The AnswerBank Articles

Are you ready to become a virtual estate agent

By Tom Gard IT is all too familiar to anyone who has been house hunting. Stacks of estate agent details with grainy pictures and descriptions that push the very limits of truth followed by hours00:00 Mon 05th Feb 2001

Back to the future

By Tom Gard THE predominant image of the modern day housing development is of lines of identical boxes standing in neat rows. From the outside number one looks exactly the same as number 99, and00:00 Mon 05th Feb 2001

Beware the alien invaders

By Tom Gard THE British Isles is in the grip of an alien invasion of Triffid-like proportions. Across the land there are plants on the move capable of breaking through concrete and forming lethal00:00 Mon 05th Feb 2001

Keeping your houseplants in order

By Tom Gard WHEN it's cold, drab and wet outside the green-fingered brigade tend to turn to the houseplants for a little winter solace and colour. Plants weren't naturally designed to grow inside,00:00 Mon 29th Jan 2001

Removing the stress of moving

By Tom Gard WHEN it comes to levels of stress, moving house is up there with divorce, weddings and coping with teenage kids. PhotoDisc.co.ukFinding the right property, negotiating through estate00:00 Tue 30th Jan 2001

Help is at hand

By Tom Gard NEED help to save a flagging plant or some practical advice on where to find the right builder for the job This is where theanswerbank.co.uk can come to the rescue. Our Home and Gardens00:00 Tue 30th Jan 2001

Can sport clean up its act

By Tom Gard ANYONE still looking at sport through rose-tinted glasses must surely have had them knocked off and crushed under foot by recent events. The Grobbelaar scandal, cricket's Cronjegate,00:00 Wed 24th Jan 2001

Keeping the home fires burning

By Tom Gard THIS is the time of year that we whack up the central heating, adjust the thermostat and, if we are city dwellers, try and pretend the gas-effect fire is a real one, logs in the basket00:00 Mon 22nd Jan 2001

Going wild in the garden

By Tom Gard IF your idea of attracting wildlife into the garden is slapping a bird table in the middle of the lawn and watching the local cat population lick their lips, it's time to think again.00:00 Mon 22nd Jan 2001

Digging in for winter

By Tom Gard TO the fair weather gardener, anyone spotted wielding a spade or secateurs amidst the mud and frost of January must have a screw loose. All but the most hardy plants have gone into00:00 Mon 22nd Jan 2001

Prepare to decorate

By Tom Gard DOES giving all or part of your home a much needed makeover feature in your list of New Year's resolutions Once you've decided what you want to do, it is always tempting to throw00:00 Mon 15th Jan 2001

Warding off the worst of winter from the garden

By Tom Gard THE weather is doing its level best to test gardeners up and down the country to the limit. After what seemed like months of continuous rain and mud the icy fingers of real winter00:00 Mon 15th Jan 2001

Steering clear of the cowboy builders

By Tom Gard IT is the stuff of nightmares and fly-on-the-wall docu-soaps. The firm of builders you hire to work on your house turns out to be a bunch of cowboys, emptying your bank account and00:00 Mon 15th Jan 2001

Get spruced up for next Christmas

By Tom Gard THE decorations are coming down, the hoover is clogged with needles and now you're facing the annual poser of what to do with that balding Christmas tree. If your not one of the lucky00:00 Wed 03rd Jan 2001

Under the influence

British weekly music bible NME has put the cat well and truly among the pigeons by polling a highly selective group of musical movers and shakers to see who merits the title of The Most Influential00:00 Thu 21st Dec 2000

Grow your own edible garden

By Tom Gard THERE is little better than eating your own home-grown vegetables, straight from the ground onto the kitchen table. However, many of us with small gardens don't feel we can afford the00:00 Sun 31st Dec 2000

Gardening for a new climate

By Tom Gard FROM bananas in Birmingham to palms in Perthshire, climate change is opening up a world of planting possibilities to gardeners. But is global warming really good news There is no00:00 Sun 17th Dec 2000

A home away from home

FLOODS, fuel crises and travel chaos. It's little wonder that at this time of year so many of us start dreaming of owning a little corner that is not forever England. The number of people either00:00 Sun 17th Dec 2000

The need for trees

FOR a nation that prides itself on its green and pleasant land, it is a shocking fact that Britain has less woodland per acre than any of our European neighbours. So, what can we do to improve this00:00 Sun 17th Dec 2000

Heart of Oak

By Tom Gard OAK-FRAMED houses usually conjure up pictures of quaint seventeenth-century cottages or barn conversions with all mod cons. But, the timber-framed house is enjoying a comeback. So, why00:00 Sun 17th Dec 2000