It’s the time of year when most of us are thinking about preparing our gardens for the summer season. With the recent announcement of the drought, you may be wondering what you can plant to keep your garden looking colourful and glorious without depending upon water.

The front garden at the Green House at 1 St Audrey Lane, St Ives is a drought garden which was kindly designed and planted by local Chelsea Flower Show Gold Medal Winner Marney Hall and her team. Marney will be coming along to the St Ives Green House on Saturday 28th April to give tours, talks and details of the plants and designs she used to create the beautiful garden.

The free 45 minute tours will take place on the hour from 10.00am – 4.00pm and will include a list of drought tolerant plants. Everyone who books a place on a tour will be able to pick up a free bag of compost on the day.

To book a place call 01480 388315 or 388304.

After two very successful Green Heart Awards in 2010 and 2011, Huntingdonshire District Council is once again looking for applications for this year’s Green Heart Community Awards.

Other people’s projects can be both inspirational and motivational and that’s why we want to find out more about the excellent environmental community projects happening in Huntingdonshire.

We want to find out about what has motivated the people of Huntingdonshire to take environmental action, what has been helpful to make their projects successful and what challenges they have faced and overcome along the way.

Read more about ‘Green Heart Community Awards 2012′ »

Are you thinking about insulating your home? Want to know more about the different typres of insulation available? Come and talk to our experts on Saturday 25 February from 10am until 4pm at the St Ives Green House.

Tenant required for St Neots Green House…

Huntingdonshire District Council is offering the opportunity of a one year tenancy at its ‘Green House Project’ property in Manor Farm Road, St Neots.
The property is being offered at a competitive rent of £650pcm as there will be a requirement for the tenant to undertake some monitoring of the environmental performance as part of the on-going project.
The property is a part-furnished 3 bedroom semi-detached house, close to the town centre and railway station. Available end of March 2012.
If you are looking for accomodation for a limited period (one year tenancy which may be renewed for a further year) and if you think you have the environmental credentials to be part of this ground-breaking project, please contact the Environment Team at HDC on 01480 388388 for an informal chat, or to express an interest and request an application form.

 Email: greenhouseproject@huntingdonshire.gov.uk for futher details

Great news for householders who are looking at ways to reduce their energy bills and their carbon footprint. It has recently been announced that the higher rate of 43p/KWh for the next 25 years is likely be honoured for those installation of solar photovoltaics (PV) system which are registered before 3 March 2012.

Those who register on or after 3 March will qualify for the higher rate until 1 April, when it will drop to 21p/KWh.

Solar PV systems are a great way of generating your own electricity and gaining an income from the electricity you have generated. Solar PV captures the Suns energy and converts this energy into electricity. A typical home solar PV system will help you reduce your environmental footprint and could save over a tonne of CO2 per year.

At the current higher rate a typical solar PV system with an installation size of 3KWp can save you around £670 per year, which is made up of the generation tariff at 43p/KWh, export tariff of 3p/KWh and the savings you will make on your electricity bills.

Time is of the essence and there are many options that need to be considered and we are sure you have many questions you would like to ask, so why not visit the St Ives Green House to see a solar PV system in situ and learn more about the changes to the feed in tariff.

The Green House is open on Tuesdays, Thursdays and two Saturdays throughout the month. Visit the Book Your Visit page to learn about our opening dates and times

Additional information saving energy visit the Energy Saving Trust

This first phase of the RHI is designed to tackle the UK’s largest heat users – the industrial, business and public sector – which contribute 38 percent of the UK’s carbon emissions.

Support for domestic istallations will be rolled out during the second phase of the RHI. This start date is yet to be confirmed.

The scheme will see solar thermal installs receive 8.5p/kWh, biomass boilers receive 7.9p/kWh and heat pump installations receive 4.5p/kWh.

Ofgem will be responsible for administrating the RHI scheme and handling all applications for potential participants.

Full details of the RHI scheme can be found on the DECC website.