Eco Friendly House And Garden

We all love eating outside – but plan ahead otherwise you could be creating waste.

There is nothing better than eating outside with your family and friends in the summer as it isn't something we Brits normally get the chance to do.  But watch out for potential problems that could fill your bin bags and make you break your eco promises!

Shops across the country are currently selling out of everything disposable – and this is where you shouldn't be involved!  However, it is really tempting to do so.  so here are a few tips to keep you on your toes.

The Barbeque Itself:

Now although the food needs to be cooked – it doesn't need to be done outside.  You can bring all the cooked meat outside along with all the salad and drinks you prepare – but using your own oven will actually be more eco friendly than buying a disposable barbeque that stops cooking effectively after about 5 minutes.

Your fitted outdoor cooker may well do a bit better for you, but all that smoke and open spacing means that a majority of the heat you generate with coals or gas is wasted as it passes right by your food and heats up your face!  Not to mention all that smoke.

photo credit: zoetnet

Food For Thought:

Why opt for the standard outdoor fare of sausages and burger slapped in a white bun with some lettuce and ketchup?  When you are cooking indoors you could rustle up some cous cous, pasta and better quality meat products – as well as using alternatives to bleached bread – like wholegrain pittas, corn wraps and homemade breads as they don't have to be burger-shaped!

And these days you don't need to go an buy lettuces and tomatoes – you should be growing them in your garden.  It is so satisfying to go and collect a handful of salad leaves, asparagus and radishes from your own garden to eat – or step in your greenhouse for fresh tomatoes!

The Washing Up:

No need to wash up after a barbeque – just throw everything in the bin!  Only if you forgot to plan ahead….  Buy buying a set of plastic 'crockery', cups and large bowls you can stop worrying about broken plates and dishes and start enjoying yourself!

The dreaded paper plates – aren't so eco friendly if you think about it.  They never last well with sauces and hot food on them anyway – and you can't compost them with cooked food all over them – or really throw them in the recycling – so they go in the bin.

Plastic cutlery rarely serve their purpose and can't be recycled either, and we all know where plastic cups go.

So spend out on a great set of long-lasting outdoor products that you can use year after year for such events without having to worry about breaks or filled to the brim bin bags!

Or that last minute rush to the shops over the bank holiday to get supplies. 

There are still more tips coming to me for your horse, pony or stable yard!

It is so easy to see a new top tip when you walk through the yard – either by doing something yourself or seeing someone else doing it.  Sometimes, your friends might be doing something that saves then time or money or just because it’s easier – but it could be a great eco friendly tip!

1) Learn to sew!  Putting patches on elbows, new hems on your rugs and darning your woolly socks together can all make your existing clothes last longer!  You don’t need to look perfect at the yard – especially if it’s cold or raining!  Making your clothes last longer means you get to spend your money on more exciting things! 

2) Go solar-powered for those little things like the stable radio – or you can get wind-up versions too.  Maybe buy a solar powered ‘travel charger’, so while you are mucking out – your mobile phone could be charging itself up naturally!  And make sure your lighting is powered by a green energy supplier!

3) Make sure you always muck out your horsebox or pony trailer as soon as you arrive at your destination to prevent the damp bedding soaking into the wooden floorboards.  Obviously, the longer you let the moisture soak in, the more damage it can do – and the shorter the lifespan of your trailer!

4) Learn to make your own equipment if possible, like feeding a piece of reused foam through the headband of a head collar to act as a poll guard.  This way you get to use all your old bits and bobs from around the house – and the stores don’t need to keep making more of everything!

5) If your horse eats it’s fresh bedding (or you want to make your bedding last longer) - you should mix in some of the old bedding when mucking out.  Not only will this mean that you need less bedding each time – but your horse should stop eating the wrong materials – and prevent wasted vets fees and your time!

6) Also to save vets visits, wasted treatments and last minute panics – keep a record of your horses medical information.  For example knowing the temperature of your horse before and after exercise, in summer or in winter can mean that you know for definite when there is something wrong.  Saying that your pony is ‘really hot’ isn’t the best way of judging for treatments and medication!  So if you have a definite record beforehand – you will be sure when something is wrong or when something is just the ‘top end of normal’.

7) And again – store your feed and medicines in metal dustbins or other suitably waterproof and pest-resistant containers.  That way you will keep things vermin-free as well as avoiding leaks and breakages.  This all adds up to less wasted products, no contaminated feeds and no poorly ponies - there really is no need to waste time, energy or money ever again!

8.) Use a left-over piece of plastic drainpipe to put over the top of a stable door to prevent your horse crib-biting.  By cutting it into 2 pieces, you could rest it over the top of the door to stop it being destroyed!  Not only will this stop you having to repair or buy a new door eventually – but can’t hurt the horse either!

9) Depending on the size of your own land – why not fence off a small area and grow your own hay.  Either feed as hay or make it into haylage instead.

10) Or why not go organic – and grow your own horse veg!  A few lines of carrots, some turnips, garlic and even an apple tree don’t need a lot of room – and could mean fresh organic and local veg for your pony (and you!).

Well, what do you think of those then?  Any help to you – I hope so.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Give it a go!

Here we continue on from our debate with a look at what Organic and Fair Trade mean in terms of our food. 

One is more concerned with the health of the environment and ecosystem, while the other places more of it’s attention onto the growers and the farming communities of developing countries.

Organic:
Many governments have strict laws regarding the use of the word ‘Organic’ on food and feeds and they must be registered with a certified organic body.  However organic food can be imported from any country in the world, as long as it also has a certified organic body. 

The aim of organic farming is best described as optimizing the health and productivity of linked communities of soil life, plants, animals and people. 

As a result the environment is better treated; livestock and crops are not injected or sprayed with chemicals and the resulting food is as natural as can be and ultimately contains more natural ingredients and nutrition.

As a result the animals that we farm will be better treated (ie. have more space and more natural diets), the wildlife and watercourses will not be exposed to intensive farming and overuse of chemicals and associated problems, and the resulting food will be more nutritious and virtually chemical free.

Fair Trade:
This heading is more directed at the workers themselves, rather than the nutritional value of their foods.

Basically, it promotes the equality of workers in all countries by guaranteeing certain prices and certain working conditions that benefit small farms and local farming communities.

As it offers better quality of life to people, it therefore offers a great alternative to non-fair trade products from the same locations, for example fair trade bananas.  We can’t grow them here and have to import them; so why support poor working conditions by buying non-fair trade products?

The amount you pay is not that different, but more of the money can go into schools and communities rather than an international firms pocket!

Your Conclusion?
It is still very difficult to decide when you should by organic and when fair trade?  And can local produce even be fair trade?

You need to decide what is important to you first for each food type (as sometimes you will have little choice apart from not eating that food when you want – but when it’s available!).

1) If you want to reduce climate change then only buy locally and seasonal to prevent carbon emissions from extra resources and from flights and shipping long-haul.

2) If you want to be more environmentally friendly, then choose seasonal to reduce growth enhancers being used; and organic which will reduce the chemicals and fertilisers being used en masse in the countryside and waterways.

3) If you want to support developing countries and small farms, then buy fair trade (and possibly organic) to reduce their stresses and exposure to multi-national abuse and chemical overload!

4) If you want to ‘be healthy’ and reduce your families exposure to chemicals then buy locally and organically to reduce your exposure to artificial ingredients and chemical in your foods, but also from exposure from exhaust fumes from transported goods from elsewhere.

Sometimes, it’s not that easy – or that clear cut, but if you want to seriously make a difference, you are going to have to start making some decisions.

Trying To Be Seasonal – But Don’t Know What’s What?

We are so used to seeing certain fruit and vegetables on our supermarket shelves that we are not sure now which ones are in season and which ones are being shipped in from the other side of the world!

If you have your own allotment or back yard veggie patch, then you will be more than aware of which crops are available when, but there is still the question of food miles for everything else that we still buy from chain stores.

All packaged fruit and veg in stores is labelled with where it is from – but then you have the question of ‘should we be buying all that packaging in the first place’, however, those loose fruit and veg usually have no identification or use by dates.  You just pick the individual pieces you like the look of, and eat them before they look too rotten!

Obviously, buying from a local pick-your-own farm store or independent food store will usually only be selling those items that they have pulled from the surrounding fields, but even they and many larger organic home-delivery veggie-boxes contain ‘foreign foods’ like pineapples and bananas. 

They may well be in season, and they may well be organic – but they are from plantations on the other side of the planet!

Is all this right?

Well, here are a few definitions to help you make up your own mind about your shopping habits:

Seasonal:
This means that the fruit or vegetables are being grown naturally where the weather is right for their germination and subsequent growth.

This works in exactly the same way as wild flowers like daffodils.  They are waiting for the right environmental circumstances (heat/light/moisture) to burst from the ground and into flower. 

Plants grown in season are growing ‘naturally’ and so need less chemicals and fertilisers.  As they are growing in their natural climate and at the right time of year they should be healthy and easier to grow.

Non-Seasonal:
These are plants that are forced to grow in an artificial environment and therefore will use many more resources (heating/bright lights/pumped water) to flourish.  Using the same example as above – this is like trying to grow daffodils in Antarctica. 

This also highlights that non-seasonal goods can be grown almost anywhere – and this is usually in developing countries with cheaper resources. 

It is rare to find an organic product that is grown ‘out of season’ due to the articicial resources needed, which is why we move to different farmers around the globe to keep supplies of certain foods ‘in season’ – adding to air miles.

Locally Grown:
Ideally this should define foods that are grown within 12 miles (20km) of where you purchase them (which should ideally be where you live).  However, they may contain any number of chemicals and be grown out of season.

Many farm stores grown their produce around the back of their own buildings, but they do bring some further distances as and when. 

Make sure your farm store doesn’t start to morph into an independent supermarket though, and starts stocking out-of-season veg or foods from overseas to meet demand!  If enough people expect their local farm store to stock bananas – they soon will, and this surely defeats the whole point of their initial ‘local’ ethics.

Locally grown food can however, have better eco credentials than overseas organic food due to the distance imported food has to travel in the air or by road to get to the supermarkets.

See Should We Buy Seasonal Food Even If It’s Not Organic?  Part 2 for details on Organic & Fair Trade Options.

A Life Stripped Bare: tiptoeing through the ethical minefield – Leo Hickman

I read a lot of books and magazines about the environment and ways to become more eco friendly, but I have at last found one that is really down to earth about the whole thing.  It is full of interesting facts and figures – but entertaining at the same time.

The reasons he gives for his actions and the changes he does and doesn’t make are so ‘real’ that it offers us all a chance to see where we too are choosing how ‘green’ we think we can be – or how ‘green’ we actually want to be!

He shows that you don’t have to go without things or scrimp and save all the time, but that it can be a viable option depending on your life style.  For example, working in a formal environment and having a baby can mean a different set of criteria to those working on a small holding without a family.

Could you really go to work in central London if you hadn’t shaved your chin for a week or were trying to wash your suits less and your whites weren’t that white?

What’s It About?
Well, the author Leo Hickman, has decided to find out how he could become ‘green’ and make his house more eco friendly.  He has recently moved to a new property and has a small baby, but generally he is just like any other average person in terms of ethical living.

He invites 3 specialists in to his home and life to find out what he has achieved so far, where he has gone wrong and what he can do in the future.

The result is a totally truthful account of his life and thoughts – as well as those of his not-so-convinced wife!

He covers everything from holidays to worms, nappies to the NHS, kitchen cleaners to lemon juice – and will have you in stitches along the way.

Why Is It Good?
Well, it allows you to see for yourself how eco friendly your own home is and more importantly – how you judge the actions of others.

There are many things he isn’t doing (or won’t do) that I find quite acceptable – and some things he decided were ‘ok’ that I found myself shocked at.  But basically it’s all about levels of green – as I must shock people who are ‘more green’ than I am with some of the things I think are quite acceptable.

He also gets letters from random people (he writes for The Guardian newspaper) who are what I would call extreme!  There is 1 lady who ‘washes only her stinky bits’ to save water and brushes her teeth with what she herself describes as a foul tasting concoction of salt and bicarbonate of soda to avoid chemicals!

Where do you sit on the green-scale?

How It Made Me Feel:
In general, his words certainly made me feel that I was lacking in certain areas and could really try a bit harder – but I also tended to agree with his comments regarding how ‘little’ it all feels in the whole global picture.

When you hear of all the disasters on the planet and how governments of the world seem to be trying their best to cut down forests, kill off species and pollute the atmosphere – you wonder if washing out your milk carton for recycling or watering your garden with bath-water is really going to stop the planet from falling to pieces?

Leo’s story just makes me feel like the little things do help and that my efforts are not being wasted.  It also tells me that there are many, many, many other people out there doing the same – or better – to help us curb our wasteful habits and make a difference for the future.

More Eco Friendly?
If you do fancy reading this book – make sure that you get this book from your local library to save a whole new one being made – and while you are there check out their noticeboard for some local events you can attend to support your local community!

If you do want your own copy for reference, then check online (there are usually free Internet computers at libraries) for a second-hand one on many of the book trading sites like Amazon, eBay, or Freecycle or search for another site. 

Let me know what you think!