Eco Friendly House And Garden

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

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!

Everyone is thinking about home-grown food now - so here are a few less thought of tips to help you on your way!

We all know to get a water butt and to not use a powerful sprinkler during the heat of the day, so I thought of some less obvious one that can really make a difference.

1) Why Grow Potatoes?
You can grow just about anything these days after a bit of reading up, so why just grow anything?

There are certain vegetables that are very easy to buy at stores and very reasonably priced local foods - so why grow them yourself? Why not focus your time and energy on the foods that you can’t easily get hold of or that are very expensive to buy.

For example a lot of berries and currents are extraordinarily expensive to buy, but you can easily grow your own in a corner of your yard and pick them when you need them. And if you have a small greenhouse or poly-tunnel you could easily be growing things that are not normally found in your local area but are suitable for this environment.

2) Will They Grow Themselves?
There are many crops that need a lot of care and attention to grow from seed or when potting on. There are also many plants that are energy or water intensive.

Think about these restraints on your time and the environmental costs before taking on a demanding crop - don’t just think about the end result.

It is probably a lot less energy-intensive for a large farm to grow such crops and ship them to your store than for every household to try to grow their own. Increasing the scale of production always lowers costs and resources.

Also, out of season crops need more attention as do out-of-environment crops. Out-of-environment crops are those that can’t be grown without plenty or extras - like protection, fertilisers (natural or not) and other considerations.

Basically they are fruits and vegetables that are perfectly suited to a particular environment - which isn’t where you live! So, if you want to try something different that needs more resources, then make sure you put every effort in to nurturing it; hitting a bumper crop and then eating every last piece of edible material it produces!

Seriously, if you are going to be putting 3 months or more of intensive effort into growing vegetable A, then you had better make sure you follow that care through to the end. What a waste it would be if you started off ok and then went on holiday or got ‘too busy’ and let them die. What an even worse waste of resources that would be!

3) Are They Attractive To Bugs?
Make sure you find out which fruits and veg are less attractive to pests and disease before you start planting.  And when they are less atrractive to pests - pests all have their own ‘cycle’ so avoiding this can sometimes be advantageous and plant-saving!

There is nothing worse than getting a problem with your crops and then finding the only solution is to apply chemical cures or simply to start over! What a waste!

Sometimes it’s just a matter of choosing the right planting dates or using the right natural protection. For example, the first round of runner beans I planted when I first started growing veg got totally destroyed by hungry slugs (regardless of my organic slug repellent) whereas some I planted much later in the season never even got one bite to them - the whole crop survived!

Make sure you do your research in advance so that you know all the info before you lose your first crop!

Join me in a few days for Part 2 , bringing you some more unusual but extremely helpful tips…..