Educator Michael Wilkinson is bringing astrobotany into classrooms: GotG12

There are many creative ways to incorporate greenery into your house without purchasing living plants and trees. We asked interior designers to share their top tips for making a home feel more green and nature-filled, and they came up with some excellent suggestions that are great for small space dwellers and those in larger houses alike.

Every month this year I’ve been trying to read one of the unread books on my shelf, and to then decide whether it gets to keep its spot or needs to be set free to find a new home. For June I chose Nature’s Wild Harvest by Eric Soothill and Michael J. Thomas. It was published in 1983, and has been sitting on my bookshelf for three years, since I bought it in our local secondhand bookshop (which only opens on Wednesdays).

Pancake day (AKA Shrove Tuesday, Fat Tuesday or Mardi Gras) has got to be the one holiday of the year that’s devoted to avoiding food waste. In keeping with grand tradition, Ryan and I whipped up a batch of pancakes, using the last egg in the fridge and about half of the remaining apple & cinnamon bread flour, and they were delicious. For most people this is probably a token effort (especially as it’s no longer common to avoid rich foods such as eggs, milk and sugar during Lent, with people preferring to give up booze, excessive screen time or being rude to people), but we’re doing very well at avoiding food waste.

When Virgin Galactic’s Unity 22 flew into space on Sunday, it carried one billionaire passenger and three tubes filled with plants.

Today Blue Origin today successfully launched the New Shepard space vehicle’s Mission 9. The spacecraft is carrying payloads from private companies, universities and space agencies- including the world’s smelliest fruit.

Header image: Blue Origin

I’ve talked before about how much Ryan and I enjoy watching the various birds that come into the garden, and we feed them to encourage them to visit. At my last house, I had house sparrows and starlings along with wood pigeons and blackbirds and robins.

We’re not quite done with April showers – it’s raining. Spring is a bit behind schedule this year, but it is May and there are spring flowers!

Hello, and welcome to Gardeners Off World! I am writing this from lockdown, and you’re probably reading it from lockdown, too. The good news for UK gardeners is that it’s still OK for most people to do some gardening – and that includes people who grow their food on an allotment.

Header image: A SpaceX Dragon capsule, NASA Johnson/Flickr, CC BY-NC

On 10th June, thousands of scientists worldwide went on strike, putting their research activities on hold for a day to reflect and take action on systemic inequalities in science. #ShutDownStem was part of the wider Black Lives Matter protests, forcing us to take a long, hard look at how systemic racism affects people of colour.

Can sending vines into space help wine production on Earth? Nicholas Gaume and Dr Michael Lebert from Space Cargo Unlimited join Emma the Space Gardener to discuss Mission WISE, and why they’ve sent both wine and vines to the International Space Station.