Homes & Gardens

The Most Common December Pests and How to Stop Them?

When temperatures drop and winter sets in, many pests begin searching for warm places to hide. Unfortunately, that often means moving into homes, garages and workplaces. December might feel too cold for insects and rodents to be active, but it’s one of the busiest times of the year for pest control callouts. Understanding which pests are most common at this time of year, and knowing how to deal with them, can help protect your home and stop infestations before they become serious. This guide explains the top December pests, why they appear, and the steps you can take to prevent them....

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Toby Buckland’s Garden Festival set for lift off

Toby Buckland’s Garden Festival returns to Powderham Castle with some of the country’s best plant specialists, gardening stars and plenty of delicious local food, craft, live music and fun.

Gardens come in all sizes and whether you have an acre or a window box, a bare square of earth or a shady spot, you can grow a beautiful garden. Let your creativity take root at Toby Buckland’s Garden Festival at Powderham Castle and soak up inspiration from amazing and colourful nurseries, demonstrations and gardening experts. Nowhere else in the South West can you find such diversity of...

The main benefits of switching from oil to calor gas

A modern and clean alternative to natural gas, LPG is an excellent solution for those who want to switch from oil, electricity, or solid fuels to benefit from a safe and secure heating solution. When you live off the grid in a rural area, LPG is a cost effective and versatile heating solution that also provides great benefits for cooking.

Why an LPG Tank Can Transform the Way You Heat Your Home

While many off grid homes in the UK use oil as their fuel for central heating, increasing numbers opt to switch to LPG. An old oil boiler is often inefficient, and it could cause you...

Renters have paid £38k to landlords since 2010

Someone paying rent for an average two bedroom home in the South West would have forked out £38,137 to their landlord over the last five years, new analysis by housing and homelessness charity Shelter reveals today.

This is just under the sum needed for a 20% deposit on the average first time buyer home in the region, which is currently priced at £195,672.

With millions of renters caught in a ‘rent trap’, paying sky high housing costs and unable to keep up with rocketing house prices, the research pulls out the areas where ‘generation rent’ are forking out the most....

How to Increase the Value of your Home in 3 Easy Steps

In the current climate, selling a property can be exceptionally difficult. Not only have rapidly increasing prices triggered a surge in the number of aspiring vendors on the market, for example, but the bottom line cost of real estate in prime areas such as London is also forcing many buyers out of contention. With this in mind, you may be better served by waiting for the market’s growth to subside slightly before selling your property.

This is also fraught with risk, however, especially as you will need to optimise the value in your home prior to completing a sale. Consider the...

Key property market trends in the UK capital: What to look out for in the next five years

If you have considered purchasing a home in the capital city of London, you may well have been put off by the presence of soaring price points and relentless, seemingly disproportionate growth. This type of expansion has characterised the London market over the course of the last 18 months, and many people are expecting this to continue indefinitely throughout 2016 and beyond. There may be a few surprises in store, however, from government reforms in the buy-to-let market to the potential onset of a global recession.

Three Crucial Trends that will Impact on the London market...

Toby Buckland's Garden Festival line-up announced

Toby Buckland, horticulturalist, writer and TV presenter is pleased to announce the line-up for his 2016 Garden Festival at Powderham Castle, near Exeter.

The festival will take place over two days, Friday 29th April and Saturday 30th April, 10am-5pm

This year’s fluorescent Festival line up provides well dug gardening expertise along with pots of entertainment.

Toby Buckland, Festival MC, a twinkle in the eye and a merry horticultural quip at the ready, whose ambition is to sail a garden shed down the River Exe. His career has taken him from Devon nurseryman, to...

Christmas tree recycling collection in Exeter

People in Exeter can recycle their Christmas trees in the New Year.

For those not on the City Council's garden waste collection service there will be an opportunity to take Christmas trees to one of the following sites on the weekend of 9 and 10 January

Car park at Mincinglake Valley Park (top end, off Stoke Hill near the community centre)
Car park at Heavitree Pleasure Ground (next to recycling banks, Whipton Lane near junction with Stanwey)
Car park at Holman Way, Topsham

For those who are enrolled on the garden waste collection...

Don't be a turkey this Christmas

South West Water is calling on its customers to save the drains this Christmas and dispose of cooking fat, oil and grease responsibly.

The company's Head of Wholesale Waste Recovery and Environmental Protection, Guy Doble, said: "At Christmas, the volume of cooking fat entering the sewers increases dramatically.

"When the fat cools, it hardens, clogging pipes. It's not just sewers that suffer, household pipes can get blocked too which may result in hefty repair bills.

"Avoid pain in the drain this festive season by waiting for unwanted cooking fat, oil or grease to...

Is your chimney safe for Santa?

Christmas is fast approaching and with the colder weather also arriving, cosy chimney fires are being lit. Devon & Somerset Fire & Rescue Service are encouraging you to check your chimney is clean, safe and swept for Santa’s arrival.

Chimney fires can cause serious structural damage to a home, with the risks being even greater if the property has a thatched roof. The damage is not only fire based but also the dirt and smell left from all the soot and smoke, which would affect your personal property, including all your Christmas presents.

Chimneys need to be dirt...

Residents urged to 'starve their bin' over Christmas

Residents are being encouraged to ‘starve your bin’ by reducing, reusing and recycling seasonal waste wherever possible this festive season.

From plastic food and drink packaging to cardboard boxes and wrapping paper that housed gifts under the Christmas tree - there's a variety of packaging that can go into your recycling bins, boxes and sacks.

Christmas lunch, New Year’s Eve celebrations and friends and family popping round all mean one thing – fridges and cupboards stocked with food and drink.

Plastic drinks bottles and pots; tubs and trays can go straight into...

Homes & Gardens

The Most Common December Pests and How to Stop Them?

Toby Buckland’s Garden Festival set for lift off

The main benefits of switching from oil to calor gas

Renters have paid £38k to landlords since 2010

How to Increase the Value of your Home in 3 Easy Steps

Key property market trends in the UK capital: What to look out for in the next five years

Toby Buckland's Garden Festival line-up announced

Christmas tree recycling collection in Exeter

Don't be a turkey this Christmas

Is your chimney safe for Santa?

Residents urged to 'starve their bin' over Christmas

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