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'A teaspoon of living soil contains more creatures than there are people in existence': Unearthing the dirt's vital role in our future on World Soil Day
Sarah Langford argues that it is high time soil become fashionable.
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I was Jeremy Hunt’s main political adviser and helped put together multiple Autumn Statements and Budgets. This is what I think Rachel Reeves’s Budget means for the countryside
Adam Smith, former chief of staff to the Chancellor of the Exchequer, reflects on what last week's Budget means for the countryside and how we ensure the rural voice is heard loudly inside Budget preparations.
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The Budget: What do we need to fix a broken countryside, and what will we get?
With the Autumn Budget looming, countryside and heritage organisations reveal what they are hoping to hear to fix the turmoil — and what they are dreading
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'I’m going to be the first in more than 100 years to sell anything off': How the upcoming budget uncertainty is impacting young farmers
Changes to inheritance tax, property relief and Defra budgets will likely change Britian's rural landscape. We ask the next generation of farmers what they think their future will look like.
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An unfenced existence: Philip Larkin's love of the countryside
Richard Barnett pokes at Larkin’s protective carapace of soot-stained gloom and finds a writer with an unillusioned yet tenderly perceptive sense of Nature, in all its beauty and indifference
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Baby, it’s cold outside (even if you have a natural fur coat): How our animals brave the winter chill
When the temperature drops, how do Britain’s birds, beasts and plants keep the cold at bay? John Lewis-Stempel reveals Nature’s own thermals.
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Retro rubbish: Waste from the 90s unearthed in 97-mile-long beach clean
The 6,482 volunteers unearthed waste discarded decades ago among the 232,229 pieces of litter recorded during the initiative.
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Dangerous beasts (and where to find them): Britain's animals that are best left alone
John Lewis-Stempel provides a miscellany of our otherwise benign land’s more fearsome critters.
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Take a bough: How — and why — you should plant a mature tree
For instant impact in a newly landscaped garden, there’s nothing quite like planting mature trees or native hedgerow plants for transformative and long-lasting results.
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'The view changes with the seasons, so there’s always something new to see': David Beckham on one of his favourite sights in the Cotswolds
Sir David Beckham discovered this Cotswolds view while looking for a house to buy.
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'It makes me feel as if I’ve done a good job as a father and that I did the right thing in wanting us to have a house here': David Beckham on why the countryside matters so much to him and his family
Sir David Beckham talks to Paula Minchin about discovering the joys of beekeeping and gardening.
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‘The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago; the second best time is now'
Now is the time to firstly, hug a tree, and secondly, plant some more — in increasingly imaginative ways.
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‘Once upon a time they covered an area the size of Ireland’: The restoration of Britain’s native oyster reefs is shaping future marine projects around the world
Jane Wheatley reports on an innovative project to restore Britain’s once plentiful native oyster reefs in Tyne & Wear.
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The secret life of seeds: The little wonders that sustain all life on Earth
They might not be especially striking to look at — if you can see them at all — but seeds are among the natural world’s most awe-inspiring marvels.
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Do not be afraid of this bodysnatching fungi that lives on a lawn in Scotland
The lawns at Haddo House in Aberdeenshire are luscious and friendly, unless you are the prey of the vile 'Strathy Strangler'.
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Temperate rainforests are being planted all over Britain — what are they and why do we need them?
Glen Auldyn on the Isle of Man is part of a £38 million restoration scheme to re-establish rainforests all over the world. Lotte Brundle went to see what's going on.
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Claws for thought: The world leading crustacean conservation charity that is saving our lobsters
The National Lobster Hatchery in Cornwall is fighting for the species' survival. But it could do with some help.
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Amanda Owen: The Yorkshire Shepherdess on farming, life, and having tea with her sheep
Life can be beautiful for farmers, and often is — but it can also be hard and bleak. James Robinson joined the Country Life Podcast to talk about the extraordinary ups and downs of the job he loves, and how Nature helps out when things get tough.
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How the full moons got their names, including tomorrow's rare Harvest supermoon
With a new full moon on the horizon, John Lewis-Stempel reflects on her many guises.
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James Robinson: A fifth-generation farmer on the ups and downs of 'the most glorious job in the world'
Life can be beautiful for farmers, and often is — but it can also be hard and bleak. James Robinson joined the Country Life Podcast to talk about the extraordinary ups and downs of the job he loves, and how Nature helps out when things get tough.
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The roads less travelled: The shapeshifting glories of Britain’s sea paths
Roger Morgan-Grenville celebrates the joys of wandering along the evanescent byways revealed by our tides.
