Eco Friendly House And Garden

Has your spring clean left you with quite a lot of things you don’t want?

Well, someone else might find a good use for them - so why not take yourself out to a car boot sale and see what you can make for things you don’t even want!

There are many car boots held every week across the UK although they may not be as widespread elsewhere, and they are great fun to do.

However, there are a few tricks of the trade that will make your car boot experience a lot better than just plunging feet first into it on that early Sunday morning!

1) Check Out Some Sites As A Buyer.
Make sure that you have visited a few local sites before you pitch your spot.  Some car boots aren’t as organised as others and can have stalls spread out over a large area of land but with stalls quite some distance apart - not good for sales!

Other sites can be a field of mud, others too small, and yet more with terrible access (or exit afterwards).  Some have a set start and finish time, but others just let people come and go throughout the day - which can leave you alone in the field if all your neighbours go home early!

And find out the price of a pitch - if the car boot costs more than £10 for your car - then make sure you have enough stuff to make the difference.  You will have to get up early, drive to the site, sit there all day hopefully selling at least that amount in goods and then probably queue up for ages to get out afterwards - so is it worth it?

2) Contact The Person In Charge First.
Make sure you have spoken to the person who is in charge before you get up early one day - as there are protocols to follow!

One car boot I went to where the entrance of which was on a main road had an unknown secret: you had to join a queue about 1/2 a mile away in a main back street half an hour before it opened to get a spot.  If you queued up outside the site when it was due to open - you were told to drive around the block and join the others - at the very back!

3) Find Out What You Can Sell.
This might sound strange, but some car boots will only allow old things to be sold - so if they see you there with plants, bulk goods and maybe even certain electrical items, you may get told off or outed!

Other places might be really strict on the amount of space you get, so having a clothes rail would be virtually impossible if you have a long table too!

Other sites have so much space that you can park your car sideways, therefore getting metres of space to display your things, and allowing you to have everything within touching distance of the customers, rahte than them having to rummage around in boxes under the table or having to ask you to pass stuff across to them!

4) Bring The Right Equipment.
Make sure that you can display most of your goods around hand-height so that everyone can see what you are selling and can have a good look - so this means a table of sorts like a decorating fold-up table (as you need to fit it in your car with all your stuff as well) and if you are selling clothes a rail would really make a huge difference.

Boxes on the floor for books is perfect - but preferably pack them together in prices if you have enough, so a box for 10p and box for 50p books etc. Same goes for tiny toys or other little things, so, ‘Anything in the Box = 50p’ type of thing.

You will need a fair amount of small change if you are going to be serious about this, so at least £10 worth of 50p’s and less and £10 of £1’s should be a minimum - depending on the price of your goods. There is nothing worse than giving a price for something and then have to refuse the sale as you have no change left! Most customers bring small change - but it’s best to be prepared!

And along those lines - bring plenty of carrier bags from your re-using stash to give to customers - they are more likely to buy more stuff if you offer them a decent bag!

And a plastic sheet to cover everything if it rains wouldn’t be a bad idea!

5) Set Your Prices For The Good Stuff.
If you are selling some large or really nice items, then make sure you set a minimum price before you set out as otherwise you could come away with less than you deserve.

There are also the ‘early scavengers’ as I like to call them, who go to car boots for a living. They know what stuff is worth money and what things they can sell on their own stall round the back of yours for twice what you were charging!

How they do this is to start rumaging through your things while you are still getting them out of your car. They pester you with seemingly reasonable prices, or offer for bulk goods - which you think is great!

You are making money before you are even finished unloading - but remember, they are only buying it from you as you are a ‘newbie’ and they want to buy yours cheap and sell it on for more! So it’s something to think about - make less money straight away, or hold on to your higher prices and sell them for yourself through the day.

In fact, why don’t you do a spring clean with the car boot in mind - as it could help you be a bit more ruthless - especially if you are not sure if you want to sell a certain item. By setting a high price you definately won’t go below you can come away with a result either way - making a decent amount for it - or keeping it yourself anyway!

6) Enjoy Yourself!
Make sure you plan to make a day of it. Take decent clothes incase it is cold, and convince someone to come with you if you can (or at least pop in to see you half way through) otherwise you won’t be able to go to the loo or to buy yourself a hot drink if it’s cold!

Take a packed lunch if you can as some can start as early as 6am in the summer and finish after 3pm. Do you want to have to go hungry - or end up spending your takings on a car boot burger?

I’ve done them before and I would do them again - but I have made all my mistakes, so hopefully your won’t have to…..

Did you find that you got better at identifying any birds because of it?

I can now tell the difference between a house sparrow and a tree sparrow, and my little niece can now identify a magpie!  I know about the different stripes on the greater and lesser spotted woodpeckers and the different ’spots’ on the breast of the song thrush and mistle thrush.

And I found out how much easier it was with binoculars and a small guide book!

I had great fun doing the bird counts with my family.  I helped my mum in her tiny urban garden (12 species), my niece in her huge suburban garden (7 species) - and helped myself in my woodland garden! (9 species).

We saw great spotted woodpeckers, pied wagtails, wrens, song thrushes and bullfinches - as well as the more common blackbirds, robins, magpies, crows and starlings. 

However, to my suprise, the tiny urban garden had the most different species of all 3 sites, with the huge garden not having any unique species - they shared half of their 7 species with both the other sites!

And it didn’t even have the largest number of 1 type either - mum’s got 26+ starlings in hers!

I was glad to see the wrens and the house sparrows at my mum’s as well as they are not common where I live at the moment.  And the starlings chirping away in their ‘alien’ fashion took me back to my childhood!

However, I’m not too bothered about them being ‘missing’ as I get all sorts of other amazing species like red kites, buzzards, jays and woodpeckers here - and I even saw a woodcock the other day!

How did your counts go - and have you entered your results on the RSPB website yet?

Take a trip to RHS Wisley in the UK for an amazing butterfly experience - you won’t forget it!

RHS Wisley is one of the largest gardens in the UK - with an absolutely huge temperate and tropical glasshouse - and they are going to fill it with butterflies!

I have visited many smaller scale butterfly houses when abroad - but this is on the scale of something magnificent - and will have species from all over the globe including the absolutely huge Blue Morpho butterfly from Central and South America which can reach up to 8 inches across!

Native UK species don’t grow quite that big and none are irridescent blue - but we do have some very colourful and delicate species that you can attract right into your garden like the bright yellow Brimstones, the highly decorative orange and black Marsh Frittilaries, tiny blue Hairstreaks and the huge black and white Swallowtails with a wingspan of over 3 inches!  

So, all you need to attract some into your own garden, are the right garden plants - and help is at hand.

Butterfly Conservation, UK:
This UK based charity are the best source of information on butterflies you can get for native species - and their president is none other than the great Sir David Attenborough.

Members of the Society are going to be at Wisley in the glasshouses to help you identify the different species in the display - but also those that you find in your gardens year after year - or want to find in your garden from now on!

There will be information boards all around the site helping you to identify the essential plants that butterflies need as adults, but also as caterpillars.

Why Butterflies?
Many people forget that caterpillars are a huge food source for many of our garden wild birds - such as blue tits and robins - and that the more adult butterflies you attract to your garden through the year - the more birds their offspring can feed keeping you garden filled with life at all times.

Also, butterflies are an important pollinater for plants too and they are the second largest pollinaters after bees.  Plants such as sunflowers, asters and daisies all depend on butterflies to create seeds - and they are in the second largest group of plants on Earth, so it’s an important link.  And a key one if you want your plants to set strong seeds and spread across your gardens.

Visiting this one off spectacle could be the spark that generates a keen interest in butterflies and back gardens in yourself or your children - and could really make a difference to struggling species in your area.

After all it is the International Year of Biodiversity - so why not get things started with a great day out!

Details:
RHS Wisley is in Surrey, England and is open all year round as one of the UK’s largest public gardens, with woodlands, water features, flower-filled avenues, sculptures, a library, and a huge garden centre. 

The butterfly display is on now until the 28th of February 2010 and is free as part of the normal entrance fee.  Children under 6 are free, and pre-booked groups get a discount - so make sure you take the whole family with you - and some friends thrown in.  Get everyone involved.

Planning to lose weight and give up smoking - 2 perfect eco friendly resolutions!

Every New Year there are thousands of people vowing to give up smoking and lose weight for the new year - so why not do it for real this time rather than just putting in a little bit of effort in front of the friends!

We know the reason we manage to eat a bit healthier in January is because we have eaten so much junk over the winter that we would rather not face another strawberry trifle or fried leftovers! 

And the symbolic start of the new year makes us decide that it’s a good time to be a bit healthier - but when you go back to work and the month end bills start to come through after the longest month of the year - it virtually always has 5 Fridays - you are stressed enough to just keep on smoking!

So why not make these 2 count seriously towards your new eco friendly lifestyle for 2010.

Losing Weight:
This has 2 sides to it’s eco benefit; eating less and exercising more, so lets look at these in detail.

Eating Less - we all know that we buy, cook and eat much more food than we need - and much of the food isn’t nutritious enough to make a difference.  So by restricting your meal size and number of meals, you can reduce the pressure on farmers and local stores to grow so much in the first place.

The food has to be grown and transported to the stores too which uses valuable energy and petrol or gas as well.  In a larger scale example the advantages become clear: if the average person buys 20 sprouts from the store, and a lorry from the farm can only fit in 1000 sprouts in it’s hopper - that means one journey feeds 50 families. 

But what if each of your 3 dinner guests only really eats 5 sprouts each and you throw the leftover 5 away?  That means that that lorry carried 250 sprouts for nothing.  And if people only brought what they actually ate - that original lorry could have fed nearly 67 families (17 more than before).

And who says we should be eating until we are stuffed anyway?  Buy less, eat less, waste less.

Exercising More- Clearly, if you are exercising more then you may well be walking or cycling a lot more than before - both of which have massive eco benefits.

By spending more time out of your car, you are saving on fuel and emissions - but you are also making your local area richer.  If you visit local parks and other amenities you are making them worth keeping and maintaining - and you could become involved in local projects.

And by taking a bit longer to get somewhere or exploring somewhere in closer detail you could become a bit more knowledgeable of local species and habitats - and even see places, buildings or wildlife that you haven’t seen before (as you fly at 50 mph down the link road!).

Also, more exercise will make you a healthier person, delaying the signs of aging and reducing your need for routine medications and treatments - all saving you and the community money and energy.  Which leads us on to the other resolution….

Stop Smoking:
Not only is smoking bad for your health on it’s own, it is also bad for your health in terms of the reduction in exercise your may well be having due to being so out of breath.  It has been scientifically proved that smoking causes lung damage - and your lungs are what helps you to be active and exercise more.

However, buying you cigarettes is a never-ending job.  Unless you are a very light smoker or stretch out your roll-ups beyond the meanest student - you will be having to visit a store several times a week.  Smokers never seem to buy them in bulk, they go back and forth all the time, just buying another 20. and I bet the don’t always walk there?

The packaging, the transport, the ingredients - all bad for the environment and your body.  So make an appointment with a hypnotist and get over it!

There are many other ways to help improve your eco friendly lifestyle - so maybe instead of New Year resolutions - have New Month resolutions where you can improve your lifestyle throughout the year!

It’s as simple as sitting in your own front room with a cup of tea watching the birds!

What could be a better way of finding out if your efforts to create an eco friendly wildlife garden are working than to record the wildlife that visits it?

Starting with the birds is the best way to start your surveying as they are the most obvious and easy to identify of your garden visitors during daylight hours!

Yes we can all identify a hedgehog and a fox, but you have to stay up late in the cold to do that! Birds come out when the sun is shining and you are wide awake! What could be easier?

Why Count Birds?
The RSPB survey takes place every year - as it has done since 1979.  Joining in this survey will not only help you to identify more and more of your garden visitors, but it will also allow you to take part in national efforts to record and protect our native species and migrant visitors.

It will also help you to gauge the avian diversity of your garden and local neighbourhood - and help you to choose your feeding sites and foods better; for example blackbirds generally feed on the ground, robins would like a bit of animal protein in their diet and blue tits would love some niger seed from a feeder!

If you know which species are around your garden, you can tailor what you offer them.  Not only will this help you attract those birds that you like to see, but could help you see a much wider variety of species throughout the year if you make a few changes.

The Survey:
Added to your own pleasure of watching the birds, you could also be helping the RSPB to extend their knowledge of species distribution and to watch out for serious changes in species number.  Some birds are key indicator species for certain habitats, so watching their numbers increase or decline could make a big difference.

And, the RSPB can’t be everywhere at one time - they rely on people like you and me to spare them an hour of their day at the end of January 2010 to count everyday birds. 

You don’t have to be an expert like Chris Packham or Bill Oddie - you just need to be able to count the most common birds in your garden.

The RSPB offer a guide to identifying some of the species that you are likely to see on their website - and a review of these and a few practice watches should help you to get the basics under your belt.

If you can tell a robin from a blackbird and a blue tit from a magpie then you are good enough!

And, if you want to get the kids involved at school, then check out the details for info packs and guidelines for schools!

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……..

Here is your chance to take part in something amazing!

BBC Breathing Spaces in the UK, is attempting to break some Guinness World Records in the tree world.  As a part of National Tree Week in the UK, they have decided to try to break 2 World Records on the same day.  1 of the records is for individuals, and the other record is more of a massive effort of over 100 people!

Needless to say I will be focussing this article on the record that we can all take part in - for individuals and families around the world.  And, although this record attempt stems from the UK, you can live anywhere in the world to take part!

You can live in any country in the world to join in the effort, and so far - according to the website today - there have been people from 67 countries pledging to plant a tree!

How Do You Join In?
To get yourself and your friends involved you need to add your pledge to the growing number of ‘planters’ out there - but first of all, you need to decide on where you could plant a young tree - and of course, getting your hands on a suitable tree to plant!  Their FAQ should help.

There are strict rules regarding the planting - well, it is a world record so needs to be taken seriously - and there are natural ‘rules’ to make sure your tree actually makes a difference to the environment you plant it in!

So, here’s a summary of the guidelines in the order you need to worry about them:

1) You will need (digital) photographic evidence of you planting your trees - which shows the date and time of the planting, as these need to be emailed to the adjudicators after the event.

2) You must be free between 11am and 12 noon on the 5th of December 2009.  If you live outside of the UK, you need to be free at the exact same time - but obviously this won’t be 11am where you live, so you need to work out the time you need to plant your trees. For example, New York planters would need to be digging at 6am on the 5th, and people in Victoria, Australia would need to be planting at 10pm on the 5th.

3) You need to get decide on a suitable tree species to plant in a suitable habitat.  Ideally it would be a native tree species sourced locally and with other similar trees already doing well in that area.  So, don’t plant a small hazel tree in a densely packed conifer woodland, and only choose birch and the such for wetter areas. The whole point of the record attempt is to make a difference to the environment - so a badly chosen tree or location is a waste of time!

4) So, use their tree guide to decide on planting and caring for your baby trees to make sure that they benefit the wildlife they are surrounded by and so that they make a long-term difference to your community.  The UK are offering participants ‘free trees’ for the record attempt - so go to their stockist listings to see where you can get yours from!

5) Now, get online and make your pledge!  There is a Tree-O-Meter on their site to keep track of the numbers of tree pledges - 263,669 right now - but the current record is 653,143, so loads to go!

Make sure you are one of them! 

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?

Have you ever wanted to know more about sustainable living, and get advice on converting your house and garden into more energy efficient and chemical-free environments? Well here is your chance.

The Homes For Good show in April this year, is all about offering advice and suggestions for every householder, offering new products and new approaches to old concepts that will make your life more ‘green’.

Why Change?
The choices we make can have a profound effect on the toxins in our home, the environmental impact of our house and garden and the effect on our local community.

Whether you are building a new house, garage, barn or other outbuilding from scratch - or redecorating or modernising an existing room or premises - you can make better choices. However, rather than researching everything from scratch you could always ask the experts, people who have been working in the industry for years.

You will also have the opportunity to talk to others like yourself, who are new to many eco-friendly concepts. We are all here for the same thing, so make sure you are prepared to talk to exhibitors and other visitors to get some answers regarding your concerns or interests.

What’s There?
There will be over 100 exhibitors including Eco Trust (sustainability), Neate (wind turbines), Green Stuff (IT solutions) and many many more covering solar, water, electricity, house-building, architects, conservation of old, lime suppliers and many for the eco garden.

There will also be free demonstrations where you can get your hands on some new and revolutionary technology. There will also be talks from experts and trade workers as well as books for research and products to buy.

All this for only £5 entry fee (£2 for students and senior citizens) and it’s free to anyone under 16 as well!

Check online at www.homesforgood.info for more information and directions.