Eco Friendly House And Garden

National Family Week (UK) runs from May 31st to June 6th – but make yours and eco friendly one!

The event is all about celebrating Family and your time together – either indoors surrounded by books and films or outside knee-deep in grass and surrounded by bird song!

But there is no reason why your events can’t be green, local and without creating enough waste to fill your entire bin!

There are many events being held around the country that are on the official website, but why not use their guide to make a week of eco friendly fun for yourself your family and your friends.

The weeks events are running along a sort of ‘schedule’ to help give people a rough plan if the week, and you can do as little or as much as you like – or create your own eco fun, but the week is as follows:

Monday – Eco Friendly Picnic:
Why can’t you arrange an event where you make an old fashioned outdoor feast, with local or organic produce brought in bulk – rather than everything in it’s own tiny bottle or individual wrapping.  Why not get one person to bake an enormous cake, one to bake a loaf of fresh bread, one to chop homegrown salad and bring home-laid hard-boiled eggs for the filling. 

Buy huge bumper packs of crisp and nibbles to share out and bring all fully reusable plastic plates and bowls to take home after.  And don’t forget some tubs to collect wild blackcurrants or fallen apples in!

Tuesday – Family Film Day:
Why not extend the picnic theme indoors with a great matinee of one or two of the families favourite films – make sure one is a classic musical to get everyone singing and dancing.  Before the first film, maybe all spend time in the kitchen mixing pastry and cakes so that when the film is over there is plenty of home-made food for everyone to tuck into before the next film!

Wednesday – Great Story Telling Day:
Rather than read other peoples stories – why not spend this day surrounded by scissors, glue and old magazines with a selection of pens and string – and have everyone create their own great adventure story from all your old magazines and bits of the outdoors like pressed flowers and leaves!  Something they can take away and keep.

Thursday – Green Road Trip:
Car or minibus, it doesn’t matter – but if there is an adventure to be had getting there is half the fun.  Rather than take the straight route – why not find the country lanes that go through tiny villages, steepled churches and fields of cows and horses.  Maybe even take in a ruined castle or 2 on the way as well – and don’t forget the camera and a tasty home-made packed lunch!

Friday – Eco Friendly House Party:
Anything goes here – whether it’s literally a party that goes on all night (without annoying the neighbours of course) or whether it’s a day-time party where people bring their family and some tasty goodies to share.  Or maybe help out with some spring cleaning or reducing and recycling.

Take one room of your home that really needs a sort out and get everyone involved. Whether it’s taking stuff to the recycling centre, community furniture project or around a friends – many hands make light work! Maybe get together to help an elderly relative or neighbour – or just your own home and ring some green changes!

Saturday – Eco Garden Fun:
Maybe this one could be an eco garden house party, where you all take it in turns to attack someones garden for the better, laying hedges, creating a wildlife pond, a bug corner, putting up bird feeders or just planting some veg! Things you never really get round to yourself – especially with the kids under your feet! Imagine to things you could achieve with 10 people instead of just you and your mum!

Whatever you choose to do, I hope you have fun – and maybe send in some photos!
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Eco friendly and Fair Trade products are on the increase – and you can be a part of their success!

The only reason manufacturers never really use eco friendly resources for their products is because consumers as a whole were never really ‘that’ bothered where things came from – as long as we liked them in the first place and they were not too expensive. 

Even today, you may well still be buying products that don’t have a branded logo on them, like ‘fair trade’ or ‘FSC certified’ – even though these products are available.

Why?  Well, you can answer that one yourself.  I bet it’s the simple reason that they aren’t always available in your local shops, and if they are available there is very little selection for you to choose from.

The Problem:
Lets take, for example, tea for this first problem.  Fair trade tea has been available for years, but it started out as just the one type.  Basically you had to choose to have fair trade tea in the only flavour that it came in, or you could have non-fair trade tea in any flavour that you wanted (and had probably been drinking your whole life).  Not such a difficult choice for most: they went for flavour.

Secondly, with the example of shoes; one pair of plain, non-offensive brown shoes may have been made by a community of Fair Trade workers in India.  However, because they were made with care and a premium paid for their certification, they were usually a lot pricier than their non-fair trade equivalent shoes that came in a huge variety of shapes, colours and styles.  Again, factors were working against the new products.

Yet others were so hard to get hold of that they would never be seen by over 80% of the population.  Whether they were only stocked by online stores or only found in ‘hippy’ or ‘alternative health stores’ it didn’t matter.  If they weren’t on the shelf in Boots, M&S or Tesco – most people wouldn’t ever see them – and so most people wouldn’t buy them.

And ultimately, their scarcity and high(ish) prices meant that no-one could really recommend them to the general public as so few people wanted to risk their money on an unusual of slightly different product.

Step Into Today’s Market:
However, as we find today, there are now a whole host of ethical or eco friendly alternatives to almost every product available today.  They are still only really a small slice of the market, but at least now people are starting to actually ‘like’ and search for these products.

And we know that retail responed to this by stocking more – so by using such products ourselves, we are creating a better future market for these types of products.

Whether you prefer to help the planet by buying organic products, or you want to help distant farming communities with your support of Fair Trade doesn’t matter.  What matters is that you are buying these things in the first place.

And, the more support these products get, the cheaper they become too.  The reason why a lot of organic or fair trade products were not for sale in high street stores is because their retail price was so expensive compared to existing alternatives that there was no point taking them on – they were a ‘waste of shelf space’.

But now demand has made these product more reasonably priced and able to compete with known brands.  Take for example Ethletics cotton sneakers.

These cotton baseball boots look virtualy identical to a well known brand of baseball boots and shoes.  They come in the same huge array of colours, both for kids and adults, short or long, and even personalized designs – and they are even the same price.

However, Ethletics shoes are made with only organic cotton, use an FSC approved rubber source, offer a Fair Trade price for both the rubber, the cotton and the workforce and are 100% vegan and contain absolutely no plastic.

The other brand make none of these claims.  It doesn’t have to, it’s been selling it’s footwear for years based on the brand alone.  It may well use these same workers or forests for their supplies, and their shoes might also be free of animal derivatives – but they just don’t need to tell us.

Your Choice:
Whether you personally support the manufacturer who offers you certified proof of all their ethical attributes doesn’t really matter.

What matters is that we have got to a point where you can’t say you didn’t have a choice. 

But doing the right thing no longer means walking around in sandals, wearing a baggy t-shirt eating lentils.  Being ethical is now a lifestyle choice without the compromise.

Being ethical today means having everything you are used to, but sourcing it wisely!

Here we are again – with some quick easy steps to staying green…..

1) Buy Old Stuff:
Choose products that contain recycled materials otherwise why are we bothering to separate out our rubbish in the first place! 

There is no point expecting people to wash out and separate out all their plastics and glass if we aren’t prepared to buy the stuff we make out of it all!  Something is only worth making if people are going to buy it – I mean you don’t see trifle flavoured crisps or eyeball pies in your shops do you?

2) Buy New Stuff:
If you see a new product that supports Fair Trade, palm oil certification, MSC or anything else – make sure you are one of it’s new supporters!

If someone has bothered to make something that supports something you believe in, then the least you can do is buy it occasionally.  Sometimes these eco friendly versions are just as tasty as the normal things you buy, but that extra 50p you spend could make all the difference.

3) Bring Your Own Stuff:
We all remember to save our bags for shopping, and nearly all of us remember to take our bags to the stores – but then we go and leave them in the car! 

So, try to make a concerted effort to remember your bags when shopping, and to take more than you think you will need.  The number of times I only wanted ‘a few things’ and ended up remembering a whole load of other stuff – far out-weighing my original bag capacity! 

4) Leave Stuff Behind:
Make sure that you don’t buy fish that is not MSC certified – otherwise that might become a type of fish that you won’t be able to eat in the future – especially if it is being over-fished!

Isn’t it better to go without it this week rather than lose it forever!

The same goes for everything really.  My local store didn’t have my usual organic, free-range medium hens eggs.  So I didn’t buy any.  Firstly, I can go back to the shop tomorrow without having starved to death overnight: and secondly, buying the less chicken-friendly alternative in the shop lets the shop manager know that I’m not really that bothered about the type of eggs I buy!

I mean, if non-organic supermarket eggs sell just as well when the organic ones have sold out – and there is a better profit margin on the non-organic ones – then they might well let the organic ones ‘run out’ more regularly knowing that it’s more important that customers have eggs than the fact that they are organic!

Don’t let supermarkets decide what you can buy – make sure you tell them what you want to buy.

5) Make Your Own Stuff:
Rather than buy processed foods from Asia, and vegetables from Africa – why not try out some new recipes and using veg you can grow in your own back garden!

Try shopping in the fresh and home baking sections only for a week.  Don’t rely on someone you don’t know making a meal for you miles from your kitchen and then sticking it in a box for you and shipping it to your nearest store!

Give it a go!

In the UK you can buy meat products that are from a known source.

So you can rest assured that the animals were treated with the basic standards we would expect, received medication when necessary and were not cooped up alone for weeks on end.

So what does the Freedom Food label actually tell you?  It’s not organic, it’s not fair trade – so what is it for?  It has been in place since 1994 so it is obviously here to stay and is taken seriously.

Below I have summarised the 5 main points from their own leaflet, so that you can be sure of these things when choosing this type of meat product over the other similar products on the shelf that don’t have the RSPCA Freedom Foods logo, (or those that are certified organic as this has a similar set of criteria).

Labelling in all countries allows for certain words and images to be used on meat products that are not a true representation of how the animals were treated or where they were kept. 

For example the words ‘natural’ and ‘fresh’ mean absolutely nothing with regards to how the animals were reared or lived, and ‘produced in the UK’ doesn’t mean the animals ever saw the UK while alive – they could have been factory farmed in any other country in the world and shipped here after slaughter.

In addition, this RSPCA label (among others) is not connected to any food brands or food manufacturers, so you know it is only the animals they have in mind rather than profits!

So, here are the summarised points that mean that you could be making a difference to how your food is farmed:

1) Freedom From Hunger & Thirst:
These animals will have had access to fresh water and a suitable diet that maintains health and vigour.

2) Freedom From Discomfort:
These animals will be provided with an appropriate environment including shelter and a comfortable resting area.

3) Freedom From Pain, Injury Or Disease:
These animals will be living in an environment that helps prevent accidents and illnesses and offers rapid diagnosis and treatment if any of these are found.

4) Freedom To Express Normal Behaviour:
These animals are provided with sufficient space, proper facilities and the company of other animals of their own kind.

5) Freedom From Fear And Distress:
These animals will live in conditions that avoid mental suffering and offer a certain level of respect and care.

And due to this continuity of checks, Freedom Foods can be traced from their farm, through to their haulier, the abattoir and even right to the store!  So you know that the animal you are about to eat has been cared for through it whole life.

The meats included in this scheme cover everything you could imagine, from eggs to beef, pork to duck and salmon to cheese!  All meats and animal products are covered by this, so you can rest assured when buying any of them.

Just look for the label!

Trying alternative remedies to cure a medical problem can be better for you – and the environment!

If you regularly get pain, either as headaches, leg pain or whatever else, you can find that you need to constantly keep a supply of painkillers in your home and sometimes even carry them with you all the time – just in case!

Well, it is possible that an alternative remedy could get rid of your dependency on traditional tablets, caplets and dis-solvable potions – and save all those chemicals from being made, transported, packaged and disposed of.

Why Alternative?
Not everyone believes that alternative remedies such as acupuncture, hypnotherapy and homoeopathy will help them with their issues – but they never really give them a chance.

Mainly, people assume that these alternative treatment will be too expensive  – but many do not really compare this one-off cost with the amount they spend on tablets over a period of months and how much time they lose from work or play while being in pain in the first place!

There are also those people who listen to their friends without getting all the best information or not thinking properly. 

For example, person A may well be able to get rid of headaches with just paracetamol, where as their friend, person B, needs something stronger.  So if person B gets a headache and person A gives them a paracetamol – it ‘won’t work’.

Then when person C gets a headache and wants to buy paracetamol – their friend – person B – will tell them not to buy them as they ‘don’t work’ and the ‘myth’ moves on through the population.

It’s the same with alternative remedies.  One person didn’t get the result they wanted, or didn’t follow the practitioners advice and so pass on the opinion that it ‘doesn’t work’ – possibly preventing them and their friends and colleagues from ending their own  pain or discomfort naturally, and so leaving them dependant on medication.

Other Benefits:
Not only could it leave you pain free and a lot happier, curing illnesses with alternative remedies has many other benefits to the person involved and the environment too!

Firstly, this type of treatment usually involves a holistic approach, which means that everything about the patient is treated rather than just the actual pain.  This means that other lifestyle and dietary issues are addressed to get to the cause of the pain.

Imagine if your headaches were caused by too much cheese but you didn’t know this.  And the directions on a packet of Anadin certainly won’t consider the cause of the headache, so you will just keep taking tablets.

But, cut out the cheese and cut out the pain completely!  No tablets needed!

And, if the tablets aren’t needed, then you won’t be needing all their packaging either.  So not need to throw away the plastic, and recycle the cardboard everytime.  And if you don’t need them then the store needs to order less and all the way back to the raw ingredients there will be less - total impact reduction!

And one more And – if people are less reliant on curing common ailments with tablets, maybe pharmaceutical companies can start spending their research money on more important illness and diseases rather than just tablets for headaches and cream for itchy skin!

The RGS are hosting a fantastic EcoFair on the 5th and 6th of December in London.

They are bringing together some fantastic international eco friendly companies and charities to fill your day with excitement and fill your bags with great goodies!

Stalls include some of the old favourites like the RSPB selling wildlife gifts, memberships and information for your gardens and great days out and the CO-OP will be promoting their eco friendly and fair trade clothing ranges.

There are also products available from around the world, with alpaca clothing from Peru, ethical accessories from Nepal, hand-made silks from Cambodia and Luxury fabrics from India.

There are also creations from the UK, including recycled household goods, hand-made bespoke jewelry, fair trade organic babywear and luxurious oils and soaps.

There is also a free puppet show being performed at the show just after lunch time – called the Forest of Fables, and is performed using Japanese style puppets (made from recycled materials) to African music depicting well known Greek fables!

In addition, there is even a puppet making session beforehand – so your children can make their own recycled puppet like those from the show and learn how the show is put together – including a sneak preview at some of the songs – and they get to keep their puppet!

The whole show is free entry to all – with free fairtrade wine for all RGS members and guests – see the RGS website for more details……..

I don’t mean badgers and sparrows – I mean plant diseases and pests!

We know that the quickest way to kill off diseases and pests in our gardens is to use chemicals – but that isn’t very eco friendly or organic.

There are alternative treatments, but they normally involve a lot of your time or money or result in dead or dying plants.

So, why not plan to never have the pests or diseases in the first place?

Planning Ahead.
Why not follow these simple guidelines to reducing the chances of anything untoward getting into your garden from the start!

The most likely way to infect your garden is to bring in plants from elsewhere. If you buy plants from garden fetes or charity shops etc, or find them in skips, you have got to expect the worst.

If they were loved and cared for in pristine conditions – people wouldn’t be selling them cheap or throwing them away, would they? So:

1) Use only local and reputable suppliers and nurseries
2) Only use the neighbours you know who care for their plants properly
3) Make sure the supplier or neighbour has been organic too!
4) Avoid semi-mature specimens from overseas – you just never know!

Plants on arrival:
Any plants, seeds or bulbs arriving in your yard should be carefully inspected to make sure they are healthy, especially if they are from a friend/fete/garden show/etc.

If you buy plants that are not looking healthy, you can’t expect them to be healthy – so only take on with care. If you are receiving a delivery of plants – check them too: don’t just look at a few – check them all – you are paying for them. There is no point paying for a plant that is diseased or infested.

Buying dodgy looking plants may be a cheaper way to get them – but won’t be so cheap if they need chemicals to recover, take an extra year to establish or flower, or worse: cause damage your existing plants!

Quarantine the new plants in a specific area away from any other plants or gardens for at least 2 but preferably 6 weeks. Many bugs and diseases can travel short distances so could easily infect neighboring plants if planted too soon.

And finally, make sure you don’t cross-contaminate the tools and equipment used for new plants. Disease can be carried on your tools and hands – so be fussy and make sure you clean everything.

I recently moved my plants to a new home and picked up a strange mite – which has all but killed a tropical plant of mine that took 6 months to germinate last year!

So Finally:
Find out what the common pests and diseases look like and what plants and conditions they prefer so you can spot the first signs of trouble – hopefully before you buy them!

Also, knowing the visual identification of garden pests and preferred conditions of certain diseases means that you can act fast at the first sign of trouble and save your plants – and all your hard work!

I just took my nephews out on a fungal foray in the local woods!

What a great idea for a day trip with the family that is only a short walk from home!  And, as mushrooms only really come out for a few weeks of the year – chances are your kids will see something different every year.

And, mushrooms are so bright – particularly the wax caps – that they are great to photograph too!

Bright Yellow Mushrooms

Where To Look:

Well, you don’t always need to head out to the woods – as many mushrooms prefer old lawns, particularly lawns that haven’t been treated with chemicals or have been dug up a lot.  So maybe you know someone with a large ornamental organic garden you can trawl for fungus!

They are not a easy to see as you might expect from afar – so don’t just look across a lawn of woodland and expect to see them sticking out – you have to walk the land and look at the ground.

You can come across all sorts of delights, including bright pink, red, orange, green and even blue ones – and there was more than one occasion where I thought a lawn was clear until I quite literally stepped on them!

There are also ‘mushrooms’ that look like little yellow, white or pink worms coming out of the lawn which you definitely can’t see from afar.  And of course there are plenty of mushrooms that only grow on trees and old logs – great for the kids to find!

Yellow Finger Mushrooms

And, the fun thing is you don’t even need to know exactly what type they are – you can just enjoy them as they are – and take only pictures home with you.

So, get yourself a camera, a basic guide book, a warm thermos of coffee and go get wet knees taking some great pictures!

I know it’s still 2009, but like your veg – you need to plan ahead!

The Royal Agricultural Society of England and the National Society of Allotment & Leisure Gardeners Limited are sponsoring an event that you won’t want to miss. 

In March 2010, there will be the first ever ‘grow your own’ event in Warwickshire, UK. For 3 days, you can learn about everything from chickens to cabbage, bee-keeping to bread-making and even a sausage seminar!

Even if you have already been growing your own fruit and veg – you can still learn some more.  All those things you have been doing for years could be getting results – but what if someone else’s tip could double your production or half your growing time!

What if you have been thinking about baking your own bread, making your own honey or rearing your own livestock and just need to speak to someone who has already been there and done that?  Well, here is the perfect place to visit.

They even offer advice on what to do with all your food when you have grown it!  There are plenty of stalls and seminars about culinary delights.

So, whether you grow it, feed it, brew it, bake it, or just love it – you want this show!

Want to know more?  Then sign up for their newsletter to keep on top of things as the show gets closer…..

Maybe I’ll see you there?

Bad vegetable planning results in more food that you will want to eat!

I’ve seen it over and over again when people start growing their own food – they grow too much.  There is a fear that there may not be enough of something – so over-planting is widespread.  Please don’t make that mistake yourself.

Even on my tiny allotment, I wanted to sow in rows like all the other people were doing, and this resulted in far too many radishes to harvest!  What a waste of the earth resources!  I was using up all it’s vitamins and other nutrients in my soil to grow a crop I just couldn’t face even eating! 

There was also the continuous begging of other people on nearby allotments for me to take some of their courgettes/seedlings/rhubarb/cuttings or runner-beans!  They just had too many too!

I totally agree that it is great of others to share their bumper crops rather than let them go to waste – but why spend your time, effort and resources growing food you have to give away?

Wouldn’t it be better to control your growing and have a better variety than before?

Surely it is better to run out of courgettes but have had some squash and pumpkins too!
Wouldn’t you rather tend smaller areas of crops than have row after row to weed and harvest?

There are many reasons why it is better to start small and learn from last year than to plunge straight in – and here are a few of them:

1) I can’t eat another courgette!
Most important to someone new to growing vegetables is that they need to find it fun.  They need to enjoy preparing, tending and then eating their crops.  And that can’t happen if you take on too much.

There is no need to grow loads and loads of the same things because it’s easy to grow, like potatoes, or because you got loads of seeds or seedlings.  Crops need energy and water to grow successfully – the earth in your vegetable plot on raised beds isn’t self regenerating – it gets used by everything you grow on it – so grow with care.

Also, if you find yourself harvesting a bumper crop of courgettes, it will be fun at first and you will try new dishes with them and tell your friends how yummy they are – then it will become apparent that you have been eating courgettes for dinner nearly every day for the past 2 weeks – yet there are still more in the fridge and even more ripening in your garden.

Soon, you will actually try to avoid eating courgettes at all because you are sick of the site of them and will no doubt end up throwing a few away as you picked them before you needed them and they have ‘gone off’.

Then you will run out of people to give your spare one’s too.  You will have asked the neighbors and friends at work or down the local club, and they will love it at first but then you might get embarrassed to turn up with a carrier bag of yet more courgettes to be palmed off to whoever will take them, or you might just get fed up with trying to find homes for them….

Basically, if you grow too much of something – it’s not fun anymore!

So, join me in a few days for Part 2 of this article for some more reasons to start small – if that wasn’t reason enough!