Large numbers of 3D printers are now being produced and used for home use.  It is estimated that the worldwide market in 3D printing will be £3 billion within 5 years - but what materials are used for printing?  Most currently use plastic filament (mostly PLA or ABS), but some printers are being developed to print using more natural materials such as clay or wood, and even 'mushed-up' insects. Standard home-use 3D printers can print in "wood fill" using a mixture of plastic and wood to create objects that look as through they are wooden whist avoiding many of the issues with production of objects using real wood.  The image below this post shows an array of objects 3D-printed by a desktop machine using a "wood fill" filament supplied by ColorFabb, part of the Dutch company Helian Polymers.  This woody filament contains 30% wood Read more...

As you reach to buy the last roll of Christmas wrapping paper, spare a thought for the route it has taken to get to you.  Christmas is renowned as the time of over-indulgence.  The use of wrapping paper is no exception.   Every year 8,000 tonnes of wrapping paper are used to disguise the gifts we give and receive.  This, according to The Guardian’s Hilary Osbourne is the equivalent of 50,000 trees. Plenty of people will admit the wrapping and unwrapping of presents at Christmas is part of the festive ritual.  However, it is having serious environmental consequences.  In the UK, alone, enough Christmas wrapping paper is thrown away Read more...

Oliver Rackham has been described as 'one of the really outstanding botanical writers of our times', his work being deemed 'seminal' and his books 'meticulously researched'. Rackham has raised huge amounts of awareness for the issues faced by woodlands and the importance of their conservation. In 1998, he was awarded the OBE for services to Nature Conservation, and so Rackham's principles are in line with our own of 'conservation and enjoyment'. He has reinforced respect for woodlands and so is a key figure to know about when owning your own. Read more...

Dog mess has been a long-term problem in woodlands. As dog owners have been forced to clean up after their dogs in parks and streets over the last 15 years or so they have not always been so good at "picking up" in public woodlands or on footpaths in private woodlands. This could be because dog owners don't feel a need to clear up in "the great outdoors" or it could be that some people feel they are not being watched and can "get away with" leaving the dog's doings. A more charitable view is that in woodlands people leave their dogs to roam more widely and dog mess * left without the owner seeing what has been done or indeed exactly where it was done. Read more...

Many of us who are regular visitors to the National Arboretum at Westonbirt in Gloucestershire are familiar with some of their most popular events such as ‘Treefest’ over the August Bank Holiday weekend and the spectacular autumn displays of colour in the acer groves.   This year though – acting on the recommendation of one of the catering concession holders at Treefest – my family and I decided to make a visit to Westonbirt’s festive special: An Enchanted Christmas.   Read more...

Gateposts usually last a remarkably long time - partly because strong posts are installed securely as tensioning points for fences but also because these posts need to be strong enough to support heavy gates. We have written about renovating stone gateposts before and how to get fittings attached to stone  , but there are lots of different ways of doing gateposts which demonstrate the inventiveness of farmers and estate workers. Traditionally materials used would have been whatever was available, strong and affordable, so in the days of cheap labour stone was often the obvious choice. In order to be effective a stone gatepost would have to be sunk deep into the ground and ways of attaching fences and gates were necessary. The picture here shows a relatively rare arrangement where the gatepost has holes drilled out to take the horizontal rails of the gate - these are sometimes called "heave gates" for obvious reasons. This arrangement totally avoids the need for hinges but only works where there are deep enough horizontal holes so that the gate can be moved enough to one side to release the rails from the stone gatepost at the other side. Read more...

This is the ideal Christmas present for anyone who likes trees.  At only £15, 'God's Trees' is both a coffee table book and an authority on the subject of trees in the Bible.  You'll find out about the trees of all the 'Bible lands' including modern-day Israel, Syria, Egypt, Iran, and Iraq.  It's not just which trees were there but how they were used -  Cedar of Lebanon (Cedrus libani ) for beams in Solomon's temple, Acacia trees for shade in the Negev desert but most widespread were Olive trees (Olea europaea) which produced olive oil for lighting and cooking.  You can do a cover-to-cover read or just dip in for the pictures and captions enjoying the exotic photos, maps and the illustrations by Veronica Pinchen. Read more...