Little Green Nursery

By Carl Liver & Barry Summers

The fight against Japanese knotweed is costing the UK £166 million pounds a year, but home owners blighted by Japanese knotweed throughout the country could soon be pinning their hopes on a knotweed attacking fungus. Currently undergoing controlled tests, the leaf-spot fungus is a natural method of controlling its spread and hopefully helping to get rid of the invasive weed once and for all.

These new tests are being carried out by the British government, who are already two years into an experiment involving another natural combatant of Japanese knotweed; namely Aphalara Itadori, a minute insect of the psyllid family. These tests involve releasing the tiny critter, which drinks the sap of Japanese knotweed. Although these tests are showing positive signs of halting its spread, the psyllid will not be able to reduce the coverage of Japanese knotweed. The idea is to combine the psyllid attack with the fungus attack, both of which have a definite preference for Japanese knotweed to help eradicate the plant for good.

At present however, home owners will have to continue to rely on their local Japanese knotweed contractor to get rid of the weed before its spread gets out of control. Failure to tackle the problem and allowing it to spread could land you with a hefty fine as Japanese knotweed is legislated as controlled waste. If you do have a problem with Japanese knotweed, contact your local council or a Japanese knotweed contractor for further information and advice.

By Barry Summers and carl Liver

With no end of the recession in sight, many office managers are still looking to cut costs wherever they can. These cost cutting measures can range from saving paper by only printing off essential documents to implementing a policy where members of staff must provide their own pens and pencils. Office managers are also looking for non-essential expenses which could be dropped. However it’s worth bearing in mind that some seemingly innocuous cost cutting measures could prove counter productive.

For example, if you hire plants for the office, this may could be deemed as an unnecessary expense. But given the fact that office plants actively create a better working environment, both aesthetically and on health grounds, removing the plants from the office will more than likely have a detrimental effect on your workforce. Obviously cutting costs is essential to an extent, but you need to cut costs which will not affect the smooth running of your operation.

Other cost cutting initiatives could also prove to be a bitter pill to swallow by some of your staff. Some larger companies have introduced fees for using the company car park, which is never welcomed by employees who drive to work. All of a sudden charging for tea, coffee, milk and sugar also receives a frosty reception, but they’ll get over it in time. Your staff may seem a little disappointed should all the office plants be gone one day, but probably won’t notice the adverse affects of having no living plants in the office for a week or two. If you do hire plants for the office, then keep hold of them as they are the unsung heroes of any office environment.

It should be no surprise that having a good selection of ‘real’ plants in an office or workspace brings a myriad of health and well being benefits to those who spend much of their day indoors. Plants such as the peace lily, aloe vera and spider plants are excellent at breaking down airborne toxins and putting oxygen back into the atmosphere within the office space. It’s also well worth considering how the plants are arranged as well thought out interior landscaping adds to the overall aesthetic of any office or workplace.

Mixing flowering plants with ferns or other foliage plants and putting sculptural plants in a prominent position will create a variety of focal points which will break up what would otherwise be a bland, almost lifeless workspace. Some plants such as a large, established yucca work perfectly in solitude, and coupled with some well placed lighting can cast some wonderfully shadows across the walls and ceiling.

With a little imagination and a  lot of plants you can create an interior landscaping design which will completely change the look and feel of your place of work. By creating a more pleasing and healthy working environment will have a positive effect of workflow and efficiency, which always goes down well with both staff and management.

By carl Liver and Barry Summers

Since the middle sixties, people throughout the UK have warmed to the concept of the New Age. This western spiritual movement cherry picked bits of ancient wisdom and eastern philosophy to create a concoction of beliefs. These new age types love having a shrine to their favourite deities such as Buddha, Shiva or even Pan. Those lucky enough to have a large garden would centre their shrine around garden sculptures depicting whatever deity they can afford.

Some of the more adventurous new age types would go so far as to create their own stone circle on their land, aligned to the constellation of their zodiac sign with the vain hope that it would do a better job of influencing their spiritual life than an off the shelf garden sculpture would. However for those with neither the dosh nor the land would have to make do with garden sculptures as a cut price alternative.

What is fascinating is just how much faith they can attribute to these blocks of cast concrete. Not only can they perfectly align ones chakra, they can also assist in meditation. Females within this counter culture tend to jump head first into some sort of faux goddess worship, often seeing themselves as a re-embodiment of Athena, Venus or Sarasvati. Again, they favour modern reproduction garden statues of these deities rather than anything remotely authentic when it comes to building their shrines. Each to their own I guess.