Eco Friendly House And Garden

Welcome back – and I hope the first 2 eco bathroom tips made sense!

I’m still in this holiday cottage – and in just the bathroom alone I am still finding ways to reduce their impact on the environment by making simple changes to the design and function of their bathroom.  Obviously I haven’t mentioned everything – like having a smaller sink – but I hope to have covered the main areas that could easily benefit your home if you are planning an eco-upgrade!

Needless to say all the little things added together really can make a difference if you think of them in the long term and for the whole community too. I mean 1 extra squirt of sealant in your bathroom might not seem so bad this week – but if every household in your county all went to the store and brought a tube of sealant for the same thing in the next 12 months – then it becomes a serious eco issue!

3) Proper Sealing:
The floor is tiled in this cottage – but the skirting is wood – so there is no waterproofing on the floor for cleaning purposes.  I know that it isn’t a full wetroom, but when you mop these tiles, you are going to get the wooden panels wet and allow excess water to seep down behind them and into the floor – not such a good idea really.

photo credit: Ken Doerr

Why not use tiles as the skirting so that you can virtually waterproof the room by using the same grout as the floor and so protect the walls and ground beneath from absorbing moisture.

Same goes for the sink.  Why not get a sink with a raised protective back that reaches a little way up the wall.  So, rather than the white sealant between the wall and basin holding a layer of soap or toothpaste-filled water and eventually going yellow and rotten or becoming mildew – the sink itself is in one piece so feeds the excess water back into the plughole!

It will eliminate all of the above problems and reduce the amount of cleaning and maintenance needed to virtually nothing.

4) Protect The Walls:
I don’t know about you, but I always hit the wall with the swinging light pulls – the larger the handle the more banging seems to occur! As you can imagine, each bang is damaging the wall.

Also, people can’t always find the string in the dark, so end up touching the paintwork or – as I have done if the pull string is too near the wall (as it is here) – chipped off some paint and sometimes plaster under my fingernails!

As you can imagine, it doesn’t take long for the paint to become patchy or the wall to become a bit dirty – so protect the wall with a tile. If you put a large tile or 4 smaller ones in the area where the most contact and therefore damage will occur, you can save having to repaint the entire wall for just that dirty patch!

A few tiles or a whole tub of paint?

5) More Hanging Space:
There are only 2 of us here, but the hanging space in the bathroom is virtually non-existent – so what do we do with the wet towels?

Well, you have to hang them somewhere, don’t you – which will inevitably be the backs of wooden chairs or over other wooden furniture like the stair rail. (Don’t forget that we are in a little self-contained unit away from home and without a garden so a drying horse or washing line just aren’t an option unless supplied).

Needless to say, the moisture from the towels is now being absorbed by the furniture and the room so as a result this could all be reducing their workable lifespan. And seeing as this property is designed to be used almost continually by family after family it is going to get through furniture a lot quicker anyway.

The Answer?
Well, there is nothing much I can do here as it has already been installed by the owners, but it is certainly worth considering these things when redecorating or improving your own bathrooms.

The future is looking towards sustainability and the longevity of our resources – so why not help by reducing the amount of repair and replacement your bathroom needs!

PS – it’s not quite damage to the bathroom itself, but one other thing they did is certainly a big no no and was very uncomfortable too:

6) Toilet Roll Holder:
They have put it right behind the toilet, so you have to reach right round to pull off a few sheets – but inevitably you pull off way more sheets than you actually wanted as you are bent sideways. But now they are all unrolled and in your hand – you are going to use them all aren’t you.

I mean who but the most eco addicts would leave those extra few sheets to one side and use them later?

By swapping the toilet with the sink in this room, they could have had the toilet roll holder to the side of the toilet reducing the excessive use of this already over-used resource.

Eco design should be a part of your eco living – it’s not just about the individual products.

Not all natural products and alternative products should be praised for sustainability.

Take for example little known herbs, common ingredients and plant extracts that we love to think of as eco friendly because they are chemical free.

But they will never become mainstream eco friendly products because anything in excess becomes unsustainable and less eco friendly.

Take the humble lemon for example. Praised across frugal networks for its cleaning ability, loved by old-fashioned housewives for its versatility around the home and loved by eco friendly gurus for its chemical-free natural qualities.

photo credit: foodiesathome.com

But what if everyone used lemons for everything? What if we all used lemons for the 101 things lemons can do?

The Requirements:
So, lets say that you have 30 apartments in your block just as I currently do. And lets all assume that they are jumping onboard the eco band wagon and using lemons as the natural alternative to everything!

So, lets say we are using lemons for the following examples:

Sanitation: Lemon juice is great for killing bacteria on everything from chopping boards to kitchen counters, and oven tops to toilet seats!

Bleaching: Just squeeze the juice on to stained wooden or cloth surfaces for food or tea stains, rub in and leave for 20 minutes before rinsing – all clean!

Cleaning: Wash white clothes with a half cup of lemon juice, rub with salt into pans for a shine, or rub on the grater to get rid of cheese or sticky foods.

Health: Heat up a half lemon and mix with honey for a cold remedy, add to hot water to ease digestion or use for a nice aromatherapy session.

Beauty: Rub direct on fingernails for a whiter tip, brush into hair for a lighter colour, or rustle up with a few other ingredients as a hair loss remedy!

Treatments: Dilute the juice for a smelly aftersun lotion, rub the peel into painful joints for 2 hours for ‘instant’ relief, or use as a bleach on your freckles and age spots!

It can also be used for polishing funiture, cleaning microwaves, washing windows, keeping cut flowers fresh, reducing the irritation of insect bites and to get rid of strong smells in your fridge!

And of course you can cook with it!

The Practicality:
Needless to say if we used lemons for all these things to be green and healthy, chemical free and ‘natural’ then my apartment building would consume around a 1000 lemons a month as a minimum.

Multiplied up for the year = that’s nearly 11,000 lemons just for my block based on 1 lemon a day per flat. Which I would say was quite a low guess-timate – bearing in mind the cold remedy alone uses half a lemon per drink – and they don’t last for ever in the fridge so many would be thrown away or composted.

Multiplied up by my home city (assuming that there were half as many households as people) this would mean that we would need over 175 million lemons a year to be totally lemon-based eco friendly chemical-free conurbation!

Now – where do you suppose we would get our 175 million eco friendly lemons from – organic, fair trade and locally sourced of course!

Probably the same place we get our billion battery chickens from or our thousands of litres of palm oil from: i.e: not a nice place!

Where in the frost-free world could we grow the 4000 chemical free, non-intensively farmed outdoor organic lemon trees just for my towns lemons? Or the 20,000 trees for the neighbouring 5 towns as well?

The Results:
As you can probably work out – using lemons for all their natural purposes will result in lemon factory farming – and the use of acres of arable land for non-food crops.

Neither is very eco friendly.

Unfortunately, this is the case for most such natural products; like bicarbonate of soda and white vinegar. They sound great for the individual but wouldn’t be practical or sustainable for the world.

This also applies to lifestyles not just cleaning products. Living in an ‘off the grid’ commune with low energy demands and only eating high energy home grown foods and washing in a river with no telephone is fine for a group of friends in their own woodland – but this is no way to run a country!

It isn’t really suitable for running a business either! If everyone lived like this, there would be no information network, no technology, no power, no policing, no imports or exports (so no coffee, chocolate, foreign natural resources) no transport network or tourism, etc, etc.  I mean who would be working in the factories and offices to power these things? 

Sometimes, eco ideals are only ‘ideal’ because we live in a world where you have choices.  What we do need are large scale solutions that will work for our growing population, not just a few people in each community.

Cucumbers contain 97% water – So why are we still growing them?

In an age where nearly 7 million people need food to eat – why are we covering vast areas of arable farmland with something that is just water coated in green skin?

Yes, it’s juicy; it’s crisp on a salad and it has long been a favourite for the dieters among us – but this last ‘positive’ fact is actually totally negative in terms of sustainable farming and the environment.

Dieters love it as it has virtually no calories – but this is exactly what makes in a terrible food for the environment.

1) Water:
It is around 97% water – which means that this plant is a thirsty one!  I would imagine that this crop need to be watered much more than many other food crops and cereals – with much of that keeping the plant itself alive rather than filling up the cucumber itself.

Needless to say – water shortages cannot happen on a cucumber farm – so the water must be ‘stolen’ from other resources; such as landscapes, wild animals, plants, remote communities and other farms downstream.

2) Calories:
This food can hardly contain any calories as there is only 3% of the fruit left after all the water has been removed – and most of that will be seeds or skin.

Needless to say – farmland is being wasted on a crop that cannot possible sustain the world!  This cucumber land – and all of its water and other fertilisers – could be growing some seriously calorie-dense crops that can fill a person tummy and give them the energy to stay alive.  A person eating only cucumbers would soon be a non-person!

3) Nutrition:
Added to just the energy deficit – there can only be useful vitamin and minerals in this remaining 3% as well – so eating cucumbers may well be great as a supplementary food to something crammed full of vitamin and minerals – but then why eat it at all?  It probably uses more calories to carry home from the store, wash it, cut it, carry it into the dining room on your plate, chew it, digest it and poop it out than you get from eating it!

Needless to say – there are probably just as many vits and minerals in a 150ml glass of tap water – and you would probably need 100 or more glasses of water from your tap to equal the amount wasted ‘growing’ the 150ml of water in a cucumber!

And I dread to think of the wasted ‘other’ energy needed to farm and transport these fruits.  Collecting seeds, propagating them, preparing the land, planting out, watering, fertilising, harvesting, sorting, transporting to warehouse, packaging, transporting to stores, displaying on shelves, transporting to your home, disposing of your waste.

There are around 10 calories in 100g of cucumber so you would have to eat 500 grams of cucumber (basically 2 whole average-sized cucumbers) just to eat enough calories to then have the equivalent energy to prepare the salad for 20 minutes in the first place (50 calories for a 140 pound person).

If you were planning to do some gentle work on your farm or allotment, you would use around 500 calories per hour – that means around 5000 grams of cucumber – so that is equivalent to more than 20 cucumbers!

Whereas you could have got the same number of calories from just 350 grams of cooked white rice (1 average portion), or only 130 grams of regular muesli (large bowl).

And all these calculations are like-for-like comparisons – and don’t even start to take into account other energy losses.

4) Humans:
With the current world food demands and rising population (with an estimated 200,000 extra mouths to feed today) it does seem rather wasteful to even consider growing this crop – not to mention all the other ‘tasty’ crops that we like to see in our stores that aren’t worth the water, calories or nutrition they take to produce.

Take the myriad of salad greens and lettuces, species of melon, rhubarb, grapes, marrow and celery to name a few, which have ridiculously high water content and painfully low nutritional values.  Shouldn’t we be weaning these out of our diets in today’s unpredictable climate?

Just like cakes and sweets – they are a ‘pleasure’ food that we eat because we can, not because we need to. 

Maybe we should treat these foods along the same lines as the concept of Meat Free Mondays (or as seriously as vegans) as they are just as wasteful to our planet as herds of cattle are.

How would I cope getting a new job and volunteering without my own wheels?

I recently had to recycle my old car at the ‘breakers’ yard as it had come to the end of it’s life – but knowing that all the still working parts could make someone else’s car last a bit longer!

But this coincided with me having started to look for a new job and keep up with my volunteering for various charities.

Could I do it without a car?

I wanted to try to live without a car for a month to see if 1) It was possible, and 2) If public transport was really the way forward for everyone.

The First Problem:
Obviously I was either going to have to only apply for any jobs within walking distance of my home (great for the eco friendly approach) or apply for out-of-town eco friendly jobs that had easy public transport routes!

Both of which sounded hopeful – but what about the existing volunteering? 

Well, the Internet proved very handy for checking out bus routes to the more out-of-the-way reserves – but the transport websites were not always that helpful.  Some of them wouldn’t tell you every single bus stop on the route – or the prices; and others would only let your search if you already knew the bus number – not on locations visited!

Then I got a job – at a beauty spot away from all main bus and train routes!

Step 2: Public Transport.
Luckily this job coincided with the summer vacations so there was a ‘special’ bus time table in place for this particular beauty spot!  However, the first bus arrived at 10.30!

Not the earliest start, but my job was flexible hours – and this meant that I could miss ‘rush hour peak prices’ on the train (to get to the bus) as well. 

If timed perfectly, the whole journey would take just over an hour and cost £10 a day return.  However, if timed badly (or with train delays) it could take over 2 hours and cost around £16!

As you can see, it wasn’t a simple journey and was costing around £30 a week (as I am only working 3 days a week) but that’s £120 or more a month on transport – and it was only a part time job!

The volunteering was even more of a problem as the reserves and centres I was working for were all out-of-town – and the buses that served them were not regular or even all day. 

The Wildlife Trust bus was only every hour until 4pm and cost £6.80 return
The Orchard Surveying Day was a complete No-No due to timings and location
The Hedgerow Surveying Project will have to wait until I have a car due to location
The RSPCA is £7 return on the train plus a 45 minute walk
The Eco Open Houses will be £5 on the train plus 15 minutes walking

And anything else will have to be worked out as and when – or turned down!

The Rest Of My Life:
I know it has been all about work and volunteering at the moment, but the rest of my life is ‘suffering’ too.  I mean the first thing is that after work – I just have to go straight home on the bus – I can’t combine woking with visiting my family, friends, supermarket or anything – as I can’t get there if it’s off the bus route!

And on my days off – visiting local attractions, days out, buying or moving heavy or bulky items, horse riding, walking in the countryside – all out!

There is no way to do most of these things without incurring huge cost on travel or wasting a lot of time waiting around for buses. 

It is almost like you are trapped in towns without your own car!  I know getting into and around shops and stuff is all well and good with buses and trains every 10 minutes – but for country lovers – public transport fails us!

There is no way I could ever live without a car I have to admit.  Don’t get me wrong – I love public transport and it really is lovely to sit on a train and read a book rather than sitting in traffic – but I am missing out on so many more of the things I love without having a car.

And of course – once you have a car, it isn’t financially viable to keep catching public transport!  I mean if I brought a car, once you add together the insurance, MOT, servicing and Road Tax – it would be rather stupid for me to still spend over £100 a month on travel to and from work, wouldn’t it?

Surely I’m not the first of the last person to have struggled with the car debate?

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!

Female Dogs are still being forced to have litter, after litter, after litter, after litter, after litter……..

The only way they can get to stop this repeated assault and to be freed from their small and very dirty cage or crate is to die – then they get thrown outside into a bin or hole in the ground!

And this is no lie or just some horror story made up by rescue centres – type in ‘puppy farm’ or ‘puppy mill’ in an ‘images’ Internet search – and you will see the evidence!

Basically puppy farms only exist because people are STILL buying the puppies – even after years and years of advertising and petitioning by rescue centres and animal welfare bodies!  People just can’t see sense.

So, what can you do to stop this trade in endless puppy farming without spending an extra penny?  Well if you want to buy a puppy - read through the advice below:

1) Check Out A Rescue Centre:
There are always pedigree and first cross puppies filling up rescue centres all the time.  Only this week there are 18 puppies at a local RSPCA centre; 8 mastiff cross, 6 lurchers and 4 spaniels – all cute and all looking for homes!  And there are hundreds more waiting in other centres too!

These are usually unwanted litters – basically the owner did not neuter their female dog and a free-roaming neighbouring male dog got to her when she was in season.  Hey presto – a litter of first cross puppies are born! 

By getting your puppy from a centre like this is a great way to stop puppy farm breeders – as the less puppies they sell, the less likely they are to breed more.   

2) Being Really Picky With Your Breeder:
Well the first thing you can do is not ever buy a puppy from a breeder advertising in a local newspaper in the first place.  Yes, there are some genuine breeders out there who want to sell their puppies – but it is often not easy to spot them in local publications amongst the ‘money-makers’.

You need to look out for a couple of things before calling anyone, as there are many clear signs that can tell you that these people don’t actually really ‘love’ their dogs – and are therefore probably just after the money.  Than if you do call – check out a few further details…..

Advertising More Than 1 Pedigree Breed For Sale:  
What type of irresponsible pet carer allows 2,3 or even 7 of her female pets to become pregnant at the same time?  If they are ‘pedigree’ dogs – then the owner has actually paid and arranged for the many seperate male dogs to come and do the stud work!  And what sort of ‘loving’ pet owner can keep up to 7 female dogs as pets in the same home?  No-one – so all these bitches are outside in kennels.

Giving Only A Mobile Number:
Are they saying that they are more likely to be away from home than looking after the puppies?

Saying That You Might Not Be Able To See The Mother:
By the time you can collect the puppies the female could be pregnant again – or skeletal!  If she hasn’t had the correct nutrition through the latter stages of the pregnancy (or her whole life) then she will look totally bony and exhausted by the time the pups are ready for rehoming.  No wonder they won’t let you see her!

However, you should be suspicious if you do see the mother and she hasn’t got very swollen and dangly nipples – it means that the puppy isn’t hers even if she is sniffing it or the puppy is trying to suckle.  Whelping females (females that have just given birth) have unmistakably dangly boobies!

The Puppies Are Less Than 8 Weeks Old:
In an ideal world for the puppy – it should stay with it’s siblings and in the company of it’s mother up to between 8 and 12 weeks.  Puppies younger than this are really a little too young to be rehomed – no matter how cute they look – so the secret is to not look at them in the first place!

All puppies are cute – otherwise we wouldn’t want to get one in the first place.  And if you are looking for a particular pedigree breed – then they will look virtually identical anyway as that is the idea behind being a pedigree in the first place!

Offering To Meet You ’Halfway’ Or To ‘Drop It Off At Your House’:
This plays on the ‘falling in love with the cute puppy’ syndrome.  Breeders want to be seen as kind and friendly by saving you the trip to meet them - but in fact they are just making sure you don’t see the state of their kennels and the poor suffering bitches in their puppy farm!

If you want a cute chocolate Labrador puppy and have your money in hand – and the breeders turn up with a very cute chocolate Labrador in their hands – you will take it from them.  Even if it is too young, a ‘bit poorly’ has an ‘upset tummy’ or even a sore foot or cut on it’s face!

Basically – you will be so ‘in love’ with it that you will still pay full price for a ‘sick’ puppy – it even adds to the appeal - I mean how could you turn it away?  

That’s their plan – and you fell for it!  Just like the thousands of people before you that they have been supplying with puppy farmed pets!

So What Can You Do?
You need to be tough – but the only way to stop this is to make sure that you don’t ‘feel sorry’ for a puppy, and don’t buy any that fit the above ‘dodgy’ criteria.

Every puppy farmed puppy you do buy just gives the breeders good reason to go and breed a whole new litter.  If you could make around £4000 for a litter of cocker spaniels – imagine how much you could make if you had 10 bitches breeding 2 or 3 times a year?

But, if you made nothing at all from the first litter – but had spent £1000′s of your own money feeding these 10 bitches and their 80 puppies and didn’t sell any – would you do it again?

Make sure you plan your puppy purchase so that you are not cornered by these people or fall in love with a sick or badly bred puppy!  There are plenty of healthy loved puppies out there to choose from!

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

All around me I see baby trees that are never going to become beautiful oaks or great maples!

In lawns, grass verges, church yards and driveways, I see little trees that have spent all winter putting all their effort into growing – only to be guaranteed to last only a short time more.

With the closing in of the lawn mower season – many of these little survivors will have their tops cut off and live no more!  Yet more can be found growing in ridiculous spots – like a crack in the concrete or up against your home – and will never be allowed to grow to full size!

But, you can help them!  You could give a tree a helping hand – in the same way that we need them to clean our air and feed and protect our wildlife in return.  And it won’t cost you a penny – nature has given you them for free!

So why not move them to a better place while why they are still only tiny, and give them a better chance at growing up!

But How Do I know What A Baby Tree Looks Like?
Luckily for you, spotting a baby tree is so very easy as they nearly all look virtually identical at the moment – growing about an inch or two high out of the grass – see the picture below:

All baby trees grow these same 2 leaves as their first leaves so once you have seen one you will know what they all look like!

It’s only the following set of leaves that are the same shape as their adult leaves – so in a way it is sometimes a little surprise to find out what it is exactly that you have saved!

It could be a mighty oak, a quivering willow or a festive holly tree – but either way – it is a tree that now stands a much better chance of survival if you move it to a flower border, by your hedge or wherever.  As long as it’s not on the lawn!

Watch Them Grow:
Now don’t worry about there being too many trees in your garden if you save them all, as these little babies take years before they will affect your garden – and many of them will become lunch for bunnies and deer or die naturally.

And it will take something like an oak about 30/40 years before it’s big enough for you to climb!  However, they could make a great hedge to make your garden more secluded.

Some of these trees will be smaller trees anyway, like holly, and so will actually look great as they grow up - as well as feeding the winter wildlife!

Maybe take photos of them growing over the years to see your work being rewarded.  And pictures of their first leaves can help you to identify them – and maybe help you decide where the best spot to move them to is.  

I mean, you wouldn’t want a great pine tree right next to the house, and a holly bush close to a path or garden bench could be quite uncomfortable! But an elderberry tree could be great near the kitchen to make some great summer drinks!

Have fun saving your free trees – and our environment!

Some simple tricks can stop your heating bill spiralling out of control and wasting all that energy!

Remember visiting you grandparents house and there were a few things that you didn’t have at home that you thought were funny.  Well some of them were totally eco friendly and we never took them on board.

Nans had these funny things as there wasn’t such a thing as central heating, so all of these were used simply to keep warm and stop cold draughts blowing aroundthe house.

Now of course, they can save energy, money and the environment too – so maybe I can take you on a walk around my nans house and see what you can do today.

Plastic Sheets: 18% of heat is lost through your windows.
In the colder rooms that weren’t used so often had tight plastic sheets taped over them on the inside.  Double glazing was unheard of so putting in your own secondary ‘glazing’ was the way to go.

If you didn’t want to open the windows through the winter, then why not seal them up for the colder months.  These days of course you can buy actual double glazing, retro-fit secondary glazing – or even buy an eco friendly equivalent of the old plastic sheeting called Eco Glaze which is acrylic sheets that are attached to your window with magnetic strips so you can put them on or take them off when you want!

Maybe even consider triple glazing in bad areas or just the leakiest window!

Giant Velvet Curtain: 15% of heat is lost through doors.
My nan had the most amazing thick red curtain on the back of the front door.  It was on a great big rail and it was more than twice as wide as the door and at least a foot too long – great for hiding behind!

By making sure that there was more than enough curtain to block any breezes made it all the more worth having.  I mean if you are fitting a curtain in the first place, it’s a bit pointless if it is too short or too thin.  Spend the extra pennies and get it right first time.

Maybe consider fitting a simple porch to buffer the outside and inside spaces.

Long Tube Of Socks:
Along the bottom of the lounge door when we were all sitting inside was a handmade tube of old socks and rags.  I suppose it could be made into a comedy sausage dog if you sewed ears on!

It was the perfect way to stop draughts coming under the door when you were heating just the one room.  Just like today – when you have the log burner on the go in the one room, keep all the heat in there too.  Modern equivalents can be plates you screw on to the bottom of you door with a furry edge – but I quite like the idea of making my own sausage dog!

Over-Patterned Rugs:  8% of heat is lost through floors.
Now, you don’t have to go an buy a bright swirly rug or a heavily-pattered dark red rug to stop cold air coming through your floorboards!

These days you can fill the gaps on old floorboards with man-made natural fillers, buy nice plain rugs in all sizes, or fit carpets with thick underlay to make sure that your home stays warm!

Maybe consider fitting underfloor heating if you are having other work done in your home.  This is a much more efficient way to heat your home than traditional central heating and means you can put your furniture where you want it rather than having to fit it around huge radiators…….. 

So, go round to your great aunts house or your friends nans and check out their energy and money saving tips!

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!