Julia Hailes MBE

Sustainability Pioneer

Peat in compost is environmental vandalism (Mar21)

That’s what Monty Don says and I agree. But it’s incredibly common. UK gardeners are responsible for destroying our ‘rainforests’. It has to stop and we can make it happen. OK, so why is this such a big deal? First and perhaps most importantly, peatlands are essential in our fight against climate change.  Whilst they […]

I’ve learnt to love moles (Feb21)

My mother was very keen on mole traps, following a tradition that apparently started in Roman times. I remember having them firmly planted in the soft earth mounds that would regularly appear on our lawn.  When I moved to Dorset, I’m embarrassed to say that I employed a mole catcher, who set the traps. Never […]

Going wild in Dorset (Sep19)

I’m tremendously excited about our new landscaping project… The central idea is wilding and I’m learning about what this means in practice. One concept I found rather appealing was to look at nettles and docks, which love fertile, agriculture land, as the bully boys. And we’re going to replace them with a myriad of other […]