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Solar Power

Based in Brighton, Eco Hi Solar install solar termal systems in and around the South East. Vanessa Langley finds out what there plans are for 2009.

Slar Panel

Our over dependence on unsustainable fossil fuels has most certainly had its day and all of us need to consider what we can do improve our fuel efficiency. Most of us know the advantages of solar powered energy, but few of us know where to begin and what would be the best system for us.

Cleland and Sharada Laidlay created Eco Hi Solar in 2006. Having installed loft insulation, cavity wall installation, a condensing boiler, a thermal solar system to heat hot water, a basic rainwater harvesting system, buffer zones, draft proofing and converted the company van to take bio diesel converted from waste veg oil, they would seem more than qualified to advise the less proactive, but nevertheless willing, where to begin their own power revolution. They opened their home in 2007 for the Brighton festival as well as the Brighton Eco Open House Event.

Sheep & Chandeliers

Sheep & Chandeliers launched their business in response to the ever growing range of environmentally designed products becoming available and a desire to increase our access to these innovative companies, through an easy to use and friendly website.

Offering practical advice and solutions to many of our everyday needs, with stylish and effective products from recycled paper to the latest solar energy devices.

Winter Wonderland in the Garden

Flick Roskrow
6th February 2009

Gardens can look magical in winter and this year our gardens in Sussex have been enhanced by hoar frost and snow. Your garden may look frozen in time but put on your gardening boots, go outside and take a closer look at what’s stirring in the flower beds and borders.

The delicate beauty of the snowdrop is a joy to behold on a cold, frosty winter’s day and this year, clumps of this seemingly fragile flower have emerged through a blanket of snow, the flower heads gently nodding in the cold wind. Early flowering varieties of hellabores such as Hellaborus niger (Christmas rose), are blooming in sheltered parts of the garden. Gently lift the flower heads to face upwards and take a closer look at the extraordinary, intricate design of this saucer shaped flower. The buds of later flowering hellabores are now nestling at the base of the plants waiting to unfurl and burst into life as the weather gets warmer.

Home Grown

Vanessa Langley

istockphotos

The winter months of January and February can be a bleak time in the veg garden and if you started the new year with the good intentions of growing some of your own, a quick look out the window at the frosty ground and gloomy skies, will have all but the most determined making a hasty retreat to the sofa. Luckily the sofa can play a part in your kitchen garden success as it's the perfect place to plan your campaign for delicious home grown grub and think about what is actually worth growing.

Simply the Best

Vanessa Langley 15th January 2009 If you haven’t come across the Aquados Simply laundry detergents yet, seek them out! Based in Yorkshire, they were the first detergent to be awarded the EU Eco label- meeting strict manufacture –to – disposal environmental criteria. The products clearly have great green and ethical credentials but do they actually work.
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