holiday inflatables into one-of-a-kind bags, with the package-holiday specialist picking up the postage costs for sending the plastic products.
Green (Living) Review
FEBRUARY 9, 2020
Your freezer is your friend by Michael Smith (Veshengro) Your freezer can be your greatest friend in the prevention of food waste, whether you have a large family or you a single parent or, simply, single. Save food, money and the planet and move food that’s nearing its ‘use by’ date to your freezer. Reducing your food waste It is estimated that one in five bags of food shopping goes to waste each week. That adds up to a substantial amount of food, but also money wasted.
Green (Living) Review
OCTOBER 27, 2018
by Michael Smith (Veshengro) Recycling is a fraud, a sham, a scam, perpetrated by big business on the citizens and municipalities to make us all feel good about single use packaging. It won't save the planet. We blame ourselves, or consumers are getting blamed, that's you and me, by government, for not recycling more plastics, and yet our efforts are like “hammering a nail to halt a falling skyscraper.” It is time we got to the root of the problem.
Green (Living) Review
JANUARY 22, 2020
Green (Living) Review
NOVEMBER 4, 2019
PRESS RELEASE – Republished as received The UK's waste management agency says it's time to start fining companies that don't recycle their waste Britain could quite easily hit its 50% waste recycling target overnight if only people, companies and organisations up and down the country could be bothered.
Green (Living) Review
MAY 16, 2019
And 62% of parents admit they have no time to teach them by Michael Smith (Veshengro) 3 in 10 children are still unable to tie their shoe laces on leaving primary school according to findings from a survey commissioned by OSGO* to coincide with National Feet Week (13th – 20th May). Of the 500 surveyed, 46% of parents thought that being able to tie your own laces was an important life skill yet 62% of parents admitted to tying their children’s laces for them to save time and stress every morning.
151 
Let's personalize your content