Latest from Daily Telegraph on climate change in Cumbria, garden gossip and reindeer's rights: http://alturl.com/q46t.
Lookalikes (and soundalikes): Garden Media Guild lifetime achievement winner Peter Beales and Garden Industry Manufacturers Association ex-president Peter Field.
From the press:
1. We’re in Private Eye ‘In the Back’ this week - for the right reasons. We’ve been reporting that the University of Warwick is closing Wellesbourne research station. HW quoted as blaming Defra for years of cuts to research funding, but saying Warwick was showing a complete disregard for a prime facility it was gifted at a knock down price. Investigative journalism at its finest.
2. “Tuta Absoluta sounds like an Austin Powers love interest, but it’s clearly going to be yet another source of heartbreak for the tomato grower.” From www.soilman. http://alturl.com/wxdp
3. Latest from Garden News Dec 8. Xmas trees are running short. Also, veg seed sales boom. It’s now 70 veg/30 ornamental. Dec 15. Poinsettia sales set to reach 4m.
4. Nick Herbert, Tory shadow environmental minister is after vegetarian Labour counterparts Hilary Benn and Jim Fitzpatrick by attacking meat-free Mondays. Are we meant I become part time vegetarians or vegans? And why single out meat? Asia’s paddy fields emit the same amount of methane as the livestock industry. It seems doubtful that a campaign for rice-free Tuesdays will be next (Independent). He will soon be in charge of the environment.
5. What’s it’s like to work at World Duty Free (Retail Week)
What is the world duty free ethos?
Relaxed intensity with a can-do attitude.
What sets you apart?
It’s a great place to work, has excellent employee engagement and we ork in partnership with all our key stakeholders.
How do you strive to retain your staff?
We live our company values-customers, passion, teamwork, respect.
6. Oliver Peyton (Telegraph) Looking after a garden is depressingly hard work but I’m very into gardening porn. My wife says that if anything arrives by post, she won’t accept it. I’m always making very expensive mistakes.
7. Alan Titchmarsh is ‘mid range (average appeal) according to the BBC. Kate Humble and Jimmy Doherty and the Hairy Bikers have top tier highly valued appeal, while Chris Packham is on his way up and worth investment says a list drawn up by an executive at BBC Knowledge, which makes documentaries and factual programmes.
8. Mephedrone is the new hot drug for clubbers. It’s a ‘plant food’ ‘and costs £10 a gram off the internet. You dance like a nutter and jabber like a fool apparently. http://alturl.com/jbd2. The weird thing is that mephedrone is not a plant food. In Britain, any substance sold for human consumption has to be licensed or subject to rigorous safety checks. So unscrupulous dealers market Mephedrone somewhat bizarrely as a plant fertiliser. In fact, Mephedrone (full chemical name: 4- Methylmethcathinone) is a stimulant described as 'two molecular tweaks away' from pure ecstasy. 'It is never used in any products that people would use to fertilise plants,' said a spokesman for the European Fertiliser Manufacturers' Association. In other words, you might as well give your plants cocaine or heroin as Mephedrone. Nevertheless, words such as 'plant food' and 'plant snacks' are used in all the websites selling Mephedrone. We found at least 30 websites in a few minutes.
9. Christmas fun: http://www.bicton.ac.uk/christmas09.html
10. Rare praise: Re: your blog 'Climate change in Cumbria; annual gong show; reindeers' rights' on Telegraph website. I am dismayed to hear that '...I'm worried though because I've been told by fellow hacks that what I write is indiscreet' - Please ignore the hacks and continue writing your blogs (both DT and Hort Week) as all at www.qualitygardentools.com are readers. What would have happened in Nixon's America if Bernstein & Woodward of the Washington Post had decided to be discreet when 'Deep Throat' told them about Watergate?
Maybe the gardening world is not quite the same, but we all enjoy your blogs anyway. There is far too much boring 'my favourite hobby is eating baked beans' journalism in the horticultural world and too many hacks just re-hashing old articles (their own and other peoples) - so keep up the good work and ignore the others!
11. Ireland’s largest bookmaker Paddy Power are taking bets on the amount of World CO2 emissions according to the next CDIAC report for the UN. The last report in 2006 measured CO2 levels at 28.4 billion metric tonnes and Paddy Power’s odds predict that at the time of the next report the figure will be over a mind boggling 34 billion tonnes at odds of 7/4. The bookie is also taking bets on whether the US or EU will have most Annual CO2 emissions – the US is red hot favourite at 1/3 with the EU at 2/1.
12. The RHS has apologised to members after a leaflet the gardening charity issued drew complaints because it shows a Muscari grape hyacinth instead of native bluebells and states that cowslips are a woodland flower rather than a meadow plant. RHS Hyde Hall in Essex issued 40,000 leaflets asking for donations to plant 35,000 trees costing £100,000 at the site over the next seven years. But the leaflet had two “basic” errors of gardening knowledge. RHS head of press Lynn Beddoe said: “We are very obviously aware of the mistakes. They are not something the RHS takes lightly because we pride ourselves on knowing our plants. The head of development was very apologetic. This was down to a printing process error with a stock shot not thoroughly proofed. We only received a handful of letters pointing out the errors. We apologised and explained.”
