Having wanted to do this for years but been put off by the difficulty of installing the older, barrel-shaped tanks in a restricted space where we'd have had to dig too deep, too close for comfort to this old house's non-existent foundations, I jumped at the chance to buy one of the new shallow tanks this spring.

Of course, the weather made it impossible to finish digging out the pit for most of the first few weeks after the tank arrived but I'm now almost there - just a bit of…

DECC has announced changes to the feed-in tariff for solar PV which will give some clarity for the future:

• The next tariff reduction has been delayed until 1st August, giving wavering householders another month to install and qualify for the current tariff of 21p/unit.  Installers have been offering discounts to stimulate householders to make up their minds after the uncertainty of…

Tree bumble bees (Bombus hypnorum) have moved into a disused bird box at the Hackney Marshes Community Tree Nursery.  This is a worker heading home loaded with pollen.

The small colony (maybe 50-100 bees) have taken up residence in a bird…

Cool

This is awesome

I love this space…

As expected Hackney's cabinet decided to accept the recommendation from the recycling team to move to commingled recycling collections, starting next spring.  This will mean an end to the green box collections and the introduction of recycling sacks instead.  Instead of being sorted by hand at the roadside the recycling will be sorted by machine at Bywaters MRF (Material Recycling Facility) in Leyton.…

Master Gardeners volunteer 30 hours a year offering food growing advice and support to local households and the wider community in Islington, Camden, Haringey and Hackney. They get active support, ongoing training and become part of the master gardener network - plus the pleasure of seeing people bloom!



The next free two-day training course is on 19 and 20 May 2012 (you don’t have to be an expert to…