Eco Friendly House And Garden

Why Not Make Even More Out Of Your Eco Friendly House And Garden This Year?

Rather than just living in your house as normal - why not consider a few of these ways to no only improve the eco friendly qualities of your home - but to make it work for you too.

I mean, why should a house just sit there doing nothing? Make it more useful than it already is by making some small changes or concessions….

Here are a few ideas for you to consider with regards to ’sharing’ your home with others for the benefit of others - as well as your bank balance in some cases!

Empty Rooms Are A Waste:
Even if you turn of all heating and seal up all windows - an empty room is a waste of resources!

It’s already in a home filled with energy and bodies - so why leave rooms empty when you could make them work for a living and keep the worlds ‘footprints’ smaller - after all, the more people living in the same house can save on so many levels!

If you aren’t into a full time tenant and live in a busy town or city, why not consider a Monday-to-Friday tenant instead. No huge commitment, less belongings and they are usually a reliable adult too!

Or the other end of the extreme - if your house is too big for you but you don’t want to downsize for whatever reason, then why not eco renovate and create a self contained unit in the basement or whatever and rent this out as as a permanent let or holiday home depending on your location.

Hotel Rooms Even More So:
Why not treat your home as a swap for a hotel room - either as a holiday for yourself or while you are away.

Firstly, you could take a holiday swap this year instead of booking a hotel. let a family move into your home while you go live in theirs! Not everyone is looking for an equal swap either - you might get a cute cottage for your family home, or a spacious farmhouse for your city flat!

Secondly, if you live near a local attraction or event (like Wimbledon or a show ground) then why not time your holidays to coincide with a huge demand for lettings! Signing up with an agency could bring you up to £2000 a week depending on your home and the event you are close to!

Parking Spot Or Tennis Court?
Same goes for the outside of your home - why not rent out unused space to others at virtually no cost to you or really any effort either!

If you have land that people could park on and you live in a busy location - why not let someone park there? You aren’t using it - and they probably waste time and petrol every morning looking for a spot!

And the same goes for your tennis court, trampoline, pool, piano, climbing frame or anything else you have sitting around that you aren’t using 24 hours a day. You might not want to charge your closest friends - but a few quid for a game of tennis for some young kids or keep-fit oldies won’t go amiss - basically paying for it’s own maintenance.

Your Skills Too:
It’s not just physical things that can help out others and bring in a few extra pounds - what about your own skills?

Music lessons, language lessons, discussion groups, Body Shop parties and product research groups. All could use your skills and your lounge, conservatory or kitchen - and of course - you!

Or if you are on a country walk or in a cute village, why not sell cakes and tea or garden veg and flowers in your front garden for passers-by!

House In The Country

Get Your Home On TV!
If you live in a city, your home has a great garden, great views or great architecture, or you have some great internal features - you could ‘model’ your home!

Let a photo or TV agency know about it and you could rent your house and garden out for magazines, TV or even movies!

You don’t even have to do anything, they set it all up and then take it all away again - pain free and you won’t be in any of the shots - unless you want to be!

Are you up to the challenge - to live on a £1 a day? - she says….

Basically this book explains how the author decided to try to live on just a £1 a day for an entire year to save money for her sisters wedding.

And to prove it, she details every little penny she saves and how she does it.  From stealing food out of bins, to hand delivering Christmas cards, and from attending free events at the library for free drinks to hitch-hiking and wild camping!

The Book Itself:
Reading the book is very easy indeed as her writing style flows nicely - however, I did have some issues with the way she did things that really aren’t suitable for everyone.

She also listed endless ways in which she saved money - but not all were very good for the environment - such as ordering free samples of everything she could to use for herself and to give away as presents - as these small products use a huge amount of packaging in relation to the product within.

However, she did use an awful lot of great techniques that can’t do you any harm, like eating less, wasting less and buying reduced price food every day from your local stores.  She also raised a fair amount of money by simply finding it on the floor!  And many of her eco friendly tips can be put into practice immediately!

Attending all the free events did have the role of extra socialising and supporting local businesses and events - but was perhaps somewhat selfish in the fact that she would never join their club/gym/mailing list - she just wanted a warm room and free drinks (probably in disposable plastic cups).

The Author helps to explain how to get things for free - but this started to lean towards the ‘money saving at someone else’s expense’ rather than ‘homesteading and being frugal’! 

She also didn’t take into account any of her normal running costs like rent, bills and running the washing machine (although she was happy to discuss that washing clothes more often extended their lifespan - although how she thought that it washed for free I’m not sure!).  So, her money saving stopped at not spending it rather than saving it from other ‘leaky’ areas - like energy loss.

I totally agree that we can do a certain amount of things for less money - and we can certainly cut down on the amount of things that we buy and therefore waste - but maybe setting such a tight budget was unreasonable in an eco friendly sense. 

Result: 3/5
Although this book was a great read - and I did enjoy her tales and adventures - it is not really that eco friendly: hence the average score. For a general read it would get 4/5, but we are not here for just that - we are here to get eco friendly help and advice and I found myself arguing a bit with her over some of her thinking!

She still uses resources that use up a lot of energy throughout her ‘budget’ year - she just doesn’t pay for them! And in fact a lot of the things she gets for free are ‘trail size’ so are infact less eco friendly in the scheme of things. She also lives a life that is very dependant on others.

She didn’t think about growing her own food or making her own clothes, she just turned up at free local events and ate their food! She used the ‘free’ computers in the library (so the library pays), read endless books while sitting in book shops (ie brand new not paid for books that she put back on the shelf after reading) and still used her washing machine with impunity (well, she’s not ’spending’ the money in cash - it comes out of her bank account invisibly)!

Trying to find ways to be eco friendly can indeed save you money - but money-saving actions are not necessarily eco friendly - and this book proves it!

ISBN: 978-1-906593-12-4

Having a small indoor pet can really help you to save on waste and improve your recycling!

The statistics just in on the amount of food families waste is unbelievable and what with throwing away all those cardboard boxes and toilet rolls!

So why not get your very own micro-processing unit for these such things?  And have some great fun along the way…..

Rodents:
Getting yourself a little furry friend from a rescue centre could be one of the cutest things you acquire this year!  Maybe it’s a furry hamster, a cuddly guinea pig or a tiny mouse - whatever tickles your fancy could be worth its weight in gold in terms of that badly bruised apple or those wilting vegetables!

Whether it’s a tiny thing in a cage indoors, or a larger pet outside in a hutch - it can help you to break down your waste into more useful ingredients!

Those cardboard tubes can be chewed up by your gerbils making them easier to compost - or those veg could be converted into concentrated compost by a bunny rather than rotting in the air and attracting flies!

Any pet which has gnawing teeth and eats fruit and veg is a winner!

What’s Best For What?
Well, needless to say, they all have their specialities in the biodegrading world - and size is a factor too.

Guinea Pigs and rabbits are the best for munching large amounts of food waste - such as left-over allotment materials that aren’t great for the family - including stalks and stems of most plants. 

And not only does their used bedding go great in your compost heap - but they can be harnesses in the garden as lawn mowers as well!  Get the right shaped run and you can move it regularly around the lawn to keep it nice and trim!

Communal living smaller animals can be just as useful - for example 3 gerbils.  They love to chew anything and try all sorts of fruit and veg.  Perfect for shredding up those cereal boxes into easy-to-compost pieces - and creating a nice used bedding material or cardboard, vegetable waste and sawdust!

What’s Not So Good:
Syrian hamsters are probably the least useful - but still cute!  They only live alone and aren’t too big - so there is only so much waste they can eat for you!  They also don’t chew up cardboard as much as gerbils - but can be easier to handle for the younger kids!

Rats generally eat meat in their food so aren’t too good at creating compostable waste - however a couple of rats can certainly get through your leftovers if you give them a chance!

Degus and chinchillas are specialist eaters - so can’t be given fruit or too much variety in their diets - hence not many foods and treats available for them in the pet stores!  It makes them very ill - so not too good for an eco friendly pet!

However - whatever small pet you choose to help your out with your composting and waste food control - make sure you consider a rescue animal first.  There are hamsters, gerbils and rabbits waiting patiently in rescue centres all over the country for a good home.

Could you be one of them?

Brilliant ideas to purify your lifestyle and feel good about it - she says….

Basically this book tries to cover all the organic and natural ways you can overcome the ‘evil’ or modern products and all the chemicals they contain.

And to prove it, she divides her advice up into 48 categories of ‘nasties’ including make-up and nappies. She explains in each case why we need to swap to more natural alternatives - by using scientific and medical arguments against each - and then offers organic, (man-made) chemical-free and more ‘natural’ products or ingredients that you could use instead.

The Book Itself:
I loved the layout of this book, and it was so easy to read that you find yourself reading chapter after chapter.  Each chapter is a 4-6 page debate as to the pro’s and con’s of each mini subject including for example, Make-Up, chocolate and toothpaste.

Hughes-Cooper helps to explain some of the main down-sides to the products we use today and offers alternatives.  There isn’t a full explanation of each due to the ’short’ nature of each chapter, and some of her answers or arguments are a bit vague or non-proven - but she certainly makes you think about all these issues while you are reading. 

She regularly uses phrases like ’this is totally natural’ - but remember that this is what they used to say about Arsenic, Lead and radio-active products that ‘glow in the dark’. It’s also important to remember that anything that can be found in plants, animals or in the earth is technically ‘natural’ in origin, but I doubt you will be in a hurry to use toadstools, uranium or snake venom in your kitchen or bathroom!

Due to the way in which you can read through this book relatively quickly, I found that I would stop for a moment after reading a particular fact and think ‘Oh my goodness, I should stop using that’ but then read on through to another section and do the same again. It seemed like page after page of doom and gloom, and worries about my health, but then I just carried on reading.  Almost like I wanted to find out how awful I was being to my own body, but then actually did nothing about it.

As with most of the ‘best things’ in this life, whether it’s growing your own veg, not flying, using only organic make-up, growing sprouted mung bens and seeking out the parabens free version of everything, the thought of it all just seems to overwhelm the normal working person.  I myself would love to consider doing most of the things Hughes-Cooper recommends in her book, but the time it would take and the possible financial costs just seem a bit prohibitive.  And it left me feeling like a bit of a failure!

Yes, there are some easy ones to achieve, like growing my own herbs in the window box and buying organic milk (as I do them already), but others I hadn’t really thought of doing, like buying hemp products instead of 100% cotton and un-bleached feminine products - which should both be quite easy to start doing. 

However, something else caught my attention as I read this book: Organic doesn’t automatically mean eco friendly - you might need a trade-off.  For example making your own smoothies, fruit juices, pies and vegetable noodles, all involve buying a new piece of electrical equipment - and creates a lot more washing up!  Neither of these are eco friendly.

Should you buy organic wines from Australia or non-organic British wines?  Think of the weight of the glass bottles coming from the other side of the world!  And there are constant references to using ‘natural’ cleaning products like white vinegar and bicarbonate of soda - but can you imagine what would happen if we all used these instead of all the shop-brought cleaners?  Vinegar is from grapes - so excessive amounts of water-hungry fruits will need to be grown to keep up with demand; and the soda is mined from the ground - so imaging habitats being destroyed to ‘naturally’ clean all the kitchens in the UK and US! 

I totally agree, however, that our actions can make us humans healthier and at the same time have less of a ‘chemical’ impact on the environment.  And sometimes the choice you have is so very simple.  However, there is still so much that you need to work quite hard to achieve, and I just don’t think that everything in this book can be achieved by a working family.

I mean I thought I was putting a reasonable effort in to the whole eco friendly/organic movement, but have only seemed to have achieved about a third of the things mentioned in the book. with maybe alf a dozen or so more in the pipeline now after reading it.  So, I hope that everyone who reads it (just like me) manages to get a few new ideas from it, because all those small things will soon add up!

Result: 3/5
If you were just reading this book the one time, then it might not really be of any use to you, other than making you think about how many toxins you and your children have absorbed over your lifetime, but if you were to use this as a reference book then things could be very different - and my Result would rise to 4/5 for it.

It certainly has it’s uses as a starting point for the layman, and has highlighted a few new things for me, but the thought of searching endlessly on the Internet for the right products, or reading label after label when I only have 10 minutes free time before having to collect the kids from school - or worse still, I have the kids in tow, then these things become unreasonable to achieve.

This book is part of the  ‘52 Briliant Ideas’ series, so I will be looking out for other relevant books to give me some more inspiration!

ISBN: 978-1-905940-57-8

Well, there are never just a few ways to be eco friendly around the yard - there is always something else!

So, to help you get even greener in the stable -  I have put together another 10 top tips for you and your horse or pony to help save resources and making things last longer!

1) By picking out your horses feet while still in the stable means that the bedding stays where it is needed - rather than being swept away when you clean the yard!

2)Always keep a list of all your eco suppliers to hand - not only for yourself, but also to recommend to others if they need something specific.  That way, you won’t have to resort to the easiest suppliers when you are in need!

3) Always wear an old baggy t-shirt over your jumpers when grooming or doing ‘hay’ related jobs as they won’t stick to it - whereas your jumper will just get covered in hay or hair - and need washing more often! 

4) Grow your own organic veg for your horse or pony as well.  Make sure you grow your own selection of horse-friendly veg as well as all the things you need; so turnips and carrots should be on the list!

5) When feeding hay to your horses in the field - make sure you select the least windy area to do so - otherwise you will be wasting hay as it blows across your field rather than getting eaten! 

6) Same goes for other feeds - you need to make sure that your horse is getting everything he needs and none is wasted.  So weigh out feeds and hay if necessary, as well as not over-feeding or allowing your horse to kick over the food bowl or tread on the hay.

7) And use bags or sacks when transporting hay and straw across the yard so it doesn’t all blow away for the same reason.  And noone wants to sweep the yard more than they have to!

8.) Get your horse to wear a summer sheet underneath their winter rugs, as they are much easier to wash - so making your winter rugs last longer and keep your horse warmer!

9) And for you - if your long boots have split up the leg - then cut them off at the ankle and use them as a spare pair of short boots for odd jobs around the yard!

10) And finally: If you manage to puncture your plastic boots in the yard - fix them yourself with a bicycle repair kit - making them waterproof again. That way you won’t need to splash out on a new pair! Boots can live forever - or as long as you want them to!

Yippee - that should save you some money - and save the environment from more wasted resources!

Good job!

Lighting your home for low energy consumption is an important part of modern eco living.

But don’t forget that it is also very important for all your other hoursehold activities too - like reading, entertaining and general safety.  So do think about these when trying to change your lighting for the better.

If you don’t plan for the correct number of light fixtures in your rooms - or bulb brightness; then you may end up having to make adaptations to the room, or changing room uses - which could all be avoided with better planning.

For example, if the lights are not bright enough in your lounge, you may want to read and use your laptop in the kitchen instead, where seating is usually more uncomfortable - and you may have to keep moving out of the way for others to eat.  And why heat the front room if noone ever really uses it anyway?

But then what if your kitchen is open plan to the hall, the stairs or the conservatory - heating that space is going to cost you more money and energy than having fitted a suitable light in the lounge in the first place!

No Need To Compromise:
Planning for a greener home doesn’t mean you have to ask for less stylish fittings - and you can still take advantage of contemporary designs like modern alessi Designs or AXO’s avant-garde approach in your home.  ‘Eco Friendly’ doesn’t have to mean ‘boring’ - just plan ahead and choose the eco options where possible, for example fittings that work with low energy bulbs and lighting that makes a room in your home fit for the purpose you want to use it for. 

I mean, you can still have glitz and glamour in your home - but make sure it is with a purpose: like some delicate chandelier lighting in the dining room!  If you have a dining room that you want to glam up for special occasions - then go for it!  Energy-efficient light bulbs can be used for most fittings these days - and you still get to enjoy that special treat for yourself without having just a boring single lampshade in your room!

And, as you use it regularly for entertaining - it will be fit for purpose and so make better use of that space, those fittings and your energy choices.  It can also help to keep that room ‘kid free’ so it stays as a special place for grown-ups or special events.

Planning Ahead For A Night In:
Another idea is to have 2 sets of independent lights in a room - for 2 different purposes.  Take your lounge: day to day living for the family, or quiet night in for the grown-ups? 

If you are like me and want the lounge only lit with low light while watching an evening movie - then consider a pendant light - or three.  Rather than leaving the bright kitchen or hall way lights on to create that ambiance; why not light the room with low wattage (and low energy) tiny lights - maybe with colored covers for some warmth. 

And don’t forget - keeping the lighting in the room you are actually in means you can close the door and keep the warmth inside in the winter - rather than it all leaking out of the open hallway door!

So, plan ahead - way ahead - and make sure that the time and energy you spend on planning your new light fittings will fit with your hopes and uses for each room. 

No more having to sit somewhere stupid just because it’s brighter, no more having to move the furniture around to fit in a new lamp - and of course no more compromise on having an eco friendly house!

We bulk buy products to be eco friendly - so does a bigger house give the same benefits?

We’ll not if you are just a single person or a couple - but what if you involved the whole family or some friends?  And I don’t mean join some commune or hippy campsite - although they are both options for some people.

What I am talking about is a great idea for saving energy, combining skills and resources as well as improving everything else ‘in bulk’.  So how about it?

The Theory:
I would love to live in a large home surrounded by land - but I know this would be a bit selfish in the overall scheme of things - so how about a compromise?

How about planning to live in a house with other people, whether they be my mum or sibling - or even friends - And it doesn’t need to be as bad as it sounds: you would plan to buy a property that still allowed you your privacy, for example a 3 story town house, divided into 2 sections or a detached property with a ‘granny annexe’ as part of it.

This way, you can pool resources too, like a joint investment in a garden allotment, solar panels, wildlife garden etc, as not only will you have more combined finances with this arrangement - you will also have a larger amount of space to work with.

2 couples living in townhouses may only have a small courtyard garden and a thin sliver of the terraced roof - but combine those 2 mortgages or using a larger deposit could mean you are able to buy detached, with more garden, off road parking, fruit trees, a larger roof and less overheads: only 1 TV license, one Council Tax, lower energy costs (the first so-many units are higher priced), lower food costs (buying in bulk), the list goes on……

It has all the same advantages as buying a 2 litre bottle of shampoo rather than 4×500ml bottles - but on a much larger scale!

Other Benefits:
For starters, all the maintenance costs will be shared between you all, insurance bills and repairs will all be halved - so more money to spend on green investments.

The security of your home will be increased as when you are away, the other people will probably still be around - and the animals and plants can carry on growing while you are busy.

Magazine subscriptions can be shared, and days out can be treated as ‘family’ tickets as there will always be enough people to make up the numbers! Less cars even, depending on your situation - and more shared journeys - or less journeys even; well if you are going to the store - then your flatmates don’t need to!

Food should never go out of date if there are twice as many people around to eat it - and if you ook together then imagine the energy savings!  And there will always be enough dirty dishes to fill the machine - and clothes for a full wash!

And can you imagine how great it would be for the kids to grow up in a friendly environment where they can learn skills from all the people around them, and live in an house with a bit of character and a large garden with chickens in it!

Sounds perfect - I just need to find some similar-minded friends…………

Should smaller woodland areas near villages and towns be for pets or wildlife?

Having recently moved to a new area, I am still getting used to the local woodlands, parks, commons and footpaths close to home - but I arrived at one the other day to find that the area just outside of the car park was a dog poo hot spot!

Being a nice woodland area in a small village just a 5 or 10 minute drive from a much larger town - it seemed to attract what I call the ‘for the human’ dog walkers - which are the ‘busy’ type that think that the only reason you need to take your dog out is for a wee and poo - and they fit this ‘chore’ into a slot just before work and just after they get home.

They are also the type that think that if noone sees it or their dog does it near some trees, then they don’t have to pick it up!

I’m sure that these types of woods are found all over the country and all over the world infact - but it was funny how people reacted to the news that, thanks to a recent exchange of hands, this woodland is being converted into a nature reserve over the next year or so. 

There will be heavy machinery on site to clear dangerous trees (so the site will be closed for some months) a new path for dog walkers with a big splash pool for water loving dogs (to reduce the contamination of a delicate chalk stream on site) and a poop area to reduce dog waste across the rest of the site.

The idea is that the current habitats will be enhanced to attract the wildlife that has been lost over the past 50 years or so.

The Village Meeting:
All this sounds fantastic, and I can’t wait to volunteer some of my time to help them achieve their goal - but the rest of the discussion group seemed up in arms!

The first thing they wanted to clarify was that they were a responsible dog owner - then all they talked about was where they were going to walk their dog while the site was closed and what they were supposed to do with their dog waste if there weren’t enough poo bins supplied.

Shouldn’t the owners of the land supply them with more bins? they were asking.

There wasn’t one mention of the hope of getting newts back into the pond, or clearing waste materials out of the lake to attract waterfowl.  They weren’t too sure about the 4 cattle being released to keep the grass and weeds down either or even having a ‘dog friendly’ path (I mean why can’t they just walk where they want on someone else’s land that happens to be close to their front door!).

What’s Best?
So, I was stuck in the middle: annoyed at pet owners for only caring about themselves and their dogs rather than wildlife, but then asking myself where do we expect these people to walk their dogs?  In the street?  Driving to areas that are more delicate or currently free from dogs?

If we don’t supply a spot for them close to home to ‘ruin’ - what areas will they end up destroying instead?

We probably all owe money on something - but it isn’t doing anyone any favours!

Nobody likes to owe anyone any money - but if you needed any persuasion to pay it off sooner - think about all the good you could be doing with the interest instead:

• £4 a month - become a member of WWF to help save wildlife
• £20 one off donation - help Great Ormond Street Hospital
• £ANY - a year - buy fair trade food instead
• £ANY a quarter - change your energy supplier to a green one

I know we don’t like to spend extra money on things if we don’t have to, but if you are happy to pay that loan interest, or that credit card payment - why not use the same money for other more useful things - rather than just paying the banks!

Pay Off Your Bills Sooner!
I know it sounds obvious, but many people are quite happy to keep paying the minimum payments - and aren’t usually in and hurry to pay them early either.

We all want more money in our pockets - and who can blame us - but paying interest for anything is a complete waste of our money and our money’s potential.

Rather than paying £50 a month for nothing, that money could have helped buy a chunk of rainforest, saved the lives of 100 children in the developing world or helped build a wind farm instead of mining for more oil!

Change Your Life:
By working out how much you are paying a year in interest, you might really see what a difference you could be making to your own life as well.

I’m not talking about the ‘happy feeling’ of not having any debts, I’m talking about all the things you could have done for yourself with the money.

If you are paying a loan repayment of around £100 a month - that is £1200 a year that you could have spent on a training course to change careers, £1200 on stock or services if you were starting an eco business or £1200 to spend on eco renovations to your home.

If you are renting it could mean spending that extra £100 on a larger property, and if you own your home, that money could be paying off your mortgage a lot sooner.

Get Started:
So, speak to an independent financial advisor about the best way to pay off your bills for a better life for you!

Don’t always rely on your same old bank - especially if it them who you owe the money too as they want to keep you with them!  They may show you a better deal from their current one - but it will only be to their next best one - not necessarily the best product for you.

I’m not saying that your bank (or any bank) is trying to keep you in debt, it’s just that as a business, they would rather you were in debt with them rather than anyone else!  You can’t blame them really can you.

So by using independent or government-run financial agencies, you can be sure of getting a fair deal and great advice.

Get Sorting:
And, to help you out, why not refresh your own thinking to get things moving - after all what you spend on other things can’t go towards paying off your bills - and there could be a better eco friendly option too!

For example, try not to subscribe to magazines that you don’t really read - especially if they are available for less money as online magazines (no paper, no postage, etc).

By reducing your dependence on processed foods and by growing your own vegetables - you could seriously cut down on your food bills, and the same goes for electrical goods - turning off things you only use once in a while can reduce energy bills. 

And if you want to buy new clothes - make sure you sell your old ones first!

These little critters will eat 100’s of garden pests and help to pollinate 1000’s of plants.
 
By encouraging these little understood bugs into your garden could really improve your success in the plant world, helping to kills off pests, help generate seeds and fruits throughout the year.

So lets find out about these very different little insects and see what they can do for us - and what we can do for them.

Bumble Bees:
These are the first things we think of when we talk about bees, and we often see them in the garden as a big, furry bumbling bee, humming loudly as it moves through the plants in our yards.

Bumble Bee

These bees are not kept in hives and actually live in holes in the ground, compost heap, disused bird houses or old trees.  At the end of the summer the queen is mated and heads of alone to live out the winter before producing offspring the following spring.

She generates plenty of offspring and a colony could number up to 300 individuals as it lives out the summer feeding on and pollinating our garden plants and trees.

They have a sting, but rarely use it.

Honey Bees:
These are the ones that are kept in hives and produce plenty of honey - which bee-keepers use for human consumption.  They don’t need human intervention and can make their own hives in trees and roof spaces if necessary.

They are similar in shape and size to wasps rather than bumble bees, but don’t have the pinched-in ‘waist’ of the wasp.

They always live in large colonies and cannot survive alone for very long.  They can, however, travel and arrive in your garden in a huge swarm of up to 20,000 individuals!  Quite a site to witness as they settle as one writhing mass on a tree or building.

They are rarely ever dangerous to humans unless you antagonise them - although they will sting you.  Experts can be called in to move the swarm quite easily to a less populated environment if you don’t want quite that many in your garden!

Solitary Bees:
The other types of bees live in loose groups but do not swarm or form colonies.

They are similar in appearance to honey bees, and can be used commercially to pollinate crops just like the more popular honey bees.

There are about 250 types on solitary bees in the UK, and many live in small holes in the ground but stay close to other solitary bees spread out over some distance.

Wasps:
Although they send us into a fear frenzy on site due to their habit of stinging us - they can be very beneficial to your garden or allotment.

The queen will set up a nest of mushy paper and fibres in the spring and start to produce larvae to build up her colony - which can reach 20,000 in a few weeks if the conditions are excellent!

Intricate Wasps Nest In Trees

Adult wasps eat nectar and sugary liquids, but they feed their young on insects, so can be seen feeding off plants and killing aphids too! 1 worker wasp could catch around 100 aphids a day off your plants to feed their young.

However, if the colony becomes too large the adults may require more natural food than your garden can supply and so they will turn to other sources - like our kitchen for jams, bee hives for honey etc. and this is when they come into conflict with humans.

But as with all the different bees, if you can tolerate them around your homes and gardens you can get yourself some free insect control and some free fruit and flower generation!

So what are you doing to encourage them to your garden?