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Design Museum: low carbon homes

Harry Villiers' home office in the garden

Harry Villers of Villiers Brothers furniture company built an environmentally friendly home office/shed in his Essex garden. It uses recyclable materials such as steel, wood and glass. It has a salvaged oak floor from eBay. Villiers has launched Vintage Archive.

Tenant safety: asbestos rules

Asbestos is a highly damaging group of microscopic fibres that if inhaled can severely damage our lungs. The fibres become trapped within our alveoli where the exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide takes place. Since the fibres are lodged, they can irritate and scar lung tissue, making it difficult to breathe. Although the effects of inhaling asbestos may not be noticed at first, they will more than likely severely impact health later in life, causing conditions such as asbestosis and lung cancer.

Eco and cosy, recycled wool blankets

Fusion LED light cut-out cube

King crimson: poinsettias, the perfect Christmas plant

Poinsettias are the second best-selling houseplant in the UK (after the enduringly popular Phalaenopsis orchid), and this year it's estimated w'll be buying some eight million of them over the Christmas period.

Poinsettias, which hail from Mexico, have become the festive houseplant and you can do a lot with them from having a large plant in a pot, to cutting the stems to use in a floral display or incorporating into a wreath. They also make a perfect gift for men and women of all ages.

 

 

Inspiring ideas - it's the wonderful Deco Christmas gift guide 2023

Deco Christmas gift guide offers ideas for eco friendly craft, UK/EU made homewares. Vintage, antique, wool, wood, fair trade...we cover them all. Green shopping for greener Christmas gifts is easy with the Deco eco friendly Christmas gift guide. Eco friendly Christmas gifts. Eco friendly Christmas presents.

Oil painting exhibition

The ROI annual show at Mall Galleries offers a chance to beaded by the skill of contemporary artists - and may even inspire you to get painting. See landscapes, still life and portraits in oil, with a number of paintings depicting urban life and scenes from the capital. Works are priced from £500, so anyone looking to invest in an original work make a beeline for the show.

Cyclamens for winter garden delight

Cyclamens are inexpensive, abundant and they can make winter a flowering success. The Royal Horticultural Association (RHA)  describes cyclamens as 'a delightful tuberous perennial providing colour often when little else is flowering, particularly in late winter or early spring.'

Grow them in shadier spots - they don't like full sunshine - and don't let their soil become too dry and they'll keep on flowering month after month. They're great in window boxes and containers too, and work well planted with snowdrops, winter aconites (Eranthis hyemalis) and primroses.

RHS Wisley's Old Laboratory opens its doors

RHS Garden Wisley, near Woking in Surrey, is world renowned and now visitors can step back in time and walk in the footsteps of RHS scientists and students from yesteryear.

Long considered the home of gardening science, the Old Laboratory has been restored and is bringing to life a rich history of horticultural experimentation and exploration with immersive displays and interactive exhibits. Explore a series of rooms, each set within a time in history, to discover how the work conducted here helped shape how we garden today.

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